US Hospitals in the UK (AAF Use)

About Odstock...which was built in 1942 by the US Army (?) to take the strain away from Salisbury General Infirmary....I first experienced Odstock for a few months in 1949/50 as a 7 or 8 yr old having got polio. I remember violent headaches, photobia & not being able to walk & being given penicillin chewing gum! I made a slow but complete recovery & returned there many time between 1973-76 during my SRN training. I was always amazed at the quality of the buildings, which, as you know, are still in use today & look like outlasting the modern hospital.

You were a little bit unlucky to get polio, it wasnt that long after you got it that Dr Salk brought out his vaccine and now polio is almost eradicated.

Hi, i am trying to find some photos of the hospital at tyntesfield house wraxall. I lived in one of the buildings untill i was three, from 1957 to 1960 when they were used for temporary housing. Any help in finding any photos would be greatly appreciated, thank you

Until recently there existed in Suffolk a superb collection of photographs and research material on Redgrave Hall Hospital, used by the 388th BG.

The owner of the collection (Mr. Stebbings) died and his widow gave the collection to someone who had offered to lodge it with an aviation museum. The bulk of the photographs, some quite graphic showing pioneering surgical techniques, came from a surgeon who was based at Redgrave.

Does anyone know anything about this, for example where the material might have ended up? Seems a shame for it to be sitting effectively 'lost' in an archive or a private collection.

We had an American hospital in Bromsgrove,Worcestershire.It was demolished in the early 90,s to make way for a new hospital,the Princess of Wales.
I was born in ward 15.
I am not sure if it was AAF,but my dad told me there was an aircraft fuselage by the entrance on Stourbridge road that was used for storage.
He thinks it was maybe a dakota.
I can recall that the buildings was rendered brick and "H" shaped.
wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm?lat=5...7354&gz=17&oz=8>=1

worcester wrote:

We had an American hospital in Bromsgrove,Worcestershirel]

We have two references: Not sure if it's 'your' hospital

Bromsgrove had two EMS Hospitals built alongside existing ones, Barnsley Hall and All Saints.

All Saints, now the site of the Princess of Wales Hospital, is known to have been taken over by the US Army Medical Department to become their first ETO convalescent hospital.

All Saints thus became officially titled Rehabilitation Center No.1 (16th Station Hospital) and opened as such on the 7th of April 1943.
However, as it was found to be too small (Although having a nominal capacity of 400 beds it was established as a 150-bed unit) to cope with the number of patients Rehabilitation Center No.1 (16th Station Hospital) transferred to the larger facility at Erlestoke Park by March 1944.

The compact size of All Saints hadn't gone unnoticed, and so it was kept on hand by the Americans and retitled again, becoming Rehabilitation Center No.2 (Officers).
Initially set up jointly by the 307th Station Hospital and the 1st Auxiliary Surgical Group, it was taken over by Detachment B of the 77th Station Hospital on the 23rd of February 1944.
Later still it was taken over by the 123rd Station Hospital and was again retitled to become the 833rd Convalescent Camp in December 1944.

The unit history of the US Army 4th Convalescent Hospital, a mobile unit, stated that during October 1943 they "opened a 500-bed Hospital at Bromsgrove, handling overflow from a nearby General Hospital."
Within a month they had "moved to a previously unoccupied 750-bed hospital and immediately opened and operated such medical facility for mild Neuro-Psychiatric and Exhaustion cases not requiring guards or “locked door” care" and by January 1944 were still in Bromsgrove, "housed in an English Club and nearby Nissen huts".

From that it seems likely that took over the larger EMS site at Barnsley Hall, beside the existing Worcestershire Mental Hospital, which became the Lea Hospital on Stourbridge Road after the war.

All the best,
PB

WOW.That is fantastic info Carnaby and P Bellamy...
At a guess the "nearby general hospital" would probably been Hill Top hospital
Barnsley hall has been turned into an housing estate about 10 years ago,but some wartime buildings still survive near the M42 junction 1,which is currently an ambulance and police station. wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm?lat=5...8574&gz=16&oz=9>=1
Probably the nissen huts being on the surrounding fields.
Thanks Chaps

REF;62006 wrote:

sumter there is also a memorial to White Court hospital at the site now, the place is covered in houses and is known as Great Notley. airfields.fotopic.net/greatnotley

Hi stanley and welcome to the forum. Do you have a site plan for the hospital site?

Try this one from med-dept.com/unit_histories/136_sta_hosp.php

Very detailed very accurate many locals have said as much about the sit I just wish the key to the map was clearer.
Hopefully I can get a better copy.

Thanks for the link Stanley, very interesting site.