Dental Care During World War II

You might think this is an odd subject in the narrative o World War II. Perhaps it is, however—I was reminded by a former colleague who nearly died because he had an abscess in one of his teeth that. he ignored. It had been neglected for several months, which eventually resulted in infections all over his body. He had been out of work for over a year.

That had me thinking about dental care during World War II. There would not have been that many dentists, and given the fact that a small dental issue can potentially lead to death, it makes sense that some would have died or been debilitated.

I won’t go into the awful practices of the Nazis in relation to pulling teeth in this post, I will stick to just regular dental care.

These are just some impressions of dental care during World War II. The picture above:
Women members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service display surprising cheerfulness as they line up for dental treatment at a depot of the Eastern Command in the United Kingdom.

Dutch forces in Normandy.
The dentist has his first patient. 21 August 1944.

Above: A dentist working at a little hospital at Merauke, on the southwest coast of Netherlands New Guinea. 1944/45

The photo above shows the German communist Otto Kohlhofer as a prisoner in the dentist’s chair at Dachau Concentration Camp.

In January 1941, Mussert, the leader of the Dutch Nazi party-NSB, was invited to Munich by Himmler. The aim was to entice the NSB leader to the SS. On 20 January 1941, a surprise tour awaited: a day at the Dachau concentration camp. The visitors were shown nice-looking aspects of the Camp; model dormitories, good sanitary facilities and a kitchen that provided good quality food, which everyone tasted, and the dental care facilities. What surprised me was how modern the equipment looked.

The dental practice of Dr Gustaf Johannes Lind and his wife Helene Elisabeth Jansen, Koningslaan 1, Amsterdam, 19 May 1944.

A US Army dentist cares for the teeth of a French child in a civilian dispensary established in a French town.

Youth dental care. Dutch People’s Service. The Nederlandsche Volksdienst, Dutch People’s Service or NVD was founded in July 1941 following the example of the Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt in Nazi Germany. The founders of the NVD wanted to bundle all social work in the Netherlands into the NVD. The NVD was founded on the initiative and with the help of the German occupiers. The occupiers were concerned with the Nazification of social work in the Netherlands. By dedicating oneself to the NVD, one was supporting the enemy.

A Dutch recruit is treated by a dentist at the training base in England. Many sailors required dental and medical attention because of their treatment by the Nazis.

source

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&rows=25&page=1&fq%5B%5D=search_s_keywords_poolparty:%22Tandartsen%22&sort=random%7B1692605320320%7D%20asc

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Medical Care World War II

During World War II, many medical advances were made. Surgery techniques such as removing dead tissue resulted in fewer amputations than at any time. The treatment of bacterial infections with penicillin or streptomycin was administered for the first time in large-scale combat. In the beginning, plasma was available as a substitute for blood. By 1945, serum albumin had been developed, which is whole blood, rich in the red blood cells that carry oxygen and is considerably more effective than plasma alone.

The photographs above and below: Wounded American soldiers receiving blood plasma alongside a road in Normandy while awaiting transport to hospitals behind the lines. Major General H.W. Kenner, Chief Medical Officer at Allied Supreme Headquarters, disclosed on 5 August 1944 that 97 out of every 100 Allied soldiers wounded in France survived because of the speedy handling of injuries.

Allied casualties in Normandy were 30 per cent less than expected. Blood transfusions are credited with saving thousands of lives, with blood plasma being carried in each soldier’s kit and whole blood being administered at field hospitals. U.S. service men and women stationed in Great Britain set up a blood donors’ centre at a U.S. Army hospital to donate blood to the wounded in France. With a speedy process of handling—blood flowed into the veins of an injured soldier in France within a few hours after it was taken from the arm of a buddy in England.

Sources

https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/story/Article/2115192/medical-improvements-saved-many-lives-during-world-war-ii/#:~:text=During%20the%20war%2C%20surgery%20techniques,time%20in%20large%2Dscale%20combat.

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=august%205&rows=1&page=1

The Journey Home

One thing about World War II I often wondered about was the transporting of injured troops back to the United States.

The photo above shows the first American casualties from the Battle of Normandy arriving in the Eastern U.S. on 29 June 1944, after a 19-hour plane trip from the British Isles. The wounded—a U.S. Army officer, 12 enlisted men and one U.S. Navy Seabee—were flown across the Atlantic to their homeland on a C-54 transport plane. Waiting ambulances carried them to hospitals. Several men were part of the first Allied assault wave to strike the northern French beaches with overwhelming force on 6 June. One was a paratrooper who broke his leg when he hit the ground behind German lines in the successful Allied thrust to cut off the German forces in Cherbourg, the strategic deep-water French port liberated on 26 June 1944.

Above is a photograph of ambulances backing up to a specifically designed ramp to transfer wounded men. That ramp guaranteed minimal discomfort for the wounded as they boarded the Air Transport Command C-54 Skymaster. The ramp would quickly move aside as the plane was warming up. Once loaded, it taxied down the field for take off for the flight across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States.

An American Red Cross aid distributes books and magazines for wounded American soldiers before boarding the C-54. The photo shows the Skymaster hospital plane at an Air Transport Command base in the United Kingdom. The soldiers were flown to a U.S. military airport and then to hospitals near their homes.

Above is a photo of a wounded soldier on a stretcher on the gangplank of an Allied landing craft which had brought military supplies and men for the fighting fronts in France. The wounded were brought to the beaches in ambulances and jeeps and transferred to ships for transportation to hospitals in England. More seriously injured were flown back in hospital planes.

source

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=Transport%20gewonden&rows=1&page=4

Medical Heroes

The one group that often gets overseen in WWII stories are the medics. There are some books and movies about them, but if you put in the bigger scheme of WWII things it is a small percentage.

Yet they are the ones who would run into the battlefield, sometimes unarmed, to pick up the wounded.

They were also the ones who, after the dust cleared, had to deal with the aftermath of battle. It is one thing seeing your brother in arms being blown to smithereens, but due to the adrenaline and the instinct to survive, it keeps the other emotions at check. You just get on with it, but afterwards when things have settled the emotions start flowing. The medical teams had to deal with these emotions and at the same time try to save lives.

Like here where surgeons work on the leg amputation of an injured solider at 46th Portable Surgical Hospital in Tinkhawk Sakan, Burma during World War II. 1944.

Sometimes in makeshift field hospitals  Like in the picture below where an American Army doctor operates in an underground bunker surgery room behind the front lines in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea during World War II. The injured soldier had been wounded by a Japanese sniper. 1943.

It wasn’t only men ,Navy Flight Nurse Jane Kendiegh feeds an injured solider on a return trip from the battle of Iwo Jima.

An American medic works with two Army nurses to administer blood plasma to a patient who was critically wounded by shell fragments at the Battle of Anzio in Italy

American Captain Clarence Brott applies a cast to the leg of a soldier with a deep wound in his thigh inflicted by a shell fragment.

 

Picture source: National Library of Medicine and National Archives

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Forgotten WWII Heroes- The Nurses

This is a blog honoring the WWII heroes who had to deal with the aftermath of battles. After the dust temporarily settled the Nurses were confronted with the horrors of war.

Aside from tending to the wounds and pain they were also the ones who comforted the injured troops, often they knew there was no hope but still tried.

Personnel of QAINS(Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service) were the first women to arrive at the Normandy beach head. On 13 June, seven days after the initial landings of the Allied Expeditionary Force, Lieutenant Colonel Helm arrived with two sisters and soon many more followed. Their purpose was the setting up of a General hospital to house 600 patients. With the assistance of Pioneers and the Royal Army Medical Corps the hospital was quickly established.

 

Flight nurse Lt. Mae Olson takes the name of a wounded American soldier being placed aboard a C-47 for air evacuation from Guadalcanal in 1943.

A C-47 air evacuation team from the 803rd Air Evacuation Transportation Squadron, Lt. Pauline Curry and Tech. Sgt. Lewis Marker, check a patient on a flight over India

Army nurses landing in Normandy

British nurse assisting with a leg operation in the General Hospital in Tobruk during 1942.

1st Lt. Louise Wasson caring for her patient

 

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I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

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Medical Troops in WWII

We often hear the stories of the special forces during WWII and without a shadow of a doubt they were all heroes.

However the heroes that are often forgotten are those of the Medical Corps, while being shot at they ran into the battlefield to attend the wounded. The red cross often functioned as a target for snipers. More then anyone else they put their lives at risk.

Even those who didn’t see action on the battlefields they still had to deal with the aftermath of the battles and the horrors they witnessed would often haunt them for the rest of their lives.

The pictures below are a tribute to the male and female Heroes of the Medical Corps, I salute you.

 

The Nurses

Helping the enemy

The recruitment posters

The German Military corps

The Hospitals

The impossible made possible