Battlefield Surgeon: Life and Death on the Front Lines of World War II

In November 1942, Paul Andrew Kennedy (1912–1993) boarded the St. Elena in New York Harbor and sailed for Casablanca as part of Operation Torch, the massive Allied invasion of North Africa. As a member of the US Army's 2nd Auxiliary Surgical Group, he spent the next thirty-four months working in North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany, in close proximity to the front lines and often under air or artillery bombardment. He was uncomfortable, struck by the sorrows of war, and homesick for his wife, for whom he kept detailed diaries to ease his unrelenting loneliness.

In Battlefield Surgeon, Kennedy's son Christopher has edited his father's journals and provided historical context to produce an invaluable personal chronicle. What emerges is a vivid record of the experiences of a medical officer in the European theater of operations in World War II. Kennedy participated in some of the fiercest action of the war, including Operation Avalanche, the attack on Anzio, and Operation Dragoon. He also arrived in Rome the day after the Allied troops, and entered the Dachau concentration camp two days after it was liberated.

Despite the enormous success of the popular M*A*S*H franchise, there are still surprisingly few authentic accounts of military doctors and medical practice during wartime. As a young, inexperienced surgeon, Kennedy grappled with cases much more serious and complex than he had ever faced in civilian practice. Featuring a foreword by Pulitzer Prize–winning World War II historian Rick Atkinson and an afterword by U.S. Army medical historian John T. Greenwood, this remarkable firsthand account offers an essential perspective on the Second World War.

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Battlefield Surgeon: Life and Death on the Front Lines of World War II

In November 1942, Paul Andrew Kennedy (1912–1993) boarded the St. Elena in New York Harbor and sailed for Casablanca as part of Operation Torch, the massive Allied invasion of North Africa. As a member of the US Army's 2nd Auxiliary Surgical Group, he spent the next thirty-four months working in North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany, in close proximity to the front lines and often under air or artillery bombardment. He was uncomfortable, struck by the sorrows of war, and homesick for his wife, for whom he kept detailed diaries to ease his unrelenting loneliness.

In Battlefield Surgeon, Kennedy's son Christopher has edited his father's journals and provided historical context to produce an invaluable personal chronicle. What emerges is a vivid record of the experiences of a medical officer in the European theater of operations in World War II. Kennedy participated in some of the fiercest action of the war, including Operation Avalanche, the attack on Anzio, and Operation Dragoon. He also arrived in Rome the day after the Allied troops, and entered the Dachau concentration camp two days after it was liberated.

Despite the enormous success of the popular M*A*S*H franchise, there are still surprisingly few authentic accounts of military doctors and medical practice during wartime. As a young, inexperienced surgeon, Kennedy grappled with cases much more serious and complex than he had ever faced in civilian practice. Featuring a foreword by Pulitzer Prize–winning World War II historian Rick Atkinson and an afterword by U.S. Army medical historian John T. Greenwood, this remarkable firsthand account offers an essential perspective on the Second World War.

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Battlefield Surgeon: Life and Death on the Front Lines of World War II

Battlefield Surgeon: Life and Death on the Front Lines of World War II

Battlefield Surgeon: Life and Death on the Front Lines of World War II

Battlefield Surgeon: Life and Death on the Front Lines of World War II

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Overview

In November 1942, Paul Andrew Kennedy (1912–1993) boarded the St. Elena in New York Harbor and sailed for Casablanca as part of Operation Torch, the massive Allied invasion of North Africa. As a member of the US Army's 2nd Auxiliary Surgical Group, he spent the next thirty-four months working in North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany, in close proximity to the front lines and often under air or artillery bombardment. He was uncomfortable, struck by the sorrows of war, and homesick for his wife, for whom he kept detailed diaries to ease his unrelenting loneliness.

In Battlefield Surgeon, Kennedy's son Christopher has edited his father's journals and provided historical context to produce an invaluable personal chronicle. What emerges is a vivid record of the experiences of a medical officer in the European theater of operations in World War II. Kennedy participated in some of the fiercest action of the war, including Operation Avalanche, the attack on Anzio, and Operation Dragoon. He also arrived in Rome the day after the Allied troops, and entered the Dachau concentration camp two days after it was liberated.

Despite the enormous success of the popular M*A*S*H franchise, there are still surprisingly few authentic accounts of military doctors and medical practice during wartime. As a young, inexperienced surgeon, Kennedy grappled with cases much more serious and complex than he had ever faced in civilian practice. Featuring a foreword by Pulitzer Prize–winning World War II historian Rick Atkinson and an afterword by U.S. Army medical historian John T. Greenwood, this remarkable firsthand account offers an essential perspective on the Second World War.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780813167251
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Publication date: 05/20/2016
Series: American Warriors Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
File size: 5 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Christopher B. Kennedy is senior deputy director of athletics and adjunct assistant professor of English at Duke University. He also teaches in Duke's Kenan Institute for Ethics.


Christopher B. Kennedy is senior deputy director of athletics and adjunct assistant professor of English at Duke University. He also teaches in Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics.
John T. Greenwood is former chief of the Office of Medical History, Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. He is the editor of several books, including Normandy to Victory: The War Diary of General Courtney H. Hodges and the First U.S. Army and My Life before the World War, 1860–1917: A Memoir (written by John J. Pershing). He lives in Annandale, Virginia.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Rick Atkinson
Preface
Editor's Note
Introduction: The Development of the Field Hospital in the Mediterranean Theater
1. Operation Torch and North Africa
2. Southern Italy and Monte Cassino
3. Anzio and Rome
4. Operation Dragoon and the Pursuit up the Valley of the Rhone
5. Germany, the End of the War, and the Journey Home
Epilogue
Afterword by John T. Greenwood
Acknowledgments
Notes
Medical Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Index

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