Can anyone help me? US 40th Tented General Field Hospital

I am a member of a local history group in Holford Somerset UK. I am researching our villages wartime past, I know we had the US 40th Tented General Field Hospital and American nurses based at Alfoxton Park/Hotel in our village but am unable to find out much else. Asking around, I can find out stories, but I need some facts, pictures would be great! I know there was a lot of US activity around here as part of the build up to the invasion of Normandy, if anyone can help at all, no matter how small it would be greatfully appreciated. In my profile is the web address to the Holford at War page, please have a look there as well, again, if there is anything someone can add, please do get back to me.
Thanks in advance...........

 

Thank you, I'm new to this, as I'm sure you have worked out!

 

I suspect the formal name was the 40th General Hospital. "tented" was not part of the US nomenclature for hospitals, though of course many were under canvas. A "Field Hospital" is another organisational level for hospitals. So in searching for this one, I think you will have more luck using only "40th General Hospital".

Just for information, by doctrine (not necessarily in actuality), a General Hospital was equipped to operate 1000 beds. At various times, the staff was 662, 692, and 734 personnel, both officers and enlisted.

In about August 1944, the 40th moved to France, and became one of the US hospitals in the Paris Region until the end of the war.

You might also want to consider going online to WW2 US Medical Research Centre :: WW2 MIilitary Hospitals :: European Theater of Operations Join their forum and post your request there. Doc

 

I did think the tented bit was somewhat suspect, but this was all I had at the time, didn't know they went to France in August 44 so great, I can add this into the search. I have already been in contact with the WW2 Medical research centre guys they couldn't help much either to very little information. But thanks anyway I've taken one step forward. I did wonder if they might have been a black unit (or colored unit as they were called then) because I came across an article that mentioned how the village enjoyed the sprituals given by the black soldiers, but have drawn a blank there aswell! Dead ends everywhere, but I am determined to find out now, there has got to be a record somewhere.

 

http://www.criticalpast.com/stock-footage-video/US-40th-tented-field-hospitals

It may be here, try a search. I will look again later.

 

Will do, thanks, got to get of to work now but will look later on, cheers

 

You may be able to get some help from the Army Medical Department Museum, in San Antonio, Texas.
U.S. Army Medical Department Museum

Or try contacting the Army Medical Department History Section. Office of Medical History

Most of the US hospitals in the UK were in buildings, or in Quonset Huts with tents used for overflow/expansion. So, I would be surprised if it were an entirely tented hospital when in the UK. It was in hard buildings in Paris.

I have somewhere seen a photo of the 40th in Paris-- It did not appear to be a Black Hospital Unit, from the few staff which are shown. In fact, I am unaware of any black hospital units during WW2, though I stand to be corrected on that.

Doc

 

I have found information on Fold3.com that the 40th Gen Hosp was at Daglingworth, Wiltshire, and was to have 1,000 beds. This dates 31 Jan 1944, I can send you a copy of the document and other images if you would like them.

Mark

 

I have found information on Fold3.com that the 40th Gen Hosp was at Daglingworth, Wiltshire, and was to have 1,000 beds. This dates 31 Jan 1944, I can send you a copy of the document and other images if you would like them.

Mark
BFBSM, thank you, I will have a look at Fold3.com, can you attach the documents and photos to a reply or would you need to email them to me, would love to see them. Thanks again, I feel like I am starting to get somewhere.

 

Doc, will get in touch with the Army Medical Dept. Museum and the Army Medical Department History Section, thanks for the suggestion. I am starting to wonder if they were only at Alfoxton for a short while as Wellington School in Westgate-on-Sea in Kent, evacuated to there, don't yet know how long they were there either, the school is now closed as well. I understand they stayed in the building, could they have shared, I don't know.
The trouble is, I know we had Americans of all discriptions in the area training at the time, plus I understand a lot of the SW was a car park for US vehicles on the build up to D-Day - the lanes with natural borders & high hedges were great forcamouflage apparently, this together with the general confusion of the time and fading memories adds to my woes.
However, I am trying to arrange a meeting with a lady who was a child in Holford at the time, hoping she can shed some more light on Alfoxton. I have local stories, some conflicting, so will have to see how it goes.

You may be able to get some help from the Army Medical Department Museum, in San Antonio, Texas.
U.S. Army Medical Department Museum

Or try contacting the Army Medical Department History Section. Office of Medical History

Most of the US hospitals in the UK were in buildings, or in Quonset Huts with tents used for overflow/expansion. So, I would be surprised if it were an entirely tented hospital when in the UK. It was in hard buildings in Paris.

I have somewhere seen a photo of the 40th in Paris-- It did not appear to be a Black Hospital Unit, from the few staff which are shown. In fact, I am unaware of any black hospital units during WW2, though I stand to be corrected on that.

Doc

 

BFBSM, thank you, I will have a look at Fold3.com, can you attach the documents and photos to a reply or would you need to email them to me, would love to see them. Thanks again, I feel like I am starting to get somewhere.

Here is a link: http://www.mediafire.com/?peuf18vc42bku4l, it is a ZIP file which contains all of the images from Fold3.com, I found to date.

Including a list of 'Active' hospitals in the UK at the time it was published.

Mark

 

Thanks to all for your help, this is the story so far:
In 1943 a contingent of American troops 40th Tented General Field Hospital and American nurses were stationed in a specially built camp in Alfoxton Park as part of the preparations and build up to D-Day. They were welcomed by the locals who were entertained by concerts of folk songs and spirituals given by the black soldiers.
In about August 1944, the 40th moved to France, and became one of the US hospitals in the Paris Region until the end of the war.
40th FLD HOSP - ETO 11 Mar 44 England (first assignment to Ninth US Air Force/IX Troop Carrier Command, as a USAAF Hospital, only 2 out of 3 Platoons were assigned to the IX TCC, each of the 2 Platoons operated as 'separate' Air Force Clearing Stations).

Research so far suggests that the US 40th General Hospital left England in July 1944 for France. In July 1944 they are found at Sainte-Mère-Église in Normandy France and in August Le Vésinet in the suburbs of Paris (the liberation of Paris was on 25th August, on August 24th, the French Forces of the interior (Forces françaises de l'intérieur, FFI) received reinforcements from theFree French Army and from the US 3rd Army under General Patton, liberating the French capital city the following day following the surrender of the occupying German garrison) where they appear to have stayed for the duration of the war. This has yet to be confirmed.
Dr Sanders Marble Senior Historian, Office of Medical History Office of the Chief of Staff, US Army Medical Command has stated: We have on hand no information about the 40th General Hospital; we know it existed, but we don't have the files. I know they are at our National Archives, but that's near Washington DC and not particularly convenient to you (or actually to us, in south Texas). At some point this spring/summer one of our staff should have a few days in the Archives and be able to unearth the specifics about the 40th. Do you wish to be put on that list?
Some generalities might help you, however. General Hospitals provided the most specialized care, and operating in tents was not particularly easy for them; it could be done, but it was not easy, and it was not generally done if the unit was only going to be in a place for a short period. The 40th may well have been at Holford but not functioning as a hospital, especially if there was no large buildings for them to adapt into a hospital. As you can imagine, it took quite a bit of space to operate 1000 beds. While there would not have been Black men assigned to the 40th (the U.S. Army was segregated at the time) the Army Medical Department partly got around this by creating "General Hospital Complementary Units" which had Black personnel to do a variety of labor, or it may have been a "Sanitary Company" a type of unit which often did the same sort of work.
Fingers crossed, some information will be found.

 

In a document of the locations of all US units in UK on 30 June is the following.

Code:

Location               Unit                           County        Grid
Welford         40 Field Hospital                     Berkshire     VU8495
Daglingworth    40 General Hospital Headquarters   Gloucestershire VP4525
 

Is either of those your guys?

 

Attached is a military service card from the State of Utah, USA historical records for one of my distant relatives.

He was attached to the 40th Field (Tented) Hospital, which differed from the 40th General Hospital that set up camp in Paris shortly after it's liberation and remained there for the remainder of the war.

It appears to me that the 40th Field Hospital was the unit that was deployed to Normandy at Sainte-Mère-Église in July 1944 and from there followed the campaign on into Central Europe.

 

Thank you Little John, any information relating to the 40th is always welcome You may want to have a look at my post in March 12. I am drawing something of a blank at the moment regarding my initial question, but it does confirm what you say.

 

Sorry SirJahn, only just noticed your reply, no neither are Holford / Alfoxton Park. I am starting to wonder if the 40th were only based there for training as I am coming up against dead ends all the time. Thanks anyway.

 

I suspect the 40th General Hospital, which moved to Paris in August 1944, is not the unit you are looking for.


Not sure where you got this information, but it suggests the 40th Field Hospital arrived in England in March of 1944.

"40th FLD HOSP - ETO 11 Mar 44 England (first assignment to Ninth US Air Force/IX Troop Carrier Command, as a USAAF Hospital, only 2 out of 3 Platoons were assigned to the IX TCC, each of the 2 Platoons operated as 'separate' Air Force Clearing Stations)."


This suggests you are looking for a black outfit that arrived in England in 1943 (the reference to the 40th in this quote may be an error).

"In 1943 a contingent of American troops 40th Tented General Field Hospital and American nurses were stationed in a specially built camp in Alfoxton Park as part of the preparations and build up to D-Day. They were welcomed by the locals who were entertained by concerts of folk songs and spirituals given by the black soldiers."


The quote below suggests you might be looking for a Sanitary Company such as one like this (link).

WW2 US Medical Research Centre :: Unit Histories - 736th Medical Sanitary Company

"While there would not have been Black men assigned to the 40th (the U.S. Army was segregated at the time) the Army Medical Department partly got around this by creating "General Hospital Complementary Units" which had Black personnel to do a variety of labor, or it may have been a "Sanitary Company" a type of unit which often did the same sort of work."

Hope that helps clarify some issues. Does your local library have an archive of local newspapers that you could search?

 

[FONT=&quot]I’m afraid I have come late to this thread, but for some years I have been trying to identify British and US depots in the UK during World War 2, and, included in the 5000 plus to date, have the following notes on 40th General Hospitall (I have not traced any reference to 40th Field Hospital)
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [US] 40th General Hospital[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Swindon (Lydiard Park Hospital), Wiltshire - 12/43-1/44
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Cirencester (Daglingworth Hospital), Gloucestershire 1-7/44
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Williton (Alfoxton Camp), Somerset 7-9/44
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]These notes were taken in Dec 2003 from “U. S Army Installations in the United Kingdom” which was published on a website([/FONT][FONT=&quot]www.stranglab.com/britcamps/index.html ) which has now sadly disappeared. I have tried without success to contact the anonymous site owner to find his source, but it appears to be a retyped version of an official directory. [/FONT]

 

Had a break from researching Alfoxton Park, back on it now. There appears to be very little concrete information about it, all I have so far is:

In 1943 a contingent of American troops 40th Tented General Field Hospital and American nurses were stationed in a specially built camp in Alfoxton Park as part of the preparations and build up to D-Day.
Williton
Somerset
Alfoxton Summer Tented Camp
40th Gen Hosp (1000 bed)
440710-440926

They were welcomed by the locals who were entertained by concerts of folk songs and spirituals given by the black soldiers.
In about August 1944, the 40th moved to France, and became one of the US hospitals in the Paris Region until the end of the war.
40th FLD HOSP - ETO 11 Mar 44 England (first assignment to Ninth US Air Force/IX Troop Carrier Command, as a USAAF Hospital, only 2 out of 3 Platoons were assigned to the IX TCC, each of the 2 Platoons operated as 'separate' Air Force Clearing Stations).

Research so far suggests that the US 40th General Hospital left England in July 1944 for France. In July 1944 they are found at Sainte-Mère-Église in Normandy France and in August Le Vésinet in the suburbs of Paris (the liberation of Paris was on 25th August, on August 24th, the French Forces of the interior (Forces françaises de l'intérieur, FFI) received reinforcements from theFree French Army and from the US 3rd Army under General Patton, liberating the French capital city the following day following the surrender of the occupying German garrison) where they appear to have stayed for the duration of the war. This has yet to be confirmed.
Dr Sanders Marble Senior Historian, Office of Medical History Office of the Chief of Staff, US Army Medical Command has stated: We have on hand no information about the 40th General Hospital; we know it existed, but we don't have the files. I know they are at our National Archives, but that's near Washington DC and not particularly convenient to you (or actually to us, in south Texas). At some point this spring/summer one of our staff should have a few days in the Archives and be able to unearth the specifics about the 40th. Do you wish to be put on that list?
Some generalities might help you, however. General Hospitals provided the most specialized care, and operating in tents was not particularly easy for them; it could be done, but it was not easy, and it was not generally done if the unit was only going to be in a place for a short period. The 40th may well have been at Holford but not functioning as a hospital, especially if there was no large buildings for them to adapt into a hospital. As you can imagine, it took quite a bit of space to operate 1000 beds. While there would not have been Black men assigned to the 40th (the U.S. Army was segregated at the time) the Army Medical Department partly got around this by creating "General Hospital Complementary Units" which had Black personnel to do a variety of labor, or it may have been a "Sanitary Company" a type of unit which often did the same sort of work.
Fingers crossed, some information will be found.
This information has been found via internet searches, local knowledge and the US
Army Medical Department History Section. I know they were there, as your reply confirms, I will get there in the end with some concrete proof I know. I am waiting for a letter from a gentleman who has some Home Guard in Holford information for me, might be something there. Thanks for your reply, all the bits will add up in the end.