Introduction
I’m pleased to introduce begin publishing the results of my research into my grandfather and his unit during World War II. The late Dr. Robert Silverman was a dentist in the 32nd Station Hospital. Operating in Tlemcen, Algeria and Caserta, Italy, the 32nd Station Hospital was one of hundreds of U.S. military hospitals and is now largely forgotten. Most if not all of its personnel are now deceased. It is my goal to share their names, faces, and stories.

Table of Contents
History of the 32nd Station Hospital During World War II
Close Call During a German Bombing
Robert Silverman’s Story
Robert Silverman’s Scrapbook
The Robert Silverman Photo Collection
Robert Silverman’s 8 mm Reels
The Cartoons of Don Sudlow
Officers of the 32nd Station Hospital
Enlisted Men of the 32nd Station Hospital
Scans of 32nd Station Hospital Records

Further Reading

Africa to Italy: With the 32nd Station Hospital World War II Created by the late Willard O. Havemeier, this is the best, and until this project is developed further, the only source of information about the 32nd Station Hospital available online. An unrivaled source of photos, it is a thorough account of Havemeier’s wartime experiences.

The Dwight McNelly and Dorothy Eggers Collection A collection at the Pritzker Military Museum and Library in Chicago, this has not yet been digitized; the link is to the finding aid. Like Havemeier, McNelly was an enlisted man in the 32nd. During a recent visit, I was able to examine much of the collection. The photographs in the collection are phenomenal; McNelly was apparently a bit of a shutterbug and a significant portion of the collection is composed of large prints. Just as significant for research purposes are two drafts of an unpublished manuscript McNelly wrote about his experiences in the 32nd. Due to the cost of licensing materials from the Pritzker for books or websites, it is unlikely that my page will be able to display more than a few images from the collection.

National Archives The National Archives in College Park, Maryland holds the surviving unit records in two separate collections. The most interesting part is probably the annual reports from 1943, 1944, and 1945. There are also a report covering January to May 1944, and monthly reports thereafter. Although the annual reports (and January to May 1944 report) contain officer rosters, there do not seem to be any extant rosters of the unit’s enlisted men. I hope to post PDFs of some of the reports on this site in the near future.

Request for Materials
As is apparent from the brevity of the “Further Reading” section, I can use your help. If you have photos, documents, oral histories, or anything else involving the 32nd Station 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.