Divisional Medical Service in the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF)
The medical services of the AEF's combat divisions played the centralrole during combat operations in France. The medical structure ofthe American divisions during the war was markedly different from whatwent before and would come after. The large American square divisionof 1917-18 with two infantry brigades, each of two regiments, had numeroussupporting units and reached a total of over 28,000 men. Medicalpersonnel at the company, battalion, and regimental levels provided medicalcare the sick and wounded, but in time the battalion aid station underthe battalion surgeon came to be the focal point of life-saving medicalcare close to the front lines. A sanitary train of four field hospitalsand four ambulance companies provided evacuation from the battlefield andthe medical service for the division under the overall command of a divisionsurgeon.
This section presents two excerpts from Volume VIII: FieldOperations of The Medical Department of the United States Army in the WorldWar that describe the organization, doctrine, and operations of thedivisional medical service in the AEF. Chapter IV, "Medical Serviceof the Division in Combat," details how the division's medical servicewas organized and functioned at the front, both in trench warfare and inopen warfare. The second excerpt is drawn from the Appendix and containsthe abbreviations used, brief histories of the medical services and unitsof each of the divisions, and a list of the army and corps surgeons.
Medical Service of the Divisionin Combat (Chapter IV, Vol VIII: Field Operations)
Orders Prescribing Methods inParticular Divisions
Trench Warfare: Care ofCasualties in Companies, Battalions, and Regiments
Litter-Bearer and AmbulanceService
The Ambulance Company DressingStation
Open Warfare: Care of Casualtiesin Companies, Battalions, and Regiments
Appendix
Brief Histories of CombatDivisions
1st Division
2d Division
3d Division
4th Division
5th Division
6th Division
7th Division
26th Division
27th Division
28th Division
29th Division
30th Division
32d Division
33d Division
35th Division
36th Division
37th Division
42d Division
77th Division
78th Division
79th Division
80th Division
81st Division
82d Division
88th Division
89th Division
90th Division
91st Division
92d Division
References
List of Depot and Replacement Divisions
