Does the field hospital look like? Field hospital WWII

Nowadays, everyone should know what a field hospital is. The Great Patriotic War is a sad page in the history of our country. Along with those who heroically stood on defending the frontiers, won a precious victory, as well as those who worked in the rear, are also employees of the medical service. After all, their merit is not less. Often, while in close proximity to the places of hostilities, these people had to remain calm and, as far as possible, provide assistance to the wounded, fight epidemics, take care of the younger generation, monitor the health of workers in defense enterprises, and still needed medical help for a simple Of the population. The working conditions were very complicated.

The main function of field hospitals

It's hard to imagine, but the statistics show that it was the medical unit that saved and returned more than 90 percent of those who achieved the victory. To be more precise, there are as many as 17 million people. Of the 100 wounded, only 15 returned to service thanks to the staff of the rear hospitals, and the rest came in uniform at the military hospital.

It is worth knowing that there were no major epidemics and infections during the Great Patriotic War . The front simply did not know about them in those years, an amazing situation, because epidemiological and infectious diseases, as a rule, are eternal companions of war. Military hospitals worked day and night, so that the hearths of such diseases can be strangled immediately in the bud, it also saved thousands of human lives.

Establishment of military hospitals

The People's Commissariat for Health of the USSR immediately outlined the main task in wartime - the rescue of the wounded, and also their restoration, so that the person, having overcome the trauma, could again return to the system and continued to fight. That is why in the course of the first forty-first year many evacuation hospitals begin to emerge. This was stated by the government directive adopted immediately after the war. The plan for the creation of these institutions was even exceeded, because everyone in the country understood the importance of the functions performed by them and the danger faced by a meeting with the enemy.

It was created 1600 hospitals for the treatment of approximately 700,000 wounded fighters. It was decided to use the buildings of sanatoriums and rest homes in order to accommodate military hospitals there, since it was possible to create the necessary conditions for caring for the sick.

Evakohospital

It was difficult to work for doctors, but in the forty-second year 57 percent of the wounded returned from the hospitals, 61 percent in the forty-third, and 47 percent in the forty-third. These figures speak about the productive work of doctors. Those people who, because of the injuries they received, could not continue to fight, were demobilized or sent on leave. Only 2 percent of those who got into hospitals died.

There were also rear hospitals, in which civilian doctors worked, after all, the logisticians needed medical care. All such institutions, like other types of hospitals, were under the jurisdiction of the People's Commissar for Health of the USSR.

But all this is so-called evakogospitaly. It is more interesting to study how it was necessary for those who saved the patients literally at the front, that is, learn about field military hospitals.

Field hospital

Underestimate the work of those who worked with them, in any case impossible! Thanks to these people, who, by the way, themselves risked their lives, the losses of wounded Soviet soldiers after the battles were minimal. What is the WWII field hospital? Photos in historical chronicles perfectly show how thousands and thousands of lives were saved, not only by the military, but also by those who were near field operations. This is a huge experience in the treatment of shell-shocked, fragmentation wounds, blindness, deafness, limb amputation. This place is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Complexities of work

Of course, doctors often fell under shells, personnel died. And there are many memories of how a very young nurse, dragging a wounded soldier from the battlefield, fell from enemy bullets, or how a talented surgeon, medical staff and wounded people died of a blast wave and shell fragments. But until the last, each of them fulfilled his difficult task. Even training in the medical staff often went under fire, but the staff was extremely needed, the Pirogov and Darya Sevastopolskaya case was to be continued. What is a field hospital? This place concentrated in itself a real humanism and self-sacrifice.

There are few descriptions of how the field hospital was equipped, what this place looks like, can be traced only through rare photographs and video chronicles of wartime.

Description of the military hospital

How did the field hospital look like? Although the name of this institution sounds quite solid, in fact, it was mostly only a few large tents that were easily laid out or were assembled so that the hospital could follow the fighters. Field hospitals had their own vehicles and tents, which gave them maneuverability and the ability to be located outside populated areas and to be part of the army bases. There were other cases. For example, when the hospital was based in a school or a large apartment building in a settlement near which fights took place. Everything depended on the circumstances.

There were no separate operating rooms for obvious reasons, all the necessary surgical procedures were performed by the doctors immediately, the nurses assisted them. The situation was extremely simple and mobile. Often the hospital heard screams of pain, but there's nothing to be done, people were saved here as best they could. So the field hospital of 1943 functioned. The photo below, for example, presents the necessary medical tools for the nurse.

Contribution to Victory

It is difficult to imagine how great the contribution of Soviet medical workers is to the fact that in 1945 every citizen of the USSR was exulting with tears in his eyes, it's hard to believe, but they won. It was everyday work, but it is comparable to the true heroism: to bring back to life, to give health to those who already did not expect. It was thanks to the hospitals of the war time that the strength of troops remained at the proper level in this sorrowful time. Field hospital is the place where real heroes worked. The Great Patriotic War became the hardest test for the whole country.

Memories of eyewitnesses

History stores a lot of memories of the postwar period, many of which were written by workers of field military hospitals. In many of them, besides the descriptions of that hell that was going on around, and the story of the difficult life and the most difficult emotional state, there are appeals to the younger generation with requests not to repeat wars, remember what happened in the middle of the 20th century on the territory of our country, And appreciate the things for which each of them worked.

In order to show the humane attitude of all those who worked in military hospitals, I want to recall that in many cases assistance was provided not only to Soviet citizens or representatives of allied forces, but also to the wounded soldiers of the enemy army. There were many prisoners, and often they fell into the camp in a deplorable state, they also had to help them, because they are also people. In addition, after surrendering, the Germans did not give any resistance, but respected the work of the doctors. One woman remembers the 1943 field hospital. She was a twenty-year-old nurse during the war, and she had to help alone more than a hundred former enemies. And nothing, they all sat quietly and suffered pain.

Humanism and dedication are important not only in wartime, but also in our daily lives. And an example of these wonderful spiritual qualities are those who fought for human lives and health in field hospitals during the Great Patriotic War.