Rao bulletin 15 June 2016 html edition this bulletin contains the following articles
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- Battlefield Surgeon: Life and Death on the Front Lines of World War II
- WWII through an Army Surgeon’s Eyes
- D-Day Anniversary 2016 ► Shrinking number of Survivors Attend 72 nd
- Military Trivia ► Americas First Military Draft
- A drawing from a British newspaper showing armed rioters clashing with U.S. soldiers in New York.
- Military History ► The Patriot and the Traitor
- The scene of the surrender of the British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga, on October 17, 1777. This victory marked a turning point in the American Revolutionary War
WWII Operation Torch ► Excerpted from Battlefield Surgeon The Second Auxiliary Surgical Group arrived in Northern Africa shortly behind the invading force of Operation Torch during World War II. They were a group of surgical teams without nurses and without a headquarters, and therefore without consistent direction or organization. Paul A. Kennedy, M.D., a surgeon in a mobile general surgical team, was by turns amazed, baffled, and bemused by war. Like most of the men with whom he crossed the Atlantic, Kennedy’s knowledge of the world was limited. Kennedy eventually spent almost three years in North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany during World War II, performing hundreds of surgical procedures on soldiers so desperately wounded that they could not survive evacuation to hospitals further in the rear. From the beginning of 1944 until the end of the war, he kept a medical journal in which he meticulously recorded and illustrated 355 of these cases. He also kept a personal diary and took more than 1,500 photographs, most of which had been developed and carefully labeled, but never printed 
Like so many veterans, Paul A. Kennedy never spoke of his experiences in World War II. After his father’s death, Christopher Kennedy discovered his father’s personal and surgical diaries and photographs from his service during the war. Together, they comprise Battlefield Surgeon: Life and Death on the Front Lines of World War II—a living history of the experience of a member of the United States Army Medical Corps in World War II. Kennedy’s personal entries, clinical cases, illustrations, and photos capture the homesickness, boredom, loneliness, fatigue, and sometimes, fear, of the North African and European theatres of the war. His life was characterized by the constant movement that working in field hospitals demanded—to provide rapid surgical care, the unit had to keep pace with the front. The “hospital” included a headquarters and three platoons that could work independently. Each one hundred-bed platoon had its own designated staff and transportation for men who were severely wounded. The newly created concept proved to be adaptive, efficient, and in some cases the deciding factor between death and survival. Surgeons like Kennedy and his fellow colleagues spent sleepless nights on concrete floors and sandy beaches, going directly to the wounded soldiers. He lay just behind the front lines and waited patiently for soldiers whose life depended on immediate care. WWII through an Army Surgeon’s Eyes The entries below detail Kennedy’s arrival in Rome shortly after it fell into Allied control. At the same time, unbeknownst to those in Rome, more than 150,000 troops were preparing to cross the English Channel as part of Operation Overlord, better known today the as D-Day invasion. Although he participated in some of the fiercest action of the war—Operation Avalanche, the attack on Anzio, and Operation Dragoon, and entered the Dachau concentration camp two days after it was liberated—Kennedy’s diaries depict a life without high drama, a catalogue of the routine in the midst of a great conflagration. Tuesday, May 30, 1944 Got in bed today after noon meal—just going back to work now at 11:30 p.m.—I didn’t sleep worth a damn—can’t in the daytime. I’ll be an old man if this thing keeps up much longer. And according to all rumors they’re getting ready to start another push very soon for Rome. Right now I need a rest and not more work. There are all sorts of speculations as to what will happen to the 2nd Aux when Rome falls—southern France, England, Yugoslavia, and India have all been mentioned—my guess is England. Wednesday, May 31, 1944 We’ve changed hours again—for the tenth time—8 p.m. to 8 a.m. now. Finished up at 3:00 this afternoon and we’re going back at it now—it’s 8 p.m. I don’t think the Russian salt mines were ever any worse than this. There’s another push on and we’re getting another load—200 cases behind now. There are four field hospital platoons out now—two of the 33rd and two of the 10th, so we’ll be cut down on the major cases. Thursday, June 1, 1944 Progress has been quite good but the casualties have been high. We’re not seeing the worst cases now ’cause the field hospitals have jumped ahead. Expect we’ll be going to one of them soon. Doing simple debridements here these past couple days and they are monotonous and boring. Friday, June 2, 1944 Had a fairly good sleep but it’s never as restful as what you get at night. We’ll be off this night tour in another week. At the rate things are moving now I think they’ll be in Rome in a week. They’re at the Alban hills and at some points nothing stands between them and Rome—except a few Jerries. Not much work tonight—mostly minor stuff. Another field hospital platoon went out this evening. Hope we get assigned soon. Had a few snaps of Ruthie today—she’s a wonderful baby. Saturday, June 3, 1944 The shock ward was empty for the first time this morning—seems queer not being loaded with casualties. Luther had word this morning that his team was gonna leave to join the 11th F.H. without us—but tonight at 7:30 we got orders to leave too. Packed in half an hour, said our goodbyes, and set out for a place near Cori. Staying here tonight with the 95th Evac. Harry Borsuk here—platoon leader—hospital to be beyond Valmontone about 15 miles from Rome on Highway 6. Came through Cisterna—worst destruction I’ve seen yet. There’s nothing standing. We’re back in a field hospital and on our way to Rome. I’m happier when we’re moving—moving toward home! Sunday, June 4, 1944 Up at 6:30 (good night’s rest)—had pancakes, then set out in a weapons carrier for our new site. The number of wrecked Jerry vehicles, guns, etc. is a mute tribute to the work of our aircraft. The roads were just covered with wrecks—large tanks with 88s pointing dumbly into the ground—a few 170s (Anzio Express) that looked awfully powerful but now appeared to be dead. Valmontone, Cori, and Labico are all shot up and have nothing left. Dead horses stinking—even the smell of rotting human flesh filtering through occasionally. We’re set up near Palestrina on Highway 6 with the 3rd Division Clearing Station. Work is pouring in already—rearguard action, the boys say. “Jerry is on the run” and some of our troops are on the outskirts of Rome. Monday, June 5, 1944 Business it seems to follow us wherever we go. Cases galore—more than we could handle. We’re the most forward field hospital now. Brought in three new teams to help out and they were very welcome. Brinker, Lowry, and Cantlon [Edwin L. Cantlon, general surgeon]. Rome is in our hands—was yesterday—and the troops are beyond. Evidently Jerry intends to keep running for a while. Tanks have been going by here all day in one steady stream—last night they rumbled by in countless numbers. I’m sure somebody is gonna be impressed by them very soon. The war is moving fast—good—I want it that way—I want to get home. Tuesday, June 6, 1944 Rome. Up early, got our work done (off call for once), and a group of us headed for Rome. I was anxious. The mark of the war looks fresh upon the country that leads to Rome—burned-out tanks, guns, etc. Dead horses—and people streaming back to their homes. Rome seems to be a beautiful city. Little destruction, nice-looking people—much cleaner than the more southern Italians—more like a city in the States. Saw St. Peter’s and knelt by the Tomb of St. Peter. It’s a magnificent church, strong and tall, and it suggests Catholicism—enduring. Crossed the Tiber, saw the Coliseum and Roman Forum. This was the Rome we were waiting for. (Incidentally, the second front opened today, but we saw Rome.) The “incidental” second front was nothing less than Operation Overlord, the cross-channel invasion of France at Normandy, involving almost sixty-five hundred naval craft and five Allied divisions. Eventually, more than one hundred divisions were to pass through Normandy on their way to the very heart of Germany and to the ultimate destruction of the Third Reich. [Source: The Daily Beast | Paul A. Kennedy | June 6, 2016 ++] ********************************* D-Day Anniversary 2016 ► Shrinking number of Survivors Attend 72nd Proud veterans in their 90s and families of fallen soldiers are commemorated the epochal D-Day invasion of Normandy 72 years ago that helped the Allies vanquish Hitler. They held small ceremonies and moments of remembrance Monday along the wide beaches and cliffs where thousands of U.S., British, Canadian and French troops landed as dawn was breaking June 6, 1944. It was a pivotal moment in World War II, weakening the Nazis' hold on Western Europe after they suffered a punishing defeat in Stalingrad in the east. Henry Breton of Augusta, Maine, was among the shrinking number of D-Day survivors to make it to Normandy for Monday's anniversary. Speaking at the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Breton recalled landing in the second wave of boats, 35 minutes after the first, with the 106th Infantry Division. "We were off target," he said, describing the German counterattack, and ensuing violence and valor he experienced at the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. "It brings back so many memories," he said, standing amid rows and rows of white crosses at the cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach. 
U.S. Air Force veteran Hartley Baird of Pittsburgh, who sailed into Normandy in August 1944 poses for visitors flanked by U.S. soldiers from Jber, Alaska, in the Colleville American military cemetery, in Colleville sur Mer, France, on Monday, the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landings. Visiting the D-Day beaches is a homecoming of sorts: Breton's ancestors came to North America from Brittany in the 18th century, and during the war he met a Belgian woman who was his wife for 62 years until her death in 2009. Some veterans expressed disappointment that Monday's ceremonies were low-key, especially compared with a sweeping ceremony for the 70th anniversary two years ago involving several world leaders. Breton, who describes himself as "91 and a half," is hoping this visit isn't his last. "I would like to be here on the 75th." People of many nationalities came Monday to pay respects. A group of Germans wrote the name of a regiment on the sand as a group of Spanish history enthusiasts dressed as D-Day participants walked nearby. Peggy Harris of Vernon, Texas, was unable to come this year to visit the grave of her husband, 1st Lt. Billie D. Harris. But a good friend, Janie Simon, brought flowers and a sign asking visitors to email photos of the gravesite to his widow. "She feels blessed that even though she lost Billie in this quest for freedom, people come here. That gives her great comfort," Simon said from the gravesite. Harris landed in Normandy on D-Day, was shot to death days later and buried by French villagers, but his wife didn't find out what happened for more than 60 years. "She never remarried," said Simon, who had an uncle who landed on Utah Beach and whose own husband fought in Vietnam. "It's a real love story." U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Hartley Baird from Pittsburgh sailed into Normandy in August 1944 and fought to liberate France from the Nazis. "I wouldn't have survived if the men hadn't cleared the way on D-Day," he said at the American Cemetery, where he came to pay homage to "the true heroes, those that are buried here." [Source: Associated Press | Francois Mori | June 6, 2016 ++] ********************************* Military Trivia ► America's First Military Draft In the spring of 1861, decades of simmering tensions between the northern and southern United States, over issues including states' rights versus federal authority, westward expansion, and slavery, exploded into the American Civil War. Since neither the Union nor the Confederacy relied on conscription to fill the ranks, both sides believed volunteers would be enough to do the fighting - which was expected to be over by the end of summer 1861. However, as the one-year mark neared, it became obvious to the Confederacy and the Union that the war would last much longer and its armies would need many more soldiers in the increasingly violent and protracted conflict. But it wasn't until the Battle of Shiloh on April 6-7, 1862 that the need became critical enough to address. The battle began when the Confederates launched a surprise attack on General Ulysses S. Grant's Union forces in southwestern Tennessee. After initial successes, the Confederates were unable to hold their positions against fresh union reinforcements and were forced back, resulting in a Union victory. Both sides suffered nearly 25,000 casualties killed, wounded, or missing. It was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War so far. The glaring deficiency in troop numbers prompted Confederate President Jefferson Davis to quickly authorize the first Conscription Act on April 16, 1862. 
This legislation required all white males aged eighteen to thirty-five to serve three years of Confederate service if called. Soldiers already in the military would now be obligated to serve an additional twenty-four months. Five days later, the Confederate government passed the Exemption Act, which excused from military service select government employees, workers deemed necessary to maintain society (such as teachers, railroad workers, skilled tradesmen, ministers and owners of twenty or more slaves.) Substitution was an additional way to avoid the draft, though the Confederate Congress abolished the unpopular practice in December 1863. However, even before the 1862 Conscription Act, a group of Unionists in Arkansas known as The Peace Society were essentially drafted after their arrest, being given the choice between enlisting or face a trial. Exemption and substitution were just two of the many reasons conscription was controversial. Governors considered that a draft assigning soldiers to Confederate national service was an usurpation of their state authority. Those who had volunteered in April 1861 and whose enlistments were expiring resented the additional two years of obligatory service. Draftees, who had not volunteered in the initial excitement of 1861 and were less enthusiastic about the Confederate cause, were not eager to leave their homes and families. The first conscription act was only moderately successful, and a second was passed in September 1862. This legislation raised the draft age to forty-five. A third conscription act in February 1864 stipulated that boys of seventeen and men up to fifty would be eligible for reserve duty. The draft was especially problematic and difficult to enforce in Arkansas, and figures for Union and Confederate conscription are difficult to quantify. The Union victory at the Battle of Pea Ridge fought March 6-8, 1862, one month prior to the enactment of Confederate conscription, meant that the pro-Confederate administration of Arkansas Governor Henry Rector no longer had full autonomy statewide. Resistance to Confederate conscription was also noteworthy in the highlands of Arkansas, where there was little investment in slavery. In the Ouachita Mountains, men who had avoided conscription efforts fought with Confederate forces in the February 15, 1863 Skirmish at McGraw's Mill, resulting in a Confederate victory. The Union government instituted its own draft a year later in March 1863. The Enrollment Act required all able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five to serve in the local units of their state militias. In the decades prior to the Civil War, these laws were rarely enforced; state militias, such as they were, served more as social clubs than military units, with parading and picnicking more common than artillery and musketry drill. In the first year of the war, the militia system was the template to organize volunteer recruits into local regiments. Now, states would be legally required to fill quotas apportioned by the War Department. These troops were to serve for up to nine months. The Union government allowed some exceptions for certain occupations and physical disabilities, and for religious conscientious objectors. Like the Confederate conscription act, the Union's state militia draft of 1862 achieved only moderate results. A more permanent procedure would be needed to provide necessary troops. To this end, President Lincoln signed the Enrollment Act on March 3, 1863, which called for a Federal draft that summer. Exemptions from the draft could be bought for $300 or by finding a substitute draftee. Protesters, outraged that exemptions were effectively granted only to the wealthiest U.S. citizens, led to bloody draft riots in New York City where eleven African Americans were killed by angry mobs in July 1863. Immigrants and the poor were especially resentful of the methods used by wealthier citizens to avoid service. 
A drawing from a British newspaper showing armed rioters clashing with U.S. soldiers in New York. In both the North and the South, compulsory service embittered the public, who considered it an infringement on individual free will and personal liberty and feared it would concentrate arbitrary power in the military. Believing with some justification that unwilling soldiers made poor fighting men, volunteer soldiers despised conscripts. Conscription also undercut morale, as soldiers complained that it compromised voluntary enlistments and appeared as an act of desperation in the face of repeated military defeats. Conscription nurtured substitutes, bounty-jumping, and desertion. Charges of class discrimination were leveled against both Confederate and Union draft laws since exemption and commutation clauses allowed propertied men to avoid service, thus laying the burden on immigrants and men with few resources. Occupational, only-son, and medical exemptions created many loopholes in the laws. Doctors certified healthy men unfit for duty, while some physically or mentally deficient conscripts went to the front after sham examinations. Enforcement presented obstacles of its own; many conscripts simply failed to report for duty. Several states challenged the draft's legality, trying to block it and arguing over the quota system. Unpopular, unwieldy, and unfair, conscription raised more discontent than it raised soldiers. In the Union and Confederacy, conscription was partially meant to encourage voluntary enlistment, as those who joined as volunteers were eligible to receive bounty money (enlistment bonuses) from states, counties, cities, and the federal government - in some cases totaling a sum upwards of $1,000. However, these bounties created the problem of bounty jumping, wherein men would volunteer, collect the money, then desert and re-enlist elsewhere and collect that money as well. Neither the North nor South exercised full control within the state through the remainder of the war. Regardless, the primary purpose of conscription was never to raise substantial numbers of troops but to spur enlistment. In this aspect, at least, Union and Confederate conscription achieved some success. Although the Civil War saw the first compulsory conscription of U.S. citizens for wartime service, a 1792 act by Congress required that all able-bodied male citizens purchase a gun and join their local state militia. There was no penalty for noncompliance with this act. Congress also passed a Conscription Act during the War of 1812, but the war ended before it was enacted. During the Civil War, the government of the Confederate States of America also enacted a compulsory military draft. The U.S. enacted a military draft again during World War I, in 1940 to make the U.S. ready for its involvement in World War II, and during the Korean War. The last U.S. military draft occurred during the Vietnam War. [Source: Together We Served | May 2016 ++] ********************************* Military History ► The Patriot and the Traitor Two hundred thirty-five years ago an event took place which, had it succeeded, would have ended the American fight for independence in the Revolutionary War. The perpetrator of that event was renowned for many things:
He was Benedict Arnold, the most notorious traitor in American history. Entrusted with the defense of West Point by George Washington during the Revolutionary War, he attempted to surrender it to the British. The conspiracy, had it succeeded, would probably have sounded the death knell for the American cause. Fortunately, his treachery was discovered at the last moment. Warned of the plot's failure, Arnold just barely evaded capture and escaped to British lines. Benedict was born January 14, 1741, in Norwich, Connecticut to Benedict and Hannah Arnold. As a young boy his family his father was a successful businessman. When the yellow fever came through their household it left only him and his sister Hannah alive out of the five children, his father drowned his sorrows in alcohol and their finances dwindled rapidly. Benedict Jr. was pulled from school, and was apprenticed to some cousins on his mother's side who ran an apothecary. He tried to join the militia once, but wasn't allowed, though he eventually did join the militia to fight against the French in the French and Indian War. When his mother died, he took on the responsibility of taking care of his father and sister. In 1767 Benedict Arnold took Margaret Mansfield to be his wife. He worked for his cousin for a few more years, during which time he fathered three boys. Then war came. He joined the Army and became Captain of the Governor's guard. What prompted this man, a true hero of the war's early days, to suddenly turn on his country? Perhaps the only way to understand this turnabout is to recognize that there were two Benedict Arnolds, the Patriot, and the Traitor. The Patriot accomplished repeated feats of military brilliance, exhibited uncommon valor on the battlefield, provided outstanding military leadership, and earned the respect, and even love, of his men. The Traitor was a man turned inward, mulling unhappily over perceived slights and injustices, fretting that others less qualified were given preference over him, and easily provoked if his "honor" was challenged. But it probably was his desperate need for both money and power that finally turned him to treason, for as the war dragged on, Congress became less able to provide either. The Traitor did not want to be caught on the losing side. Benedict Arnold's first action in the Revolutionary War was the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in a joint action with Ethan Allen and his "Green Mountain Boys" in May 1775. His success persuaded George Washington to commission him a colonel in the Continental Army, and give him command of one wing of a two-pronged attack on Canada, designed to seize Quebec and Montreal from the British, and hopefully bring Canada into the war on the American side. Arnold had by far the more difficult mission, a march of more than 300 miles up the Kennebec River, ending with an assault on Quebec. Despite the difficulties of moving men and supplies through an untamed wilderness in almost winter conditions, the newly commissioned colonel jumped at the chance. Even after losing almost half his force to exposure, disease, and desertion, Arnold succeeded in linking up with Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, the leader of the second wing. Together, they launched an attack on Quebec, which failed, when early in the action Montgomery was killed and Arnold seriously wounded. What followed was a long retreat from Canada, involving a delaying action against British forces intent on seizing Albany, New York, before winter made military operations in the area impossible. To slow the British advance, Arnold constructed a small flotilla of lightly armed galleys and gunboats on Lake Champlain in order to harass and slow a much larger British fleet, embarked to capture Fort Ticonderoga, and the gateway to the Hudson Valley. In spite of being heavily outnumbered, Arnold engaged the enemy without hesitation. Although his small force of vessels was eventually destroyed, he succeeded in delaying the British long enough to force them to turn back to Canada to avoid the onset of winter. Although he continued to distinguish himself in several military actions, Benedict Arnold's greatest service to the revolutionary cause was the part he played in the battle of Saratoga, which became the turning point of the war. Leading from the front, as he always did, Arnold urged his division forward in attack after attack against heavy enemy fortifications, until he fell wounded, once again in the same leg as at Quebec. He was out of the battle, but the battle had been won. Later, the British commander, General John Burgoyne, gave Arnold credit for the outcome, praising his "bravery and military abilities."
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