The 56th Evac Hospital

"I see no way that we junior officers will ever be prepared for any major surgery....I've a premonition that in time it is inevitable. We'll have to perform major surgery on our own, ready or not." Thus wrote Dr. L. D. Collins at the beginning of his tour of duty with the 56th Evacuation Hospital (a mobile tent hospital similar to the M*A*S*H units of Korean War fame), largely staffed by men and women who trained at the Baylor University College of Medicine in Dallas, Texas. Collins chronicles the experiences of the "Baylor Unit," from its training in Texas, through the relatively uncomplicated months in Morocco and Bizerte, to its service in Italy at Paestum, Dragoni, and worst of all, the desperate "Hell's Half Acre" of Anzio Beach. Because of frequent shelling of the hospitals, patients were known to go AWOL to the front, where it was considered safer. During the Anzio campaign, 92 medical personnel were killed in action, 387 were wounded, 19 captured and 60 more missing in action.