The U.S. Army 32nd Station Hospital operated in the Mediterranean Theater, supporting Allied forces in two separate locations: Tlemcen, Algeria (February 1943–December 1943) and Caserta, Italy (January 1944–July 1945). This article will provide a brief history of the unit from its arrival in Italy until it ceased operations in the M.T.O.
From Barracks to Hospital Wards
On December 15, 1943, the main body of the 32nd Station Hospital shipped out of Oran aboard the H.M.T.S. Cameronia, arriving in Italy four days later. The ship docked next to a capsized vessel in Naples harbor. I initially assumed that the vessel had been sunk in an air raid, and was in disbelief when I read in Dwight McNelly’s manuscript and Willard Havemeier’s account that the 32nd Station Hospital disembarked onto the capsized ship! According to Tools of War: An Illustrated History of the Peninsular Base Section, the Germans apparently sunk ships before retreating as part of an effort to wreck the port. Although not obvious in the above photograph, engineers transformed some of the capsized vessels into piers! (That explains why personnel are visible atop the vessel in the photograph.)
The 32nd Station Hospital was assigned to the Peninsular Base Section (P.B.S.), which included various medical, supply, and other support units behind the lines in Italy. Boundaries under P.B.S. jurisdiction changed as the front progressed northward. The 32nd’s male personnel were initially billeted with the 21st General Hospital in or near Bagnoli. The unit’s female personnel followed aboard the U.S.A.H.S. Shamrock on December 28, 1943, and rejoined the rest of the unit on December 31 .
The 32nd Station Hospital remained in staging for more than three weeks. During this time the hospital’s personnel were divided between those preparing equipment and those detailed to assist at a pair of local hospitals. On January 10, 1944, the 32nd moved north of Naples to a new site at the direction of The Surgeon, Peninsular Base Section. This was a compound along the highway running between Naples and Caserta (designated Route 87). The specific location was near the village of San Nicola la Strada and one mile (1.6 km) south of the Royal Palace of Caserta.
Colonel Harold L. Goss (he was promoted to full colonel on July 17, 1944) described the location in his “Medical History of the Thirty-Second Station Hospital 1 January 1944 to 31 December 1944 incl.” as follows:
This area consisted of about 54 buildings, formerly Italian Barracks, and used by the Germans prior to October 1943. The buildings and area were indescribably filthy and the populace of the nearby village had stripped it of all windows, doors, electric lines, fixtures, and plumbing.
The site lacked an adequate water supply. For the first six weeks, water had to be trucked in by road.
Open for Business
In spite of the condition of the facilities, the hospital personnel worked rapidly; in the first five days, they rehabilitated eight of the buildings. On January 15, 1944, the 32nd Station Hospital accepted its first 200 patients in Italy even though the wards still lacked windows and doors! Blankets were hung to serve as an improvised barrier against the winter chill. It wasn’t until February that hospital personnel (supported by a detachment from the 98th Engineers) finished rehabilitating the buildings. Engineers also built a water main to the hospital. Prefabricated huts and tents supplemented the existing buildings.
Goss wrote that once the repairs were complete,
The hospital was now functioning as a 750 bed hospital with a total bed capacity of 1,000. Personnel worked long and strenuous hours to overcome the overcome the burden of patients in excess of T/O capacity.
As mentioned in the article about the 32nd Station Hospital’s service in Algeria, the army had found that it was more efficient in terms of personnel to simply enlarge an individual station hospital rather than open several smaller ones.
Initially all personnel were housed inside the existing buildings, but they were dispersed after the hospital administration discovered that the close quarters were leading to a significant number of respiratory infections. Enlisted men ended up billeted in tents set up nearby.
Bombed During a German Air Raid
On the night of April 24, 1944, the 32nd Station Hospital sustained its closest call during the entire war. A German air raid (most likely targeting a nearby rail yard and airfield according to Dwight McNelly) resulted in three bombs landing in the vicinity of the hospital. One fell in a nearby field, a second on Route 87 some sixty feet (18 meters) from the hospital, and a third crashed into a wall of Ward 18. Although one bed was demolished by the impact, no hospital personnel or patients were harmed. All three bombs were duds, possibly due to sabotage by munitions workers conscripted by the Germans.
Operations Draw to a Close
As the front lines grew more distant, the unit assumed more of a traditional station hospital role (that is, providing medical support to a local post, in this case the Allied Force Headquarters up the road at the Royal Palace of Caserta). There were increased opportunities for recreation as well. In the fall, arrangements were set up to allow both personnel and patients to cast ballots in the elections stateside.
On November 3, 1944, another tragedy stuck the 32nd Station Hospital when Technician 5th Grade Dominick LaMonica was struck and suffered a mortal head injury after he was hit by a British truck on the highway a mile from the hospital. McNelly wrote that LaMonica had been walking “back from visiting some Italian family he had become friendly with, and died shortly after surgery.”
During 1944, the 32nd Station Hospital admitted a total of 13,178 patients (10,721 disease, 1,765 injury, and 692 battle casualties). 12,817 patients were American, with the rest mostly British and French).
As operations in the Mediterranean Theater drew to a close in the spring of 1945, the 32nd Station Hospital saw an increased turnover in personnel. German forces in Italy surrendered on May 2, 1945, with Victory in Europe Day coming on May 8. Those with a high enough Adjusted Service Rating Score (A.S.R.S.) were transferred out and new replacement personnel transferred in prior to a planned transfer to the Pacific Theater.
In June 1945, the 32nd Station Hospital admitted 350 patients from the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (Força Expedicionária Brasileira), accompanied by five of the unit’s own doctors. Brazilian soldiers had been fighting in Italy attached to the Fifth Army and with the end of hostilities in Europe they were about to return home. Colonel William A. Smith later recalled:
Since they spoke only Portuguese, we were again faced with [the problem] of overcoming language difficulties, at the same time adding new phrases to our already varied international vocabulary. In spite of the linguistic problem, mutual understanding was almost immediate, as pain and suffering have no such barriers.
On July 4, 1945, Colonel Goss was reassigned to the 26th General Hospital. He was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel William D. McElroy on the 5th, who was himself replaced by Colonel William A. Smith two days later.
On July 20, 1945, the 32nd Station Hospital ceased operations in Caserta, turning their facilities and their last 187 patients over to a detachment from the 300th General Hospital. There were a total of 8,557 new patients in 1945, making a total of 29,237 patients treated by the 32nd Station Hospital during its 2½ years overseas.
The 32nd Station Hospital was staging in Naples when the V-J Day occurred. As a result, the unit’s planned transfer to the Pacific Theater was cancelled and the unit was slated for return to the United States. Colonel Smith’s final report on September 19, 1945, stated that the 32nd Station Hospital’s departure from Italy was “imminent.”
End of the War
On the afternoon of September 22, 1945, the unit boarded the S.S. John Clarke at Pier 16 in Naples. The ship set sail at 1700 hours, bound for the United States. The ship arrived at the Boston Port of Embarkation on October 8, 1945. The members of the 32nd Station Hospital, many of whom had been overseas for over 2½ years, began disembarking around 1045 hours. The majority of the unit’s remaining personnel arrived at Camp Myles Standish at 1330 hours the same day. The unit was officially inactivated on October 9, 1945. The majority of former 32nd Station Hospital personnel were mustered out of service and scattered to the winds across the country. A handful either stayed in the army or rejoined later.
Some members of the unit stayed in touch. here was a reunion at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City on October 13, 1962. There was at least one more, April 30–May 2, 1982 at the Dolphin Beach Resort in St. Petersburg, Florida. 40 members of the unit (as well as, I believe, two of its attached civilian American Red Cross workers) attended the 1982 reunion. Another 67 were still in touch with the rest of the unit by that time but unable to attend. This represented only a fraction of the over 600 men and women who served with the unit during the war. Perhaps 50 or so members of the unit had already died by that point, but the others had simply lost contact with their old comrades in the years that followed the war.
As of 1994, Willard Havemeier had compiled a list of 75 surviving personnel. The top of letters he sent out to organize communications and reunions somewhat grandiosely declared his Lancaster, Pennsylvania home to be “HEADQUARTERS 32ND STATION HOSPITAL”! In the late 1990s, Havemeier returned to Italy and visited the old hospital compound. The buildings had returned to Italian military control and were off limits. The materials Havemeier gathered for his website were invaluable in preserving the unit’s history. He died on March 17, 2009.
I’m still trying to put together the stories of the unit’s personnel, but as of January 2022, I have not located any that are still living. To my knowledge, the last surviving member of the unit’s original nurses was Rose Orban (Schneck), who died on April 22, 2014, aged 97. Colonel Herman Carter Needles, U.S. Army (retired), who was a young 2nd lieutenant when he became the 32nd Station Hospital’s registrar, was the last surviving officer from the unit when he died on July 17, 2015, aged 93. Colonel Needles is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Vernon Norman Behrendt (who served with the 32nd Station Hospital between June 17, 1943, and November 24, 1944, reaching the rank of private 1st class) may have been the last surviving enlisted man among those who served in the unit prior to V-E Day. He died on April 24, 2018, aged 95.
According to aerial photos, the hospital compound in Caserta is still there (41°03’30.2″N 14°19’37.1″E), but in a poor state of repair as of 2019. The compound is labeled Ex-Caserma Brignola on a map on the National Collection of Aerial Photography website. Of the 54 buildings there when the 32nd Station Hospital arrived in 1944, perhaps 21 remain in some form, although no more than seven even have intact roofs.
Bibliography
Brammer, Helen W. “Report of Nursing Activities – 1943.” World War II Operations Reports, 1940–48. Record Group 407, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office. National Archives at College Park, Maryland. https://32ndstationhospital.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/32nd-sta-hosp-1943-nursing-report.pdf
Brammer, Helen W. “Report of Nursing Activities – 1944.” Unit Annual Reports, 1940–1949. Record Group 112, Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (Army), 1775–1994. National Archives at College Park, Maryland. https://32ndstationhospital.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/32nd-sta-hosp-1944-report.pdf
Goss, Harold L. “Medical History of the Thirty Second Station Hospital.” December 31, 1943. Unit Annual Reports, 1940–1949. Record Group 112, Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (Army), 1775–1994. National Archives at College Park, Maryland. https://32ndstationhospital.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/32nd-sta-hosp-1943-report.pdf
Goss, Harold L. “Medical History of the Thirty-Second Station Hospital 1 January 1944 to 31 December 1944 incl.” Unit Annual Reports, 1940–1949. Record Group 112, Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (Army), 1775–1994. National Archives at College Park, Maryland. https://32ndstationhospital.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/32nd-sta-hosp-1944-report.pdf
Havemeier, Willard O. “Africa to Italy with the 32nd Station Hospital.” Original website c. December 24, 2003. Revised ed. on 32nd Station Hospital website, July 23, 2020. https://32ndstationhospital.com/2020/07/23/africa-to-italy-with-the-32nd-station-hospital-willard-o-havemeiers-website/
“Highlights and Shadows of the Thirty-Second.” Unpublished manuscript, author unknown, written no later than November 1981.
McNelly, Dwight A. “Italy.” Unpublished manuscript, circa 1987, located in Box 1, Folder 6 of the Dwight McNelly and Dorothy Eggers Collection at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, Chicago. Finding aid: https://www.pritzkermilitary.org/files/5515/2147/7518/McNelly__Eggers_Finding_Aid_March_2018.pdf
McNelly, Dwight A. “Italy Binder Photos #2.” Collection of photos, located in Box 3, Folder 3 of the Dwight McNelly and Dorothy Eggers Collection at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, Chicago. Finding aid: https://www.pritzkermilitary.org/files/5515/2147/7518/McNelly__Eggers_Finding_Aid_March_2018.pdf
McNelly, Dwight A. “Envelope labeled ‘Italy’ (underlined once).” Collection of photos, located in Box 4, Folder 6 of the Dwight McNelly and Dorothy Eggers Collection at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, Chicago. Finding aid: https://www.pritzkermilitary.org/files/5515/2147/7518/McNelly__Eggers_Finding_Aid_March_2018.pdf
McNelly, Dwight A. “White Unlabeled Envelope #1.” Collection of photos, located in Box 4, Folder 10 of the Dwight McNelly and Dorothy Eggers Collection at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, Chicago. Finding aid: https://www.pritzkermilitary.org/files/5515/2147/7518/McNelly__Eggers_Finding_Aid_March_2018.pdf
Milligan (Hills), Ruby. Unpublished photo album, courtesy of the Hills Family.
Morning reports for 32nd Station Hospital Headquarters and Medical Detachment, 1942–1944. National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri.
Silverman, Robert. Unpublished collection including scrapbook (compiled at an unknown date with materials 1942–1944), photos (1942–1945), 8 mm film (1942–1945), and papers (1942–1945).
Smith, Clarence McKittrick. The Medical Department: Hospitalization and Evacuation, Zone of the Interior. Center of Military History, United States Army, 1956. Reprinted 1989. https://history.army.mil/html/books/010/10-7/index.html
Smith, William A. “Period Report of Medical Department Activities.” September 19, 1945. Unit Annual Reports, 1940–1949. Record Group 112, Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (Army), 1775–1994. National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
Tools of War: An Illustrated History of the Peninsular Base Section. Public Relations Section, 1946.
Vinsant, Lowell E. Unpublished journal, copy courtesy of the Vinsant Family.
Wiltse, Charles M. The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and Minor Theaters. Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1965. https://archive.org/details/medicaldepartmen00wilt
Request for Materials
I can use your help expanding this site and adding to knowledge about the 32nd Station Hospital in general. If you have photos, documents, oral histories, or anything else involving the hospital or its members, I would love to know about them! Since there is no known roster of the 32nd Station Hospital’s enlisted personnel, even a name might help me to better piece together its story.
Last updated January 21, 2022
32nd Station Hospital 
