Shot by a member of combat camera named Edwin C. Udey who was tasked with making a documentary about the field treatment of wounded, this silent footage was taken during the Battle of Saipan in 1944. Unlike most of the censored footage you will see from WWII, this material of wounded soldiers being evacuated from the combat zone is quite raw. It is hard to watch without becoming emotional, seeing so many brave, young men who have been subjected to the horrors of battle. It is also impressive to see the amount of care taken by the U.S.A. to help its wounded.
At the start of the film, wounded are seen at a rear area being loaded aboard a transport aircraft for the flight to a hospital. At 1:30, a wounded soldier is shown wearing a tag that explains the nature of his injury and treatment. At 3:10, a wounded soldier is seen being moved. At 3:25, a former Japanese hospital is seen, now occupied by the Marines. At 3:33, a soldier receives additional treatment for his wounded leg. Note the pressed wood splint underneath his leg, developed by Charles and Ray Eames during WWII.
At 4:20 a title card (flopped) appears, “Transportation and Evacuation of the Wounded.”
At 5:57, LCIs are seen arriving from the front at Saipan full of wounded. At 6:29, Marine reinforcements head to the beach. At 6:40, naval artillery fires supporting fire at Saipan, and at 7:02 some of the wrecked buildings on Saipan are seen. At 7:29, a medic uses a field bandage to staunch a bleeding wound on a Marine. At 7:49, more wounded arrive at a hospital ship.
At 9:46, soldiers are seen administering aid in the field. At 9:53, a hospital ship is seen offshore Saipan. Most likely this is USS Solace, AH-5, former SS Iroquois.At 10:30, Marines are seen recuperating aboard the ship. At 12:53, some are brought out on deck on stretchers to be offloaded using a winch. They are stacked up like cordwood on what appears to be a barge or LST. At 13:40, a hospital ship marked H-9 is seen, possibly USS Bountiful, formerly USS Henderson.
At 14:36 a rear-area U.S. Naval Hospital is seen, the eventual destination of wounded from the Saipan battle.
The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June to 9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched. The U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and the Army’s 27th Infantry Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Holland Smith, defeated the 43rd Infantry Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito.
USS Bountiful departed San Francisco on 1 April 1944 for Honolulu, returned later that month, and sailed once more on 1 May for the western Pacific. After brief service at Honolulu and Eniwetok the ship arrived on 18 June at the Saipan invasion beaches. She made three passages to the hospitals on Kwajalein with casualties of the Marianas invasions. About this time Bountiful established one of the few blood banks in a Naval ship.
The floating hospital remained at Manus until 17 September when she sailed for the Palaus to bring casualties of the Peleliu landing to hospitals in the Solomons. After November Bountiful operated between Leyte and the rear bases carrying veterans of the Philippines campaign. She departed Manus on 24 February 1945 for Ulithi and Saipan to receive casualties of the bitter Iwo Jima assault, and in the next months sailed to rendezvous with the fleet to take on wounded from Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the fleet units themselves. Returning to Leyte Gulf on 15 June, she remained until 21 July, and then got underway for California. Bountiful arrived after war’s end, sailing into San Francisco Bay on 21 August 1945.
More on the Eames splint, from the Eames Office website: In 1942, medical officers serving in World War II combat zones reported the need for emergency transport splints. This prompted Charles and Ray to begin experimenting with a new type of device to transfer war patients with injuries to their lower extremities.
We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
