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| A group of nurses form Base Hospital 21 on the deck of the S.S. St. Paul. |
The
Olga A. Krieger papers from the Washington University School of Medicine were
recently transcribed, revealing the life of a Red Cross nurse working in France
during World War I. Krieger’s memoir provides details of the horrific sights of
war, and the tremendous responsibilities of Red Cross nurses.
Olga A. Krieger
Rudd (1884-1973) worked with Base Hospital 21 in Rouen, France, from May 17,
1917 to April 23, 1919. Base Hospital 21 was
organized in July 1916, at the Washington University School of Medicine, in St.
Louis, Missouri. Base hospitals like Base Hospital 21, came into existence
through the efforts of surgeons who realized the importance of having surgical
units prepared for overseas duty. During the first two years of the war, surgeons
started taking small volunteer units to France on short rotations. These short
trips made medical officers realize the crucial need for larger more permanent
hospitals overseas. Once the United
States declared war on Germany, six base hospitals were selected for immediate
mobilization. Washington University’s hospital was selected as one of the first
six. The hospital staff, including twenty medical officers and multiple nurses,
was equipped to handle a 500-bed hospital.
On May 19, 1917 Olga Krieger and
her colleagues boarded the American steamer, St. Paul, and began their journey overseas, arriving in Liverpool
on May 28, 1917. Upon the conclusion of their trip, Krieger shows her delight by
stating, “On Saturday P.M. we saw the light houses on the coast of Ireland. Oh,
how delighted we were when we gazed upon a light in the distance.” The nurses
and doctors of Base Hospital 21 underwent some training in England, and then
were transported to France. The staff was assigned to Rouen, France, the center of the southern line of British hospitals. The staff of
Base Hospital 21, took over British Hospital 12, a 1,300 bed hospital. Base
Hospital 21 was located on a racetrack near Rouen, and was one of the 14
hospitals located within the vicinity.
Krieger rotated through the various medical and
surgical tents, encountering many wounded and dying soldiers. As fighting escalated
on the front, the patient load increased. As more wounded soldiers entered the
hospital, screening of the wounded became especially important. Clearing
stations screened the wounded and labeled them according to type of wound. Nurses
administered emergency care to the critically wounded and assigned all patients
to the appropriate tent for treatment. Krieger described one of her rotations
in the surgical tent...
“These tents were
entirely surgical and when all beds were occupied held 28 patients. Most cases
were penetrated chests, that is shrapnel or foreign bodies that had entered or
lodged in the chest, though we had a few amputation cases.”
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| Page from Olga Krieger's memoir in which she describes two patients suffering from penetrated chests. |
The German drive toward Amiens during
the spring of 1918 greatly increased the number of patients admitted to Base
Hospital 21. Krieger described a deathly gas attack that occurred during this particular
offensive.
“This was during the
big push at Amiens and we surely were busy. The first weeks of night duty I was
relief nurse, that is I had a different line or hut each night. On Monday, I
spent a very quiet night on F line (medical). Tuesday on E line and on this
morn at 4:30 A.M. admitted 40 patients, all gassed. Each and everyone of them
had their eyes bandaged, were unable to see and surely presented the most
pathetic sight one should ever hope to see. Wednesday night I spent in hut #1,
where several of these cases (serious) had been transferred and one of these
individuals, a fine husky man of about 30 years of age, went to the bad, death
of course claiming him, after a struggle of several hours. He however was only
one of a number, there were several who died from the result of this dreadful
gas.”
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| Doctors, nurses and enlisted men of Base Hospital 21. |
While Krieger’s memoir provided details into
the horror of warfare, it also gave us a glimpse into the joy experienced
across France on November 11, 1918. Below is her account of the armistice.
“Finally on November
8, 1918, it was officially announced that General Foch, would be visited by
five delegates of Germany, for the purpose of arranging plans for the
armistice. This however built our hopes, learning the next day that Germany was
given 72 hours to consider. The anxiety cannot be explained, rumors of all
descriptions were afloat (in fact that seems to be the greatest menace in a
camp, I suppose at all times as well as during the war), but before the
expiration of 72 hours it was officially announce that Germany had complied
with all the terms and at 11 A.M. on November 11, the air was afloat with
sounds of sirens, ringing of church bells, firing of firearms, street parades
etc; and best of all the entire world was rejoicing. Never will I forget the
moment the world started rejoicing, I was dressing my patients in hut #12, when
Brazell, one of the enlisted men who cam to France, with us came into the hut
saying “well Sister I believe the time has come for us to celebrate.”
During its 18 months in Rouen, Base Hospital
21 handled over 60,000 patients. It received 29,706
surgical and 31,837 medical cases. Of these, 2,833 were American, the remainder
being British patients. After the armistice on November 11, 1918, the
hospital continued to function as it had during the war, however, it now cared
for sick and repatriated prisoners of war. At the end of January 1919, the last
of the patients were discharged or transferred and the hospital began to
demobilize.
