Base Hospital 22 Albums
While many of us can remember the humorous military hospital portrayed in the movie and television show, M*A*S*H, this is a graphic photographic record of a World War I unit dedicated to saving the lives of soldiers serving in France. Base Hospital 22 was organized almost a full year before the United States entered the war in April , 1917, and these are the images collected by a nurse and an orderly from that unit.
The Milwaukee Chapter of the American Red Cross undertook the task to equip and recruit members for their Base Hospital program starting in July, 1916. Dr. Curtis A. Evans was selected to be the director of this unit and within a short time he and others worked to secure the equipment and people that would be necessary to run a field hospital. Twenty-two physicians and surgeons, two dentists, a chaplain, sixty-five nurses and one hundred fifty-two enlisted men made up this volunteer unit by July, 1917. On Dec. 4, 1917 orders were issued for the hospital personnel to prepare for mobilization as United States Army Base Hospital 22.
The initial site for them to be quartered was unusable as a barracks, and through the efforts of Fred Vogel, Jr., the Milwaukee Auditorium was used for a short time. After cataloging and packing over 1,700 boxes of the equipment that would be needed in France, Base Hospital 22 was finally ready to go with its members marching from the Auditorium to the Milwaukee Road Depot on May 19, 1918. Crowds of Milwaukeeans turned out to say their goodbyes as the train left the station on first leg of its journey overseas. After arriving at Camp Merritt in New Jersey on May 21, 1918, all the preparation and training was about to be put into use. Base Hospital 22 personnel, along with other military units, boarded the White Star Liner Baltic in New York harbor on June 4, 1918 and headed for Liverpool, England. The unit arrived on French soil during the night of June 17th and took trains to arrive at their destination of just outside of Bordeaux in an area called the Beau Desert on June 20, 1918.
In this dry, arid climate, the men and women of Base Hospital 22 served men of all nationalities wounded in combat. At the height of its existence this 1,000 bed hospital was caring for over 5,000 patients. These photo albums are a tribute to the doctors, nurses, and enlisted men who served in the United States Army Base Hospital 22 which was rated as the third best and the largest of all the hospitals in the American Expeditionary Force.
