Bastogne: The Story of the First Eight Days - US Army Center Of ...

68 BASTOGNE
and decided thatthis must be the rear, if there were such a thing.'
The Division hospital was set up on the crossroads. Near midnight
of December 19 the 327th Glider Infantry was told to send
a motorized patrol to crossroads X-the site of this evacuation
center. 5 The patrol was to investigate and clear up reports of
machine-gun fire in that vicinity. They encountered no fire but
the hospital was gone-Colonel Gold and all his officers and the
men of the clearing company had been captured by the enemy.
The 327th patrol decided that there must have been a fight, for
dead Germans dressed in civilian clothes were found strewn over
the ground, though there were no bodies of American soldiers. 8
The bulk of the Division medical supplies had been captured
or destroyed. 7
Division then called on VIII Corps for medical help, and all
10 1st Division units were notified that casualties would be evacuated
to the aid station of the 50lst Parachute Infantry in Bastogne
itself. One platoon of the 429th Medical Collecting Company,
then located at Jodenville (about one mile west of Sibret),
was made available to the 101st. 8 Until the night of December
21 the platoon used its five ambulances and two weapons carriers
to carry some of the wounded back to the 635th Medical Clearing
Company. Then the Germans cut across the road and contact
was lost with the clearing unit. An abandoned medical supply
dump and the chance discovery of another depot in Bastogne
containing blankets, litters, splint baskets and other hospital items
helped the situation. Yet there continued to be a critical shortage
(plates 23, 24) of bed clothing, litters, penicillin, surgical instruments
and surgeons. 9
The losses of the first day of battle had not, however, put any
unusual stress on the medical facilities. 10 But later in the fight
when Bastogne became encircled, many of the wounded would
have to lie on concrete floors with little or no cover. The blankets
of the dead were collected so that there would be a chance for
the living, and the shattered homes of Bastogne were searched
for any kind of quilting. ll
Colonel W. L. Roberts, commanding Combat Command B,
10th Armored Division, had been at Chdteau-Thierry in 1918