PART THREE
HOSPITALIZATION IN THE LATER WAR YEARS MID-1943TO 1946
Introduction
By the middle of 1943 the peak of the preparation phase ofthe war had been reached, and the United States and its Allies were ready toassume the offensive against the Axis powers. From then until the spring of 1945troops moved steadily overseas, the number in the United States dropping from5,355,683 to 2,753,455 and the number overseas growing from 1,637,419 to5,403,931. In the fall of 1943, one body of American troops landed in Italy,carrying the offensive from North Africa to the European continent; others, bytheir attacks upon islands in the Gilbert and Marshall groups in the Pacific,began a two-pronged drive toward Japan. By the middle of the following year theAllies mounted their main attack against Germany, landing on the coast of Franceon 6 June 1944. Soon afterward the Central Pacific advance reached the Marianasand Southwest Pacific forces returned to the Philippines. Despite a Germancounteroffensive in December 1944, Allied forces moved inexorably toward victoryin Europe and on 7 May 1945 Nazi Germany surrendered. Meanwhile, American troopsin the Pacific pushed closer to the main Japanese islands, completing thereconquest of the Philippines and gaining control of islands in the Ryukyuschain. Then, on 10 August 1945, the Japanese Government sued for peace.Immediately afterward the Army's strength began to decline. By the beginningof 1946 the number of troops overseas dropped to 1,573,620 and of those in theUnited States to 1,895,652.1
Combat developments inevitably influenced the provision ofhospitalization. With the movement of troops overseas the need for beds instation hospitals in the United States declined rapidly. On the other handrequirements for beds in hospitals of all types in theaters as well as inhospitals caring for overseas evacuees in this country mounted. The number ofcasualties and of soldiers with serious illnesses grew with the widening scopeand increasing intensity of combat and the exposure of larger groups to diseasehazards in various parts of the world. Estimating the number of beds that wouldbe needed under such circumstances proved to be considerably more difficult thancalculating the number needed for an Army in training. Moreover, to meetrequirements for hospitalization, whatever they might be, the Medical Departmenthad only limited means. New construction had been curtailed as the peak of thetraining phase had been reached; demands of overseas theaters for troops forcombat operations and of the home front for civilian employees to produce warmaterials reduced the manpower pool, both military and civilian, upon which theMedical Department could draw; and in the fall of 1943 the number of doctorsallowed the Army was limited to 45,000. These limitations meant that emphasishad to be placed upon more effective use of the means
1(1) Strength of the Army, STM-30, 1 Mar 47. (2) Biennial Report . . . Chief of Staff, 1943-45, pp. 1-87.
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available. Instead of building new hospital plants, forexample, the Medical Department had to expand and improve those already built oruse vacated station hospitals and troop housing. Changes had to be made in thehospital system to avoid waste of personnel and equipment. Policies forhospitalization had to be modified in order to hold bed requirements to thelowest practical number. And the organization and administrative procedures ofhospitals had to be standardized and simplified to permit relatively smaller andmore heterogeneous staffs to operate them.
The task of using limited means effectively and of planningtheir allocation among major commands in the United States and among theaters inall parts of the world fell to Surgeon General Kirk when he succeeded GeneralMagee in June 1943. General Kirk maintained continuity in the program ofhospitalization, preserving many established policies and furtheringdevelopments already begun, but he also evolved new policies to meet changingsituations and established new methods of operation. Meanwhile, he expanded andstrengthened his own office and sought changes in the existing War Departmentorganization to facilitate discharge of his responsibility for the health andmedical care of the Army.
