Dachau: The Harrowing of Hell

17. Camp Fever

17 CAMP FEVER April had been a difficult month for the men, nurses, doctors, and CO, Colonel Lawrence C. Ball, of the I 16th Evacuation Hospital. They had moved four times that month; none of their locations was desirable. It required a vast amount of labor and paperwork to discharge patients, close, pack, move, and reopen at its usual size, 450 beds. Four changes of location were exhausting . The hospital had traveled 315 miles in the move across Germany and had received a total of 2,070 patients during its twenty-four days of operation. Its trucks and ambulances had been strafed many times by the enemy, despite the red crosses on their sides and roofs. The long hours on the gutted roads, the large number of casualties, the need for sharing its trucks with other outfits, and the lengthy supply and evacuation routes all contributed to a nerve-wracking month. Perhaps the only high spot was when three German soldiers surrendei"ed to some of the corpsmen, but even this had created a problem of disposition . These hardships were minor compared to the difficulties that were to appear soon: medical and administrative difficulties that the experienced men and officers of this outfit could not even lmagme. On May I the hospital was in Ottingert, Germany, in support of the 42d and 45th Infantry and 20th Armored Divisions. Emergency orders arrived to move into Dachau. At midnight, the corpsmen began to pack, and today, May 2, the long lines of trucks and ambulances filled with weary nurses, doctors, and other hospital personnel reach the camp gate, where they are greeted with demands for each of them to show proof of previous typhus fever immunizations. After surveying the sites that might he suitable for a large 110 I hospital, the CO selects the least of the evils, eighteen one-story frame buildings in the administrative area, former SS barracks now filled with debris and trash. If partitions are removed, the barracks can be converted into large wards with latrines and washrooms. The urgency of the situation evident, the dedicated though not uncomplaining corpsmen begin the renovation and purification of these buildings. Aided by a detail of inmates capable of work, they remove tons of muck and scrub the rooms, beds, and furniture with a 2 percent cresol solution. The staff moves into quarters in an SS administration building . Fortunately, a large mess hall is available for them, with good cooking facilities, a cooler, and steam from the central power plant for dishwashing. A race against time: the hospital is scheduled to open for patients tomorrow. How will it function? The orders specify that only patients with typhus fever will be admitted; the staff doctors have never treated such patients before; they spend hours trying to work out a method of selecting and transporting patients . Physicians, including inmate doctors, will determine the presence of typhus fever clinically-by history and physical examination. Litter bearers will then place the patient on a litter and carry him to an ambulance, and from there to the receiving section consisting of large ward tents. Here his filthy clothes will be removed and burned by corpsmen and nurses using strict isolation techniques-caps, gowns, masks, and gloves. Then orderlies will scrub the patient with soap, water, and cresol solution, shave his scalp, and help him into clean pajamas, property of the United States Army. After DDT dusting, the patient will be carried by new litter bearers and ambulance to the converted wards, stopping first in the X-ray department for a chest film obtained with mobile units: it is anticipated that many of the patients with typhus fever also have tuberculosis. Eleven wards 0 f 1,200 beds are to be in operation as soon as possible. The plans also call for 600 more beds without latrines in about three more weeks, and the recruitment of 50 more enlisted men from other American units, and 50 trained inmates from the camp. The 12 7th Evacuation Hospital (semimobile), under Colonel Aubry L. Bradford, was also busy in April, putting up and Camp Fever I III striking down its tents, treating 210 starved and maltreated Allied POWs, many well-nourished German POWs, and a large number of battle casualties, totaling 4,684 admissions and I I deaths. The unit was at its normal strength, approximately 40 nurses, 40 officers, and 220 enlisted men. Supplies had been a problem all month; its trucks were forced to haul food hundreds of...