Timeline


Below is a timeline of the 65th General Hospital with key dates and locations from 1942 to 1945.

October 17, 1940 – The 65th General Hospital is authorized as an affiliated unit of the Duke University School of Medicine by the Dean, Dr. Wilburt C. Davison.

July 3, 1942 – The 65th receives orders to report to Fort Bragg for active duty.

August 13, 1943 – Having been ordered overseas, the 65th relocates to Camp Shanks, New York, and waits to be processed for duty.

October 13, 1943 – The 65th sets sail for Great Britain from New York on the Queen Elizabeth.

October 18, 1943 – The unit arrives in the Firth of Clyde off Glasgow.

October 19, 1943 – The unit arrives at its first hospital site, Blackmore Park, a farm near Malvern, Worsterchire, England, where they receive their first patients – casualties transferred from the North African Theater.

December 13, 1943 – The Hospital opens for patients who are transfered from other station and evacuation hospitals. Most are administrative problems. There are no troops stationed in the area and little medical work to be done.

February 10, 1944 – A detachment of 23 officers, 36 nurses, and 108 enlisted men are sent to Redgrave Park, Botesdale, Suffolk in East Anglia to the site of the 231st Station Hospital to expand the hospital that had been serving the 8th U.S. Air Force.

March 4, 1944 – The full complement of the 65th arrives to take over this hospital and to treat the patients left by the 231st Station Hospital. Because the nearest U.S. general hospital is 100 miles away, the 65th functions as a general hospital for the three surrounding station hospitals and also acts as a station hospital and dispensary for the 8th U.S. Air Force.

June 7, 1944 – The day after D-day, the 65th receives battlefield casualties evacuated from the continent. Staff work for 16 hours straight.

August 29, 1945 – The 65th General Hospital ceases operation.

Duke University Medical Center Archives
Box 3702, Durham, NC 27710

(919) 383-2653
dumc.archives@mc.duke.edu
https://archives.mc.duke.edu