Casualty evacuation times Palestine

[herbie4798]

Hi all, Just a quick question. What was the time frame for Casualty evacuation in the Palestine theatre? I have a man ive been researching who was wounded and trying to establish a time frame in which it would have taken him to be casevaced out of theatre. The medal roll states finished in theatre on the 14/12/17. 1 OR was wounded on the 14th. I think this would have been to quick. On the 11th 3 ORs were wounded, which I believe was the action he was wounded. Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers

James

[michaeldr]

James,

The evacuation of the wounded involved a long and complicated journey; from the OH

"Until the capture of Jerusalem the nearest casualty clearing station was at Junction station…"

I am not sure when the CCS at Jerusalem was opened and you chap may well have had to go by ambulance to Junction Station. If the rail line from there was open at this time (another question), then from there he would have been put on a hospital train to Qantara on the Suez Canal, followed by a crossing of the canal and another train journey to a base hospital, probably in either Cairo or Alexandria

regards

Michael

[ddycher]

James

Some sense can be taken from Allenby's Military Medicine by Eran Dolev. Chapter 5 covers the advance to Jerusalem. During the final assault on Jerusalem the evacuation of casualties as Michael states was controlled through the medical centre at Junction Station. There were severe delays in evacuating the wounded during the November advance through the Judaen hills but these had in the most part been resolved by early December.

Unfortunately the on-line version is incomplete and the dates you specifically refer to are missing :

http://books.google.com/books?id=7yfxhyvlKt8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Military+medicine+palestine&hl=en&ei=9LRUTNSOGITUvQO6qLEY&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

But may be worth looking for a copy.

My own study has focused on the 75th Divisions time in the hills but at this time the route would have been as follows :

Mobile sections of the field ambulances would have taken the casualty to where the immobile sections had set up their base. The line of communications established the casualty clearing stations at the nearest railhead from which the ambulance trains took the wounded to the stationary hospitals.

By the end of November the Advanced Dressing Stations were at El Kubeibeh and Biddu. The Main Dressing Station at El Enab. Casualties would have been taken by divisional cars from Enab to No. 75 CCS at Junction Station (only arrived at the end of November from Imara) some 15m away. Then down the line to Imara, a further 30m, and from there to Base Hospitals in Egypt.

Hope it helps.

Regards

Dave