Ulster Med J 2019;88(3):174-178
Medical History
Treatment and Supervision, D-Day to Victory: Europe
John Hedley-Whyte, Debra R. Milamed.
Accepted: 9th July 2019
Provenance: Internally peer-reviewed
INTRODUCTION
From August 1, 1944 until VE Day in May 1945, 1,085,285
predominantly American or Canadian Allied fighting men,
were conveyed in 129 convoys in which troop-ships sailed
past Londonderry to the Clyde. The medical and surgical
care of this east-bound trans-Atlantic million and returning
554,089 were the remit of rescue ships. Additional men and
women were carried in super-liners including Queens Mary
and Elizabeth, which sailed speedily and separately.
Neuropathologist John Henry Biggart, on 19th September
1944, chaired his first Faculty Meeting as Dean of the
Medical School of Queen’s University1,2,3 (Fig. 1). Within six
weeks the Vice Chancellor. Sir David Lindsay Keir4,5,6,7 had
secured as Consultant Advisors, Professor of Medicine, W.W.
Thomson8 , and Professor of Surgery, P.T. Crymble9. This
quadrumvirate were ultimately responsible for treatment of
those casualties in the Allied Armed Forces that were landed
in, or injured in Ulster. During the period September 3, 1939
through March 31, 1946, 831 Allied Naval, 4,989 Army and
1,704 Airforce casualties were treated in hospitals in Northern
Ireland10,11. More than 15,000 additional patients, including
those injured in air raids, evacuees and transferees were also
treated during that time period10,11.
ALLIED RESCUE RESPONSE
On the suggestion of Allied Merchant Seamen, Convoy
Rescue Ships had first appeared in 1941. Five ships of
the small passenger cargo type were converted12. Prior
to World War II, these vessels were designed chiefly for
coastal voyages. Crossing to North America from Greenock,
Liverpool, Belfast and Londonderry and return was their
most usual wartime task; many other voyages were made
to North Russia and Gibraltar12. By June 1944, 29 convoy
Rescue Ships flew the Blue Ensign as non-commissioned
Fleet Auxiliaries13. During 1944 and 1945 a single convoy
rescue ship nearly always sailed at the back of a convoy of
80 or more merchant ships with a dozen or so RCN, USN, or
RN naval escort vessels13.
Typically rescue ships carried a crew of about 70, generally
double pre-war manning. The convoy rescue ship needed
one or two efficient, reliable, quickly launchable motor life
boats. Men, and occasionally women, swimming needed
rescuing first, then those on rafts or floats. Generally those
Fig 1. Sir John Henry Biggart, KBE (1905-1979). Oil on canvas,
106 cm x 74.6 cm, by John Turner (1916-2006). From the
collection of the Naughton Gallery, Queen’s University Belfast,
No. QUB 19, gift 1990, and reproduced with their permission.
Distinguished Neuropathologist and Queen’s Medical School
Dean for over a quarter century from 1944.
in their own ships’ life-boats could be rescued by the rescue
ship or would be by other ships. By 1944 officers and certain
ratings of the rescue ships were armed: U-boat crews could
be threatening.
David S. Sheridan Professorship in Anaesthesia and Respiratory Therapy,
Harvard University, 1400 VFW Parkway, Boston, MA 02132-4927 USA
Correspondence to Prof. Hedley-Whyte
john_hedley-whyte@hms.harvard.edu
UMJ is an open access publication of the Ulster Medical Society (http://www.ums.ac.uk).
The Ulster Medical Society grants to all users on the basis of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
4.0 International Licence the right to alter or build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited
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Treatment and Supervision, D-Day to Victory: Europe
175
Rescue ships all had a well-equipped operating theatre14. All
surgical instruments had duplicates; all were kept sterilized.
By 1944, the Nova Scotia Branch of the Canadian Red Cross
Society had provided suitable operating tables that were both
expensive and sturdy. Both patient and surgeon had to be
strapped to the table. The best method for the surgeon and
sometimes for his assistant were waist-belts with hooks to
bars running alongside the operating room table14.
Anaesthetic machines were Nuffield or Heidbrink with use
of intra-venous thiopentone, preferably for induction only14,15.
Medical Officers were allocated to Rescue Ships of the Royal
Navy and included a Royal Canadian surgeon15,16. These
surgeons were chosen from those who had eighteen months
to 5 years training in Casualty or Surgical work. They were
expected to be good sailors12,13,14,15,17.
THE HARVARD FATIGUE LABORATORY
The Harvard Fatigue Laboratory was already studying
the effects of levels of carbon monoxide produced by
snorkeling on fit humans under the leadership of F.J.W.
Roughton, Plummer Professor of Colloid Science, Cambridge
University, who had been posted indefinitely to Cambridge,
Massachusetts18,19. Work in the Fatigue Laboratory on
chlorine gas, hydrogen peroxide and mercuric vapours was
ongoing.
DUTIES TO CONVOY
With a typical trans-Atlantic convoy of 100 ships mostly
carrying at least 100 persons, the physician-surgeon on
board the Rescue Ship was frequently called upon for advice.
Radio-silence had to be maintained and night-light signaling
was discouraged17. Pennant 99 from the Commodore of the
Convoy was for “urgent medical assistance”12. A flag set of
responses known as the “Abbreviated Medical Code” was
developed by the holder of the Regius Chair at Glasgow, now
Rear-Admiral J.W. McNee12,13, 20 (Fig 2). In 1944, seventy
identical sets of medical flag codes were used. If the Rescue
Ship had been sunk, as were six of the twenty-nine in service
lost to enemy action12 an escort ship substituted.
Surgeon Lieutenant John Dickinson Palmer of the Royal
Canadian Navy was in charge of looking after Canadians
in the Londonderry area. He was based in Ballinderry from
August 1943 to September 194517 and was also in charge
of triaging from Canadian ships to other Allied Hospitals in
Northern Ireland. In Belfast, this task was undertaken by
Dean John Henry Biggart and the quadrumvirate1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.
By May 1945 the convoy Rescue Service had lost 209 men
as well as 22 rescued seamen. By VE Day, 797 convoys had
been supported by a Rescue Service Ship; 4,194 men were
saved, of whom 2,296 were British seamen21.
In August and September 1944, Rescue Ship Goodwin was
kept at Moville, Donegal, to cover passing troop convoys.
The Goodwin was coal-fired with Scotch-type Marine boilers,
potentially continually functional with the ability to steam
underway at 5 minutes notice, as she had to on September
Fig 2. Professor Sir John William McNee (1887-1984),
DSO (1918), Surgeon Rear Admiral to the Royal Navy, for
Scotland and the Western Approaches. Oil-on-canvas by Sir
James Gunn, R.A. (1893-1964), 1954, 89.7 x 69.5 cm, no.
GLAHA_44276. From the collections of the Hunterian Art
Gallery, University of Glasgow and reproduced with their
permission. McNee was educated at the Royal Grammar
School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Glasgow University. After
appointments at Freiburg, during World War I, he served as an
adviser to the British First Army in France. In 1924 he was
appointed Associate Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins.
After spells at University College Hospital, in 1935 he accepted
the call to the Regius Chair at Glasgow. In 1949, Sir John was
Visiting Professor at Harvard University20.
8, 1944. Goodwin escorted 32 convoys and rescued 133
survivors in 1943-194522.
The sinking of Rescue Ship Pinto on September 8th, 1944, was
from a convoy H-X-305 (H is for Halifax, Nova Scotia; X is
for UK) of 107 ships in 15 columns just north of Donegal.
Fifteen miles off the coast of Malin Head U-boat, U-482,
type VIIC with snorkel, had been crawling and lying on the
bottom near Inishtrahull. Several hours earlier, in sight of
land, U-482 had sunk the large tanker Jacksonville, newly
completed and launched in Oregon; there were two survivors
from a U.S. crew of 7822.
The two survivors were taken
from the Atlantic by USS Poole and landed at Londonderry:
they were transferred to Belfast for treatment of “burns and
other injuries”21. U-boat 482 then sank Corvette Hurst Castle
with an acoustic torpedo with the loss of 16 of Hurst Castle’s
105 crew. Survivors were landed at Moville. U-boat 482
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176
The Ulster Medical Journal
by Armstrong Whitworth at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, she was
launched 29 April 1930 for Irvin and Johnson for whaling21.
U-boat 482’s acoustic torpedo opened a tank of fuel oil which
exploded. Empire Heritage sank almost immediately. Rescue
ship Pinto and armed trawler Northern Wave came to the
rescue site within minutes. U-boat 482 soon fired a German
naval acoustic torpedo (GNAT) which homed on Pinto’s
propellers and sank her within two minutes. The Pinto’s
Surgeon Lieutenant Philip N. Holmes was searching for the
sickbay attendant. Meanwhile the Pinto’s Master, Captain
Lawrence Boggs and surviving crew released number 5
lifeboat, the jolly boat, and then number 6 lifeboat and one
of the rafts. Under water, Surgeon Holmes became entangled
but fought free to surface in the oil-covered four foot waves.
Holmes had serious lacerations of hand and leg21.
Fig 3. Admiral Sir Max Horton (1883-1951), by Arthur Douglas
Wales-Smith (1888-1966), Oil-on-canvas, 76.2 cm x 61.0 cm,
painted about 1945, No. BHC2783. From the collections of the
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
then sank Fjordheim a freighter having come from Belfast
Lough. One acoustic torpedo sank her quickly but 35 of
38 crew survived and were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia by
convoy Rescue Ship Fastnet21. U-boat 482’s next victim was
the converted whaling factory ship Empire Heritage . Built
HMCS Hespeler arrived 70 minutes after the sinking of
Empire Heritage, 39 minutes after the demise of Pinto.
With dawn, wind increased to Force Seven. At 10:30 HMT
Northern Wave, another Allied escort ship, signaled Admiral
Sir Max Horton that she was proceeding toward Londonderry.
Wounded Surgeon Holmes was still operating and bandaging
survivors including himself. Northern Wave escorted by
RN Destroyer Ambuscade sailed to Malin Head and down
to Lough Foyle. At Moville, Northern Wave’s ASDIC dome
was removed. At Lisahally the survivors were disembarked
and taken to Londonderry. Sir Max Horton was signaled “5
cot, 4 walking, remaining 77 superficial”21,23(Fig 3). Empire
Heritage had lost 56 of her crew and 54 of her passengers.
From the sinking of Rescue Ship Pinto, 18 men were drowned
and 41 survived, but Chief Engineer and Pinto’s Donkeyman
later died from injuries and are buried in Oban next to the
bay from which Canadian and British Sunderlands flew
for RAF Coastal Command24. When visiting my* paternal
*
This, and any other first-person references refer to the first author.
Table 1
North Atlantic Troopship Movements (‘Operational Convoys’), August 1944-May 1945.
Month
August 1944
September 1944
October 1944
November 1944
December 1944
January 1945
February 1945
March 1945
April 1945
May 1945
TOTALS
Toward the UK
Number of convoys in
which troop-ships sailed
15
17
Allied fighting men
carried (all services)
169,321
99,090
15
173,543
18
150,037
13
10
13
14
8
6
129
176,890
96,108
79,597
94,365
28,882
17,452
1,085,285
Toward North America
Number of convoys in
which troop-ships sailed
Allied fighting men
carried (all services)
13
47,248
12
18
12
18
19
20
22
19
21
174
42,700
63,947
25,559
51,465
45,513
46,253
71,382
60,173
99,849
554,089
Adapted from Roskill27. Not included are passenger liners which were rarely in convoy.
UMJ is an open access publication of the Ulster Medical Society (http://www.ums.ac.uk).
The Ulster Medical Society grants to all users on the basis of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
4.0 International Licence the right to alter or build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited
and the new creation is licensed under identical terms.
177
Treatment and Supervision, D-Day to Victory: Europe
Table 2
Distribution of Escort Vessels, Londonderry and Belfast, 1st January 1945. Adapted from Roskill27.
Based
Number of
Escort Groups
Londonderry
20 (14 Royal
Canadian Navy)
6
Belfast
Destroyers
8
--
Strength in:
Frigates
Sloops
73
36
grandparents, I used to watch, entranced, as these aircraft took
off, having had first to ruffle waves.
U-BOAT LOSSES
Second and final Führer of the Third Reich, Karl Dönitz,
was gratified by the Northern Ireland sojourn of U-boat 482;
never again in World War II was another in-shore U-boat
to be so successful25. The attack of operational convoys,
those carrying Allied combatants, was near-suicidal for the
U-boat. Transatlantic operational convoys moved more
than one million troops without acknowledged loss26,27(Table
1, Table 2).
On U-482’s next voyage to Northern Irish waters it was sunk
with the loss of all hands. U-Boat losses in British coastal
waters increased until VE Day. Dönitz reported that overall
630 U-boats were lost at sea: 603 through enemy action,
7 through accidents and 20 through unknown causes. An
additional 81 U-boats were lost in port by air attack and
mines and 42 from other causes. At the end of World War
II 215 U-boats were sunk or blown up by their own crews,
while others were scrapped or handed over to other navies.
Dönitz later described the handover of 153 U-boats in British
or Allied ports, including Lisahally25, where on 14 May 1945,
Admiral Sir Max Horton accompanied by Wrens and Colonel
Dan Bryan, head of Irish Intelligence in mufti, watched the
U-boat surrender26,28.
According to the records of Supreme Headquarters Allied
Expeditionary Forces from D-Day, June 6, 1944, to VE Day
May 7, 1945, over a quarter of a million Allied casualties in
Europe were air-evacuated, almost exclusively on DC3s to
the United Kingdom29. We estimate approximately 18,000
were landed in Northern Ireland to join approximately 1,800
Atlantic casualties landed at Londonderry and Belfast.
On VE Day, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Sir Basil
Brooke wrote:
“My dear Vice Chancellor,
May I take this opportunity to thank you and the
members of your committee both personally and on
behalf of the Government, for the valuable services
which you have rendered during the war just now so
successfully concluded so far as the European enemy
is concerned.
The problems arising in a total war demand for
their solution the co-operation of all members of the
-
Total
Corvettes
50
131
-
36
community and I want you to know that the work of your
committee has been keenly appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Basil Brooke10”
Keir4,5,6,7, Biggart1,2,3 and Thomson8 were knighted, while
Professor Crymble had been elected President of the Ulster
Medical Society9,30, and at age 90 still golfed. Crymble’s
1914 description of the human peritoneum remains a most
useful classic31. This foursome of Keir, Biggart, Thomson and
Crymble took advice from Calvert32 and Sir Hugh Cairns at
Oxford 33,34. Transfer of patients also took place with Norman
Dott at Edinburgh35 and my father, former Commander at
Musgrave Park36,37 then Brigadier General 1943-1945, Senior
Surgical Consultant Northern Command 1943-194538. John
Henry Biggart and Norman Dott were life-long intellectual
collaborators.
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank Mr. Rob Grezel, Co-ordinator
of the Fort Petrie Military Museum, New Victoria, Sydney,
Nova Scotia, Canada for advice on Canadian Naval History
(fortpetrie@bellaliant.com). The authors wish to thank Mr.
Ben Crothers of the Naughton Gallery, Queen’s University,
Belfast, for assistance with the portrait of Sir John Henry
Biggart. The authors wish to thank Miss Emma Leffley,
Picture Librarian, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
for permission to reproduce the portrait of Admiral Sir
Max Horton. The authors wish to thank the Hunterian Art
Gallery, University of Glasgow, for permission to reproduce
the portrait of Sir John William McNee, The authors also
thank Ms. Marjorie W. Kehoe, Reference and Accessioning
Archivist, Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, Johns
Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, for information
about McNee’s appointments at Hopkins.
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4.0 International Licence the right to alter or build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited
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UMJ is an open access publication of the Ulster Medical Society (http://www.ums.ac.uk).
The Ulster Medical Society grants to all users on the basis of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
4.0 International Licence the right to alter or build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited
and the new creation is licensed under identical terms.