Field Operations, Table of Contents
CHAPTER XXXIX
AMERICAN OPERATIONS IN ITALY (BASE SECTION NO. 8)
General Pershing, in explaining the necessity for sending troops to Italy, stated:1
The Italian Government early made request for American troops, but the critical situation on the Western Front made it necessary to concentrate our efforts there. When the Secretary of War was in Italy during April, 1918, he was urged to send American troops to Italy to show America’s interest in the Italian situation and to strengthen Italian morale. Similarly a request was made by the Italian Prime Minister at the Abbeville conference. It was finally decided to send one regiment to Italy, with the necessary hospital and auxiliary services, and the 332d Infantry was selected, reaching the Italian front in July, 1918.
The regiment was attached to the Italian Third Army. Its several battalions visited different sections of the front in order to create the impression that a large body of American troops had arrived. From October 27 to 29, the regiment assisted in establishing bridgeheads across the Piave River and from October 30 to November 4 took part in the pursuit of the Austrians. On November 4 it reached the Tagliamenta River, near Valvasone, crossed in the face of machine-gun fire from front and flank, and pushed forward 16 km. (10 miles) to Villaroba, where it was in position when the Austrian armistice went into effect.2
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES
Our medical activities in Italy, though of minor importance, were of a twofold nature: Those in connection with the small body of American troops which has just been discussed and those directly concerning the Italian Army through our ambulance sections which served with it. For our own troops, beside the regulation allowance of regimental medical personnel for one Infantry regiment, the Medical Department consisted of one field hospital and one base hospital. The base hospital was really detailed for service with the Italian Army. Thirty sections of the United States Army Ambulance Service were sent to Italy originally; later, 15 of these were withdrawn. While all these sections were officially for service with the Italian Army, one section was actually used to evacuate patients from our regiment.3
Officers and enlisted men of the Medical Department were attached to each battalion of our regiment when it went into action, and aid stations were established under direct supervision of the regimental surgeon. The motor transport furnished by the United States Army Ambulance Service section from the Italian Army carried patients to Field Hospital No. 331, which had been attached to the regiment. This hospital, specially staffed and equipped, operated for a time in two sections stationed 95miles apart at Lumbraga, and Costoza, respectively. The section of the hospital at Lumbraga occupied a modern
942
concrete building with two stories and an attic, provided with electric lights, running water, good toilet, and other facilities. It operated 5 large wards, and 2 smaller ones of 6 beds each for shocked and gassed cases.3 When the regiment which this hospital served went into action, a subsection of the section at Lumbraga followed it to operate as a field hospital, while the subsection left behind operated as an evacuation hospital. The latter sent its patients to Base Hospital No. 102 which had been detailed for service with the Italian Army, and permanently stationed at Vicenza, September 6, 1918. During the operation which the Italian Army conducted in October and November, 1918, this base hospital sent to the front surgical teams which served at dressing stations and assisted in evacuation of the wounded. Until after the armistice this hospital did not admit medical cases from the Italian Army but in September arrangements were made for it to accept both medical and surgical patients from the American forces in Italy. Later it also organized a hospital of 400 beds for medical cases only, reserving the original plant for surgical cases.4
The 30 sections of the Ambulance Service sent from the United States on June 13, 1918, for duty with the Italian Army, comprised 76 officers and 1,641 men.5 Each section was provided with transportation as follows:6
1 10-ton Pierce Arrow truck.
1 Dodge truck.
1 Dodge touring car.
12 Standard G. M. C. motor ambulances.
1 180-gallon tank mounted on G. M. C. chassis.
1 repair car, G. M. C. chassis.
1 motor cycle with side car.
Machine shop truck units accompanied two of the companies.
While the equipment of the sections was being assembled in Italy, plans for operating the service were in course of completion. The port and quartermaster base was at Genoa; headquarters and one motor repair park at Mantua; the advance base for supplies, a bakery, and a post office at Vicenza; and one motor repair park at Castel franco. The sections were distributed among the several Italian armies and began operations, the locations selected for them being in a semicircle to the east, north, and west of Vicenza, and extending from Lago da Garda to Venice. Four of the sections worked in the mountains and the remainder on the plains.7 The system of supply here was based on formation of the sections into groups of three or four each, as deemed best according to location. One section in each group collected the mail and orders for supplies from the other sections of its group, and twice each week, on specified days, sent them to Vicenza, by a truck which brought back mail, supplies, and fresh bread for all the sections of the group concerned. Trips to the advance base were thus reduced to the minimum.7
In August, 1918, our Government requested the Italian Government that 15 of the United States Army Ambulance Service sections with it be sent for service in France. Six were forwarded at once by rail on August 24, at the same time the remainder of the 15 going overland under their own power, a distance of some 960 km.(600 miles). To compensate for this
943
loss to the Italian Army, 3 ("provisional")sections were organized and equipped, by reducing the number of men in each section (old and new) from 45 to 32 and by supplying the new units from replacement material. After dispatching the 15 sections to France and the 3 provisional sections to the Italian front, headquarters moved to Castelfranco where it remained until the United States Army Ambulance Service was withdrawn from Italy.8
The Italian sanitary service, like our own, provided a dressing station operated by an ambulance company. It was found in practice, however, that under some circumstances much transport service was needed where no dressing stations were required, and that under others, dressing stations were needed in excess of the regulation number of ambulances attached to them. Consequently the ambulance service transport and the dressing stations actually became more and more independent of each other and so no difficulty was experienced in finding assignments for all the United States Army Ambulance Service sections, which were transportation units only. Some furnished wounded transport to isolated outposts on the extreme front, where they received their patients from regimental and even from battalion aid stations; others reported to the "smistimento"(general sorting station), whither patients were sent from the aid stations to be assigned and transported to rear hospitals specializing in the different branches of medicine or surgery. The sections along the lower Piave had extremely heavy work evacuating malarial patients, as that disease proved a serious cause of disability to such parts of the Italian Army as were located at certain places on the river.9
No effort was spared by the Italian authorities to make the general conditions under which the ambulance service operated as pleasant as possible. As a rule the sections were assigned excellent quarters and all were granted the privileges of the Italian commissary.10
In the final great battle on the Italian front, known as Vittorio-Veneto, (October 24 to November 4, 1918) the United States Army Ambulance Service sections accompanied the troops to which they were attached, some going north into the Trentino and others following the contingent of the Italian Army which pursued the retreating Austrians around the head of the Adriatic, taking stations in the neighborhood of Goritzia and Trieste.11
As the demand for transportation for wounded was urgent at this time, all vehicles available, including heavy draft trucks, and all personnel, including clerks in the offices, were sent to the front to augment the strength of the ambulance sections.11
When the Austrians had been driven out of Italy and anew line had been established, the distance from the front to the hospitals south of the Piave River, to which patients were now evacuated, was from 120 to 240 km. (75 to 150miles.) The mild winter of 1918-19, almost without snow and with no severe cold in Italy, presented no obstacles to the transport of sick and wounded which continued uninterruptedly until late in March, 1919, when the ambulance sections were withdrawn and assembled at Genoa, to sail for America.11
944
The supply depot of the American Expeditionary Forces located at Allessandrie, Italy, and organized October 31, 1918, was the base for medical as well as other supplies in Italy.12
It is also desirable to mention here that the American Red Cross operated three small hospitals in Italy—at Rome, Florence, and Milan—and stood ready to equip others should need arise. It sent nurses wherever they were most required and furnished supplies to a great number of medical department organizations of the Italian Army. In September, 1918, it offered to receive American casualties, whether medical or surgical, into all its hospitals.13 It did not prove necessary to take advantage of this offer.
REFERENCES
(1) Final Report of Gen. John J. Pershing, September 1, 1919, 54.
(2) Outlines of histories of divisions, U. S. Army, 1917-1919. Prepared in the Historical Section of the Army War College. On file, Historical Section, the Army War College.
(3) Medical History of Base Section No. 8, May 15, 1919, 19. On file, Historical Division, S. G. O.
(4) Ibid., 17
(5) U. S. Army Ambulance Service, with the Italian Army, by Lieut. Col. E. E. Persons, M. C., chief of service, undated, 4. On file, Historical Division, S. G. O.
(6) Ibid., 2
(7) Ibid., 8
(8) Ibid., 9
(9) Ibid., 10
(10) Ibid., 11
(11) Ibid., 14
(12) Medical history of Base Section No. 8, May 15,1919, 18. On file, Historical Division, S. G. O.
(13) Ibid., 19
