American hospital from first World War uncovered in France. Take a look at the find
General John J. Pershing has a decorated history from his time as “Black Jack” while leading troops in the American-Spanish War and later in his pursuit of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa.
As the “Iron General,” he may be best known for leading American troops to victory in Europe, but he started as the commander of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I.
When the United States entered the war in 1917, a force of 200,000 troops made up the AEF, and they landed in Europe to build the infrastructure needed to support an American deployment, according to a May 16 news release from the Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research.
Most importantly, the AEF needed a network of medical camps to help wounded soldiers, and after relying on French hospitals to create a chain between landing zones and the battlefield, American forces soon needed to develop a hospital network of their own, researchers said.
Now, more than a century after the Allied forces signed an armistice to end WWI, the site of one of these American military hospitals has been uncovered in a field in France — along with the items soldiers left behind.
By 1918, more than 2 million “sammies,” or American troops, were stationed and fighting in France, according to the release, and with the massive deployment came thousands of sick and wounded soldiers.
The AEF built several hundred hospital buildings across the country, ranging from field stations to vast medical centers that could hold 25,000 troops. They were connected in a medical network through ambulances and the railway system, according to the release.
The hospitals were almost self-contained towns, accounting for their own plumbing and electricity, researchers said, and in some cases maintaining their own train routes.
One of these hospital complexes was the camp of Gagnerie du Tertre, located in Savenay, a town near the western coast, researchers said.
The camp is more than seven acres and is divided into two distinct sectors, according to the release. The first is an area surrounded by palisades, or fencing to defend the hospital. The second is composed of 20 dump pits, dug into the ground.
The fenced area would have held housing, hangars, large meeting rooms and technical rooms, the researchers said, and were built over a network of pipes to bring clean, drinkable water.
The dump pits, found within the confines of the campground, were mostly filled with construction waste, according to the release, but a few other items have been discovered.
While the buildings served as hospitals, they were also home for many American soldiers, and the pieces left behind are a look into their daily lives off the battlefield.
Hair combs, U.S. Army uniform buttons, mugs, tobacco pipes, shavers, and a case for a watch were all recovered from the dump pits, according to the release.
Other items reminded the archaeologists of the settlement’s purpose, and included medical vials and surgery forceps.
There is a high likelihood that prisoners of war were kept at the hospital camp, according to the release, as the identity plate for a German soldier was found among the items.
To better understand this time of American proliferation in France, a group of Saint-François high school of Assisi students participated in workshops to excavate the site along with archaeologists, and then created an exhibition to display the findings, according to the release.
The exhibition will begin May 23.
Savenay is about a 260-mile drive southwest from Paris.
Google Translate was used to translate the news release from the Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives.
