Hell’s Half-Acre

“On 31 January 1944, the 93rd and 95th Evacuation Hospitals opened for business in the new hospital compound [at the beachhead in Anzio, Italy].  They joined the 56th Evacuation Hospital, which had been accepting patients there since 1300 on 30 January.  By 0100 on 1 February, the 56th Evac had admitted 1,129 patients.  The hospital area stretched over a half acre of flat, open land and in a matter of days would be christened ‘Hell’s Half-Acre’ by patients and hospital personnel alike.  All throughout February and on through March and April, the hospital area would be continuously shelled and bombed; the wounded would be rewounded, and many doctors, nurses, corpsmen, technicians, and other hospital personnel would be wounded or lose their lives.  No other hospitals in World War II took more bombings and shellings, or suffered as many injuries and deaths within their staffs of doctors, nurses and enlisted men, as well as re-injuries of patients, than the hospitals on the Anzio beachhead.”

– from “And If I Perish:  Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II”, Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee