Ruth Dorsman, Army Nurse

I've been collecting stories, oral histories, and biographies of Delawareans.  This account opened my eyes to the stresses of women at war in the Army Nurse Corps.  Her bravery and the hardships she endured are the equal of the experience of many combat veterans.  - Angus

First Lieutenant Ruth M. (Haddick) Dorsman

Army Nurse Corps

Ruth M. (Haddick) Dorsman was born in 1921 in Baltimore Maryland.  After graduating from Nursing School, emulating her brother, she enlisted as an Army Nurse in 1942. In October 1943 she shipped out for overseas service in Southern England. Her military career assumed real significance as she landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day plus six, June 12, 1944.  Her unit leapfrogged across France, Belgium and Germany, survived the Battle of the Bulge and witnessed the crossing of the Rhine at Remagen.  She stopped just 60 miles short of Berlin at War’s end. Her unit had won five battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation.  Ruth met her husband Henri Dorsman after the War.  He had served in England as well, with the Army Air Corps. They were married and settled in Newark Delaware, raising a family of three.  Their shop, Dorsman’s Hobby Toyland was established originally on Main Street in an old A&P food store. Later they moved across the street to the corner of Main and Choate Street where Happy Harry’s is located today.  Ruth Dorsman has traveled extensively, taught class, and written several books.  She gained experience as a caregiver, an entrepreneur, and a pioneer who ventured where few women of her time would go.  She refers to her World War II experience as among her greatest accomplishments.  What follows is an excerpt from her journals relating to her Army career.

            I was in my senior year of Nursing School in Baltimore Maryland when on December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  Not long after my only sibling, my brother Harold W. Haddick joined the Army Air Corps, so that determined my course of action.  I would join the Army Nurse Corps, but first I must finish my senior year, and pass my State Board Exams. As soon as this was completed, I went to Headquarters Third Service Command in Baltimore and enlisted.

            On November 1, 1942 I reported for duty at Fort Eustis Virginia.  It was a wonderful post with a very nice General Hospital, housed in Army Barracks connected by catwalks.  We were immediately assigned to ward duty and indoctrinated into the Army way of life.  Nursing duties were not unlike those in civilian hospitals and we wore the same white uniforms. We started as Second Lieutenants and beginning pay was a $100 per month, although that included living quarters and subsistence.  Food was served in the Officer’s Mess in the Hospital. We were also taught close-order drill and we marched in “Review”.  Our first uniforms were Navy colored, trimmed in Maroon, although this was soon changed to official Army Olive Drab, and we also got a pay raise.  Our first outfits were G.I. – Government Issue.

            In July of 1943, twenty-one nurses were recruited to be shipped to Camp Livingstone, Louisiana where we joined nurses fro other camps to become the 100 nurse compliment of the 58^th General Hospital bound for overseas.  At Camp Livingstone we had no nursing duties, but we spent the month there going through rigorous overseas training. We were issued all of our combat gear including clothing which consisted of Fatigue uniforms, jackets, heavy-duty shoes, and helmets.  We were loaded down with equipment – bedrolls, duffel bags, musette bags, gas masks, mess kits, canteens etc.  On top of that we endured medical and dental exams, received numerous inoculations against everything imaginable, blood tests, and typing; we received our dog tags and were fingerprinted for our new identification cards.

            Our training was almost as harsh as the men’s.  We went on many hikes; some of them were overnight so we could test our bedrolls.  Close order drill was a daily occurrence; we were even subjected to Infiltration Courses.   We had several chances to test our gas masks when they would suddenly, without warning, spray the area with tear gas.  Or better still, when we were subjected to “Lethal Gas” chambers just to prove that our gas masks worked.

            Finally, after a month of this, we were all declared “Combat Ready”.   The Post Office was kept busy, because we all had to pack up all unnecessary clothing and personal belongings, including cameras and diaries.  These were considered risky because if you were captured by the enemy, these could reveal Army secrets.  Most of us took a small camera anyway; mine was cheap, took very small black and white blurry pictures, which I am sure, could not have been any help to the enemy at all.  Likewise my diary was a small notebook, very dull reading.  I am really sorry that I didn’t record more pertinent information about our hospital – it would make writing this story now after 60 years so much easier and more accurate.

            Finally, in August, our entire 58^th Hospital came together as one unit and met on the train.  Nurses, Medical Doctors, and Personnel and enlisted en took up the entire train of day coaches.  It took a full three days to reach Camp Shanks New York, our P.O.E. (point of embarkation). But it was not to be.  There were German U-boats patrolling the Atlantic shipping lanes.  It was too dangerous to send a convoy through.  So, off we went to Fort Devons, Massachusetts for five more weeks of drill. This time, for diversification, they added “Pitching Pup Tents”, but still no nursing.

            In October we came down to Fort Dix New Jersey, another P.O.E. but this time we did ship out.  At 2 A.M. on Friday October 7, we left New York harbor in the middle of a large convoy of Navy ships.  We were on the S.S, Monterrey, a converted Cunard Line cruise ship with more than 7000 passengers on board.  Officers were eight to a room on hammocks piled four high. Food was in the Dining Room and was actually really good.  Enlisted men did not fare so well.  They all bunked below decks and in the hold and their food was from the “chow line”.  By the second day out, the seas became pretty rough, and lots of soldiers came own with seasickness.  I felt fine, so I volunteered to work in sick bay everyday from one to seven P.M.  We had three days of rain but the seas finally calmed down.  On Tuesday October 19 we docked at Liverpool England.  We finally debarked at ten P.M. (the Army always moves at night). The Red Cross, bless them, were waiting with coffee and donuts.  We marched to the train which was an all-night ride to our destination in the Cotswold Hills of Southern England.

            We lived in Quonset huts, each containing eight single beds and pot-bellied stove.  There were many such huts for living quarters, offices, mess hall, a recreation hut and several hospital wards, all on a lovely farmland surrounded by a stone fence.  It was not really a working hospital, usually just one ward was open mundane complaints as colds, upset stomachs, aching muscles etc.   So, with one hundred nurses available, we rarely had to go on duty.  So, guess what?! We had time to fall out or close-order drill ad exercises.  We spent a cold, wet winter in England.  It rained a lot, not a downpour, just a misty drizzle; not enough to keep us indoors, so we marched in the rain.

            But all was not lost.  Some of us bought bicycles.  I used mine to great advantage, riding for miles around the countryside.  Our commanding officers were quite liberal with leaves and consequently I spent many weekends in London.  There was much to see and do spite of the nightly German air raids. Sometimes there were direct bomb hits and we had to seek shelter in the underground metros.  In spite of all the devastation and destruction, the Brits carried on.  They were reserved, but quite friendly; they treated us well.  I also visited many other famous places in England such as Bath, Oxford, and Shakespeare’s Avon.  I had a week’s leave so I spent that touring Scotland.  Of course there was always a friendly pub, with drinking, singing, games and camaraderie.

            A general hospital is the last stop in the line of wartime facilities.  First was the Field Hospital, which stayed close to the front line, took in all major casualties for operation, and backed up the major battles.  Next came the Evacuation and Station Hospital, larger and not so mobile, who took evacuations from the Field Hospital and overflow surgical as well as medical emergencies.  They were the back-up for the Field Hospital.  Lastly came the General Hospital which had a ore permanent set-up and took care of everything.

            I was with the 58^th General Hospital, but I really wanted to be with a field unit, so I kept putting in for a transfer.  I became such a nuisance that in the Spring of 1944 my transfer finally came through.  In fact, in the month of May  I was sent to four different locations.   First I spent a week at Station Hospital that certainly did not need me at all; this was in Southhampton.  Nest I was with an Evacuation Hospital for a few days, but finally was sent to the 51^st Field Hospital to replace a nurse who was ill and had to be sent home. 

            The 51^st was located in cheddar, England and we were billeted in private homes with local families.  This was the first week in June; the invasion was imminent and we were scheduled to take part. Our Chief Nurse was Myrtle Evans.  Major McCafferty, who was the Chief Nurse of the entire 7^th Corps, joined us temporarily.   We were transferred to a staging area on the Southwester tip of England, called Land’s End.  We were in tents awaiting the invasion. At last on Tuesday June 6, 1944 the invasion began on the beaches of Normandy.

            On June 9, we marched to the port and boarded the British Liberty Ship “Francis Drake” with orders not to undress while we were on board.  We each received nine packages of “C” Rations, our food for the next three days.  We slept in hammocks, four high.  The ship remained in port for the next two days, then late the second night we sailed.  The English Channel was fairly calm now and about six A.M. on the morning of June 12 we anchored off the coast of Omaha Beach.  Literally hundreds of ships lay at anchor al around us, just beyond the range of German shells that frequently hit the water and exploded.  To avoid making us a tempting target the nurses were not allowed off the ship until after dark, at which time a large rope net was tossed over the side of the ship and all eighteen nurses scrambled down the side into waiting Landing Craft, followed by al the other soldiers on board.  The crafts quickly headed into shore, the font of the ship came down and we waded ashore, across the beach and climbed up the now well-worn paths to the top of the cliff, where the nurses re-grouped to await orders.

            We were met by some of our male officers.  Our enlisted men had landed tow days before and as soon as our trucks loaded with supplies arrived, they set up our tents and hospital units.  Our hospital was located atop the cliff near to St. Laurent and Vierville.  The front line was just four miles inland, with the First and Twenty-Ninth Divisions at the front.  Our hospital had already taken in patients and had started operating.  Half of the nurse went on duty that night.  The rest slept and came on duty at eight A.M.  I took the first shift, but by eight A.M. we had so many Post-Op patients and were so busy that I just stayed until noon.  And that’s the way it would be for the next five days in this location. Work your twelve hour shift and stay three or four hours overtime and sleep the hours in between.

            All the nurses just jumped right in and did whatever needed to done, all urgent stuff like give I.V.s, administer oxygen, pass stomach tubes and set up suctions, possibly change bandages, and give shots.  We were given a new drug, still in the experimental stage to use on all patients to see how well it worked,  It was called “Penicillin”.  We added 20cc distilled water to a small amount of powder in a small vial, thoroughly shook it up, withdrew the fluid inot a 20cc syringe, thus we could administer one cc to twenty patients by just changing the needle between patients.  Actually at this first location we discovered that we did not have nearly enough needles, so undaunted, we lit a match under the needle after each shot until the match burned out, thus producing a reasonably sterile needle.  Every patient received a shot of Penicillin every four hours.  We never had a reaction; Penicillin was a new drug, so no one had developed and allergy to it yet. 

            I’ll take the space here for a brief description of how a Field Hospital works.  First of all, it has the supplies and enough tents and equipment to form three separate complete hospital units.  These three units can spread out to take care of a large area.  When the front moves forward – the hospital unit in the rear can evacuate all its patients and move to the forward position.  The unit in the middle can still be operating but start to evacuate its patients then it can jump to the front. In this way we can play leap-frog and keep pace with the front line.  Each unit has ten Two and a Half ton trucks with trailers that the men can fold up, load all the equipment, and be ready to move in one or two hours.  So the units are very mobile.

            Each unit has six nurses (three day nurses, three night nurses), this means that one nurse per tent with two or three ward men is taking care of thirty or more seriously wounded patients.  Besides our won four doctors who act as assistants, we had a special attachment of surgical teams four surgeons and four surgical nurses, who do all the operations, thus we can keep two or three operating tables busy 24 hours a day.

            Each infantry battalion had its own medics and battalion aid station.  When a soldier is wounded at the front he is picked up by medics, put on a stretcher, and given first aid at the aid station.  As soon as possible he is in an ambulance on his way back to the Field Hospital where he goes into the Receiving/Shock Tent.  Minor wounds that were transportable were sent back to the larger hospitals.  Field Hospitals kept only seriously wounded patients that could not be transported.   These patients were recorded, then immediately given Shock treatment, blood, oxygen, wounds cleansed and bleeding controlled, whatever necessary to stabilize then and prepare them for surgery.   Today I guess that would be called Triage, but that was not yet a word in 1944.  There were always some patients that we were unable to save, some that never made it to surgery.  Our mortality rate among Post-Operatives was generally under ten percent which, all things considered, was very good.

            As soon as a one of the surgeons completed an operation, he went to shock tent, took whatever patient was ready, regardless of the nature of the wound.  Most operations took about three to four hours. Then the patient wsa taken to the Post-Op tent, and his stretcher was placed on the closest empty cot.  There the post-op nurse took over.  This was my domain, where I almost always worked.  The Doctors never took time to write orders – they were all routine.  Once in a while there would be a case that would require special treatment.  Te the doctor usually came over to explain it.  Ninety percent of our patients were either abdominal or chest wounds. Chest mainly required oxygen.  Abdominal required a stomach tube connected to a suction apparatus.  Of course, we had no suction apparatus, but with two empty IV bottle (which wer glass) and IV tubing it took but a few minutes to rig one up and they worked exceptionally well.  All abdominals also had a temporary colostomy which required frequent dressing changes.  And of course every patient received an IV (1000cc glucose or normal saline) twice a day.  We had no constant drip IVs back then.  In fact, nothing ws disposable back then.  We had a small gas stove under a little tank of water in which we boiled all our needles, clamps etc.  Water came from our poratable tan on wheels.  There was a central supply that sterilized al our bandages. O.R. instruments, supplies etc.  We did have a small generator that supplied electricity to the O.R. shock tent, X-ray, and whatever else absolutely needed it, but not to Post-Op – at night we worked by lantern light.

            We had very few amputations as I recall.  Perhaps these were among the patients we sent back to larger hospitals.  We had occasional head wounds and usually at least two or three burn patients.  These were Tankers, whose tank had been hit by flame throwers.  The heat inside the tank seared all exposed areas f skin, mostly face head and arms.  These were treated with Vaseline bandages and with both hands and face completely covered; they required special help with everything they did.  Besides that, they usually suffered several days of delirium.

            Every patient arrived in the Post-Op ward still on the same stretcher that brought him from the front line.  He was still fully clothed. In Shock Ward his clothes had been cut away to expose the area of his wound. That area was thoroughly cleansed and was sufficient space for the surgeon to perform the operation.  As soon as we had the time after an unconscious patient arrived from O.R. we removed all of his clothes.  The easiest way to accomplish this was to use our bandage scissors, cut through al layers of clothing, top to bottom and slip them off.  These clothes and shoes were discarded.  We always checked the pockets and saved his personal items in a cloth pouch tied to each cot. We had no sheets, pillow, pajamas etc.  Such frills were considered excess baggage and not necessary for the patient’s welfare. So each and every patient lay on a cot with “scratchy” wool Army blankets under him, covering him, and folded up as pillows under his head.  But did any of them ever complain?  NEVER!  Rarely did we hear any complaints form our patients – they were so happy to be alive and so brave!

           

            Nurse duties consisted of strictly important nursing procedures.  Thirty to fifty seriously ill patients were cared for by one nurse and two r three ward men.  These young men had only a minimal basic medical training, but they were terrific and such a big help to us. There was no time for basic ward duties – we did not take routine temperatures, did not give daily baths, there were no linens to change etc.  Best of all, there was no charting.  In that “Ditty Bag” on each soldier’s cot was one sheet of paper with only pertinent information. About the only thing we had to record was the time a narcotic was administered.  The office took care of his personal record that went with him on evacuation. We held to sanitary conditions as nearly as possible and rarely had infections beyond occasional respiratory problems.  The new sulpha drugs and Penicillin were the miracle drugs- they kept infections to a minimum, promoting healing and saved lives.

            After five extremely busy days of duty at our first set-up on the hill above Omaha Beach, we caught a break.  Our other two units had set up ahead of us, so we stopped receiving and began to evacuate all of our patients.  Since there were still no hospitals to back us up on Omaha, our patients were taken by ambulance to the /beach, put on now empty landing craft and taken back to England.  Also by now, there was a landing strip eight miles away at Utah Beach, where fighting and German resistance had been much less severe.  Planes with Air Corps Nurses made several flights a day to evacuate up to fifteen patients each trip back to England.  This early evacuation was out of necessity – eventually we set a routine that Chest cases were not to be transported back before seven days, abdominal cases not before ten days.

            Statistics:  During that first five day period, the 1^st unit alone handled:

Total Admissions                  636

Total Operations                   356

Died before Operation         15

Died Post Operation            11

Mortality Rate                        less than 5%

The rest of the patients were evacuated unoperated.

With only two days rest, our unit packed up ad moved to Cartigny Epinay near St. Lo, backing the 29^th Division.  This was a very busy set-up.  The Germans put up a very stubborn resistance to hold St. Lo; actually six weeks of heavy fighting, which means we had many casualties.  On July 25^th the Allies got really mad and they flew a steady bombardment with 3000 planes over St. Lo.  The sky over our hospital was black with planes and just kept coming.  This so demolished St. Lo that the Germans gave up and retreated. The Allies took St. Lo.

On July 30 we moved to a new location just a few miles past St.Lo, another busy set-up.  We were in a field right next to an Artillery Battalion.  On August 5, one of my ward men, Sergeant Eugene Trestor was killed.  He had grabbed a stretcher and ran to the next field to rescue a wounded soldier.   While carrying him out, Trestor stepped on bouncing “S” mine that went through his head and killed him instantly.  This really touched all of us.  We had a church service for him and Trestor was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal.

We really worked hard and steady, exceptionally busy when there were battles just ahead of us.  Sometimes, when there was a great number of patients, an extra Post-Op tent could be set up to take care of the overflow.  When there was a heavy concentration of fighting, two or even all three of our units could be set up together to cover the battle area.  Our supplies came in regularly by ship and were usually no problem.  At one point near St. Lo we were experiencing and extreme shortage of Blood, but this was largely overcome by  volunteers donors from nearby troops.

Many times shells and bombs landed dangerously close to our hospital, but fortunately, there were no direct hits.  We had no lights or heat in our living areas and some nights could be pretty cold.  Our water tank was kept full of drinkable water.  We bathed in a helmet-full of cold water.  Our toilets were slit trenches, or a hole in the ground.  Most of the time we had a seat, and we were afforded privacy by a tarp around all four sides, but no roof.  Our constant attire was Army Fatigues and men’s high top shoes, and we usually had to wear our heavy jackets to keep warm on duty.  General duty was twelve hour shifts, 8 to 8, either day or night.  There were times when there was a lull in the fighting.  When there were no battles, there were no casualties, se we spent days sometimes doing nothing., just sitting in a field in bivouac.  But we did keep moving, field to field, to keep up with our troops.

Still, even with all the work, we had time to play.  The officers from nearby were happy to visit with us or take us to a party at their headquarters (nurses being the only available women).  As soon as they captured a town, the fighting units took domain over any brewery, distillery, or wine cellar they could find, so there was no shortage of refreshments.  The nurses had nothing else to do with their spare time and we really enjoyed their company also…

During all this time of German occupation of France, a growing “underground army” called the Free French kept forming.  In essence, they were spies, getting information per radio back to England.  Of course many had been apprehended tortured and killed. As the Allies liberated towns and areas the Free French came out of hiding to join our forces.  By the time we reached Paris, 30,000 French troops had been added to our numbers.  Paris was liberated on August 25, without a fight.  The First Army held back and allowed the Free French under command of General Le Clerc to march in and accept the surrender from German General Von Chalitz.  Von Chalitz had orders from Hitler to burn Paris to the ground, but he just did not have the heart to do it.  General Charles de Gaulle who had been commander of all French Armies when Hitler invaded escaped to Great Britain and had lived in exile since 1940.  At five P.M. August 25 General de Gaulle arrived in Paris amid wild enthusiasm from the crowds and was declared the Leader of Free France.  Six days later we were camped near Paris, so several of us got a pass to visit the great city.  We toured lots of great cathedrals, museums, and the Eiffel Tower.  What a THRILL!  Me, this little farm girl, was actually in Paris.

On September 1, the 51^st Field Hospital made a giant leap forward of more than 100 miles to St. Erme, as small town just past Reims. We were so far ahead of everyone that we had to take all the casualties.  The retreating German Army had just left their wounded and their dead, so it was up to us to pick them up.  Our tents were full to overflowing.  It’s a good thing the weather was nice, because we had rows and rows of wounded on stretchers, lined up just on the ground outside the tents.  Doctors made their rounds, giving first aid, and separating out the seriously wounded.  The surgeons worked 24 hours a day, barely taking time out to rest.  We gathered together all the ambulances, trucks and other vehicles to evacuate all minor wounds to the nearest hospital more than 100 miles away.   This went on for more than a week.  Other Field Hospitals in other sectors faced the same dilemma.  Finally a larger Station Hospital moved in to relieve us.  We stayed one more night to help them, then we moved on into Belgium, becoming the first hospital across the Seine, the Marne, and the Aisne Rivers and the first to enter Belgium.

Since leaving Normandy, at every stop that our convoy made swarms of French came running to greet us – offering food, drinks, hugs and kisses.  The Belgians were even more enthusiastic.  “Les Americains” had liberated them and they were expressing the thanks with love!!

Our three units set up separately in three different areas of Belgium.  My unit number one was at Verviers.  All through central France and Belgium the Germans had been retreating so fast that there had been little or no fighting, so people were still living there and carrying on as usual. At Verviers, many of the townspeople came right to our hospital area (but not inside the tents) to watch us work.  They invited us into their homes.  I actually made some close friends with whom I corresponded for some time after the war.

The Germans had stopped at their borders and made a fighting stand, determined to keep out the advancing Allied Armies.  Our hospital had been backing yhr entire VII Corps sector of the 1^st Army se had lots of patients and some of them were German.  All along, we had taken in German patients and they were sincerely grateful for our help.  They are after all, just young men who have been drafted and pushed into the war, and now they were glad to be out of it.  Occasionally we got an SS (Storm Trooper) or a fanatic Nazi and can be really NASTY – but fortunately, that did not happen too often.  We just ignored their insults and went about our duties.

On Sunday September 17, 1944 we moved to Roetgen, a little town just inside the German border.  It had been raining for days and the weather had turned very cold.  Even though the Army found it necessary to issue ys long underwear (khaki color) , it didn’t help much.  The field had become very muddy and it was so slippery inside the tent that we were actually falling down.  We had so many patients that we had to put up an extra tent. It was so cold that urine was actually freezing in the drainage bottle on the muddy floor.  Our Supply Officer scouted around and found a vacant school house, so we moved indoors for the first time.  WOW!  We had electric lights, steam heat, and wood floors.  Class rooms make excellent wards and we even had desks and cupboards.  Our mess hall was in the school cafeteria.  An empty house right next door became nurse’s quarters with real beds, kitchen, bathrooms and real showers.  WOW!  This was heaven.  Another pleasant surprise – on September 7 all of the 51^st Field Nurses received “Battlefield Promotions” to First Lieutenant and a party to celebrate.

Aachen, an important industrial city just ten miles north of us was captured on October 10.  At our location in Roetgen, we were sitting right in the path of German V-2 rockets, Germany’s “Secret Weapon”.  Before the invasion, Germany launched thousands of V-1 “Buzz Bombs” from the Baltic coast onto London.  These caused extensive damage and ki8lled more than 6000 people before their launch sites were discovered and destroyed.  Now they had introduced the V-2 “Screaming Mimis” and every night we could see the streaking light and hear the shrill sound as they passed overhead. These flew higher and faster and inflicted even more damage.  It was several more months before we found and destroyed the new launch sites. 

Come November, we were experiencing much snow – so glad we were no longer in tents.  However, snowball fights are a welcome diversion.  Our unit had been working steadily in this one location in Roetgen since ‘September 17.  Casualties from Hurtgen Forest had been very heavy at times and usually we wer very busy.  November 15-18 we were rewarded with a welcome break.  All five nurses were given a pass to Malmedy – a First Army rest area. The other nurses covered for us on duty.  We spent three days in a beautiful resort home in the mountains of Malmedy Belgium.  Several officers from Corps Headquarters that we already knew, were there also.  It was a real party weekend. Then back to Roetgen ti resume our duties.  By December 1 we were winding down , cleaning up the wards preparatory to handing it over to another hospital.  Roetgen was our longest stay in one place – 75 days.  We had over 700 admissions, 578 operations and 158 deaths, almost 20% mortality rate – due possibly to the fact that we were much further from the battle fields, also to the severe weather.

By December 4, 1944, our entire group – all three units – moved on bivouac to Eschweiler Germany.  All eighteen nurses lived togethe4r in a large private home, plenty of room for all.  Our officers lived in another home.  All the enlisted men lived in a castle in Aachen.  We had no work to do.

On December 16, Hitler made one last big strike- the Battle of the Bulge.  We had to retreat back to Huy Belgium where we opened our hospital in a large barracks type building, all three units working together.  Fierce snow storms had left us knee deep in snow ad was bitter cold.  We handled many casualties from the northern sector of the Bulge, but one area was not being covered, so the 1^st unit moved to Lierneu Belgium and opened using the facilities of a former mental hospital. Here we took care o many patients, including several Germans.  By the end of the year, we caught a break in the weather and our planes were back in the air, our infantry advanced and by the end of January the Allies had completely repulsed the Battle of the Bulge.  But it was at great cost; more than 20,000 dead and Germany lost 120,000 soldiers from which she never recovered.

This was the beginning of the end.  We finally crossed the Ruhr River, but he Germans held steadfast at the Rhine River.  They had destroyed most of the bridges.  On March 7, 1945 came the famous crossing of the Rhine at Remagen. A sergeant of the 9^th Armored Division happened upon a partly destroyed railroad bridge at Remagen, unguarded and open, so he led his platoon across.  When the bridge finally fell nine days later, we had a pontoon bridge in place. This is where our hospital crossed.  After this we had no memorable set-ups, one briefly in Cologne, and another in Berleburg, where we had but a few patients.  While I was on duty in Berleburg on April 12 we heard the news that our President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died at age 63.

My last move was more than 200 miles to Halle into a Luftwaffe Airfield just sixty miles short of Berlin.  While riding in a Jeep the next night we ran into a bomb crater. It was pitch dark, the crater encompassed the entire road about ten feet deep and was unmarked and all vehicles in a war zone must run with no headlights.  Half of my right knee cap had to be removed and I was evacuated to Paris where I celebrated VE (Victory in Europe) Day on May 8.  Eventually I was set back to the United States and after recovery I elected to stay in the Army.  After a few months duty at Fort Warren Wyoming, I was discharged on 4 March 1946.  The war was over and the Army had too many nurses. 

The 51^st Field Hospital received a “Presidential Citation”, and earned five battle stars:

            Normandy

            Northern France

            Rhineland

            Ardennes/Alsace

            Central Europe

I would not change those days in the Army for anything.  I was just proud to serve my country and “I’m proud to be an American”.

Ruth Dorsman

Newark Delaware Colonial Military History

I invite readers to comment, correct, or enlarge upon this account.

The military history of Newark Delaware reflects the larger story of the nation.  What began as an initial settlement of Europeans grew into a hamlet, a village, and eventually into the fully mature city of today.  Likewise defense was the responsibility of the individual, the community and the nation, in turn, as civilization expanded.  And the realm of defense was first local, then regional, and finally national as well, but it always relied upon its citizens to defend themselves.

The militia concept had vigorous roots in English history that were transplanted to the New World.  One of the first orders of business for the Virginia colony in 1607 was to fortify and defend itself against the indigenous natives.  In 1620, the Massachusetts Bay Colony formed a militia for the same purpose.

In Delaware a Swedish Colony was founded in 1638.  The Swedish Delaware Colony militia was called out on August 31, 1655 to defend against a Dutch force at Fort Christina.  The Dutch prevailed, and they gave the militia a peacetime structure that endured until the English took over. The presence of this militia helped to insure Delaware’s later independence as a separate colony of the three lower counties of Pennsylvania.

The original Newark settlement, like all such toeholds, had to be defended against the possibility of hostile neighbors.  As we shall see, Newark occupied a location at the edge of the piedmont just off a well-traveled key strategic pathway among the colonies.  It is near the narrowest part of the peninsula between two major bays and is centrally located between major centers of population.

There was a Minqua Indian fortress dating to Swedish colonial times, on either Iron Hill or Chestnut Hill that was the site of a battle between the Minqua and Seneca Indians in 1663.  Aided by two small cannon and four white men to manage them, (provided by the governor of Maryland), the Minqua defeated their foe.[i]  In addition to the possibility of hostile natives, there was the possibility of conflict among the first settlers. The Newark area was contested by the Calvert and Penn families who had conflicting claims on the upper Delmarva Peninsula.

Colonel George Talbot, "our right trusty and beloved cozen," (of Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore) was granted a total of 32,000 acres of land, Susquehanna Manor, extending from Delaware to Octoraro Creek, 80 miles at top of the Bay to above the present Pennsylvania line.  In 1683 he established New Munster (6,000 acres), to the west of Newark, which extended over the Pennsylvania line.  Talbot was placed there to be a thorn in the side of William Penn, who was encroaching on Maryland territory.  The boundary dispute between the Penns and Calverts was a war.  Talbot set up a redoubt at the head of the Christina River.[ii]  

The result was a “fort” constructed in nearby Ogletown, built by Colonel George Talbot of Maryland as an outpost to defend his patent of land, including Iron Hill, granted by his Calvert relative.  It was described by those who had seen it as “about thirteen feet long, ten feet wide and covered with slip.”[iii]  The garrison consisted of six or seven men commanded by a man named Murray.  They were “esteemed Catholics and they behaved peaceably towards the inhabitants, among whom they frequently went.”

This enclave eventually withered after about two years, when the entire command one cold night, “got on a terrible spree and laid out all night.”  They were destroyed by John Barleycorn and Jack Frost. It was reported that some died, and others lost limbs.  The Penn family retained the three lower counties.

Delaware militia volunteers served in all five campaigns of the French and Indian Wars.

In the War of Independence the Delaware militia distinguished itself out of proportion to its size.  Colonel John Haslet formed the Delaware Regiment of the Continental Army in January 1776. It saw its first action at the Battle of Long Island in August of the same year.

Its further service in the Revolution reads like a roll‑call of important battles ‑ White Plains, Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, Paulus Hook and Monmouth in the northern theater, then south for the battles of Camden, Cow­pens, Hobkirk's Hill, Ninety‑Six and Eutaw Springs, Guilford Courthouse, and the siege of Yorktown. The regiment's losses at Camden were so heavy that it was reorganized as a single company under Newark native Robert Kirkwood, one of the outstanding small‑unit leaders of the war. Colonel "Light Horse Harry" Lee summed up the Delaware Regiment's almost eight years of continuous fighting in a single sentence: "No regiment in the Army surpassed it in soldiership."[iv]

The only engagement of the Revolution fought on Delaware soil was at Cooch’s Bridge in the late summer of 1777.  British commander General William Howe, had been repulsed at Trenton in his attempt to take Philadelphia.  He outflanked Washington by embarking his 15,000 man army from New York aboard a fleet of over 260 vessels and sailing up the Chesapeake Bay avoiding the well-defended Delaware Bay and River.  It was the 18^th century version of D-Day, and it must have been an extraordinary sight to see the fleet under sail.  He landed in two locations on Elk Neck Peninsula and marched one division through Elkton Maryland, and the other crossed the Elk River east towards Middletown, and turning north near Lum’s Pond Delaware.  The two forces joined at Aikentown (Glasgow) before moving northeast. [v]

Washington had posted his army to positions around the Marshallton –Stanton area on the banks of the Red Clay Creek.  He selected a chosen force of some 720 men from every unit to serve as pickets and skirmishers to take up positions in the woods above Glasgow.  They were commanded by William Maxwell.  “Give them as much trouble as you possibly can,” instructed Washington.  A hot battle began on the road skirting Iron Hill as the forces met, near present day route 896.  Howe attempted to outflank and surround the smaller American force, but was hemmed in by Iron Hill on one side, and Purgatory Swamp on his right.  The Americans made an especially strong stand at the site of Cooch’s Bridge which gives its name to this engagement, but were finally forced to retreat.  Fighting continued up to Welsh Tract Meetinghouse, before hostilities were broken off.

Washington withdrew, and the British encamped in the area for three days from September 3-6.  The British burned down Thomas Cooch's barn, and used Cooch's home as their headquarters. They then moved in three divisions through Newark, and Kennett Square Pennsylvania.  Washington expected them to move on Christiana and Wilmington.  He kept his army between Howe and Philadelphia and took up positions near Chadd’s Ford Pennsylvania setting the stage for the next battle at Brandywine, where the British prevailed in victory.

The following month, New Castle County elections had to be moved inland to Newark, away from the threat of British guns of the fleet offshore at New Castle.

A second significant event took place four years later that is the equal to the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge in importance.  For students of logistics, the Washington and French General Rochambeau’s 650 mile march from Rhode Island to Yorktown stands as an extraordinary achievement. French General (and Count) Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau landed in Newport RI, wintered over there, marched to join Washington's Continental Army units outside New York City, explored options for an attack there, then marched together to Yorktown Virginia where they trapped, (with critical support from a French fleet under Admiral de Grasse) besieged, and accepted the surrender of a British army under Cornwallis.[vi]

Their route of march, combined in a single column, passed through Delaware from September 2-8, 1781. They traveled from Wilmington to Newport and on to Elkton via the Old Baltimore Pike, just south of Newark, crossing the site of the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge.  The roughly 4,500 troops of the French Army formed about 60 companies of 72 men and officers. They moved through Delaware in two brigades of roughly 30 companies each. The columns were spaced a day's march apart (16 miles) so that they could camp in the same site as the previous day's column had used. A company of 64 men (and eight officers) marching four abreast and separated by 6 feet would take up about 100 feet, and if the companies were spaced 100 feet apart the 31 companies would stretch out for 6,200 feet, a bit over a mile.

Almost one year later, on August 29, 1782 the French forces re-traced their steps along the same route through Delaware on their way to New York.

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[i] Newark Delaware, Past and Present, by Egbert G. Handy and Jas. L. Vallandigham, Jr. , Third Edition, 1982, Newark Delaware, p. 88

[ii] "Catholics on the Eastern Shore of Maryland” , An Article by Reverend Thomas J. Peterman, http://www.stdennischurch.org/COLONIALDELMARVA.htm

[iii] History of Cecil County, Johnson paraphrased in “Newark Delaware, Past and Present, by Egbert Handy and Jas. L. Vallandigham, Jr. , Third Edition, 1982, Newark Delaware, p. 17

[iv] The Delaware National Guard, A Historical Sketch, by Donn Devine, Captain Artillery Delaware Army National Guard 1968., p. 11

[v] History of Delaware, John A. Munroe, third Edition 1993, University of Delaware Press, Newark Delaware.  Pp.73-75

[vi] The Washington- Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Liaison Web Page, Sons of the
American Revolution  http://www.rsar.org/current/w3r/default.htm

A healthy interest or a damaging compulsion?

As a child I had friends who liked to talk about airplanes, and compare notes, and swap books, or pictures, or models. We tried to impress each other with our vast knowledge of all things aeronautical. We were admittedly airplane geeks, shunned by the rest of the school population. There were only a very few of us, although there were other pretenders who were unworthy, because they simply did not have the depth of knowledge required. The way some kids memorize baseball statistics, we memorized performance figures for various aircraft. I got so I could sketch any airplane you could name from memory - a bar trick I used to advantage while in college to get a free beer from time to time. I didn't necessarily like my geeky friends in any other respect. Except for their knowledge of aviation lore they were not people I wanted to socialize with at a school dance or a football game. It was a childish compulsion which I left behind as I grew to maturity. Now as a retiree, I'm surrendering once again to my lifelong interest in all things aeronautical, as well as a passion for military history.

Inspired by a movie, I'm going to try to establish a blog dedicated to Delaware Military History. I have a lifelong interest in the topic, and I have been writing bits and pieces of military history, and collecting more. I'm not a formally trained historian, but I did serve as Executive Director for the Delaware Military Heritage and Education Foundation www.MilitaryHeritage.org for a number of years. I've contributed a chapter on military history to the "Histories of Newark" to mark the 250th anniversary of its founding, I wrote a history of the Delaware Air National Guard, http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=9780738567075 and in April 2010 my history of the Delaware Army National Guard will be published by Arcadia Publishing.

I'm not really sure how blogging works. I hope I can attach images, documents, and create links to other sites, but I'm not sure if the setup allows for that. I've got lots of stuff I'd like to share and I'm hoping that this might be a place where others can also contribute to the general commonweal of military and aviation history, especially as regards Delaware, my home state. It won't be much fun without dialog or feedback so I hope you'll join the fun.