We could see at a glance that he was extremely ill, being markedly emaciated and as white as the sheet he was lying on. We arrived at the hospital and were shown to the room of the only American soldier there. There was no evidence of damage to any part of it. Heidelberg is a famous medical and university city and large red crosses were painted on the roofs of numerous hospital buildings in the various parts of the city. We landed in a wheat field close to Heidelberg and were met by a jeep which took us immediately to the hospital. I had difficulty in finding a single square block of intact buildings. I have described these cities as their appeared from the road, but looking down on them from the air, the completeness of their destruction was even more evident. Our course took us over the German industrial cities of Frankenthal, Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. From the air look like the pictures one sees of the volcanoes on the moon. Here and there a farmer with horse and plow appeared as miniatures, moving slowly along in straight parallel rows, diverting every now and then to avoid a bomb or shell crater. They reminded me of a huge green and brown patchwork quilt. It was a beautiful sight to see the partially plowed fields below. We flew southeast over the course of the autobahn, at an altitude of about 1000 feet. We took with us several bottles of blood and a few essential instruments, even though we heard that the German hospital was well equipped. Mathewson our chief of surgery, and I, were each in a plane taking off on the highway. I was fortunate to be the first one there to volunteer and within a few minutes Col. A young American soldier lay critically ill in a German hospital in Heidelberg in need of a surgeon as soon as possible. It was an exciting event for the 59th and all the personnel and those patients who could walk turned out to witness it.Ī young air corps captain stepped out of the lead plane and immediately conveyed a message to the Colonel. This was accomplished without difficulty and both planes made an easy landing and taxied off the highway into our hospital road. We were enjoying the sunset one evening when two small observation planes circled over the hospital area and dropped a message requesting us to halt traffic on the Autobahn in order that they might come in for an emergency landing.
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