Stomach battalions

[Foxkarej]

While watching QI hosted by Stephen Fry the other night, he mentioned the formations of men created by the German Army late in 1944 who all suffered from certain afflictions. (First War query to follow)

This was to alleviate the shortfall of men at the time. He said that men with the same complaint were conscripted and put together so that the medical Officers attached to their Units could address matters of their health etc en masse.

One such group were allegedly 10,000 strong and were known as the 'Stomach Battalions' as all had stomach related complainants and fought at the Battle of the Bulge. I find this incredible and I'm wondering if there is any evidence of this sort of thing occuring with any of the Countries involved in the First War?

John.

[auchonvillerssomme]

I found these notes.

By late 1944 the German Wehrmacht was finding it increasingly difficult to find able-bodied men to fill its much-depleted ranks. Young boys, older men, the wounded and the sick, were all needed to make up the numbers following the appalling losses on two main battlefronts. One category of the sick was those suffering from chronic gastric troubles. Years of nervous tension, bad food and hard living had produced large numbers of stomach sufferers whom the Wehrmacht could no longer afford to ignore. It was decided to concentrate these unfortunates into special "stomach" battalions.

The Stomach Battalion also called the white bread Division was a unit made up of German Army soldiers with stomach problems. Fighting in and around Antwerp the 70th Division fought well even with the stomach problems. The 70th Division was mainly based at Walcheren Island. They were defeated by bombing dykes around there position and cutting off their escape then an amphibious landing by Canadian troops. Within 8 days the Division surrendered with around 10,000 men becoming prisoners of war. The Allies had to care for the stomach problems.

Mick

[centurion]

The French had something like this in WW1 with soldiers who, as a result of wounds etc, were unable to endure long marches etc being formed into fortress units. Not so much Stomach as Leg division! I've seen a photo of a Lt in one of these fortress units leaning on a sturdy stick