WW2 US Medical Research Centre

Hello everybody. Greetings from Warwickshire, England (county of William Shakespeare). Is there anyone out there who knows anything about the 97th General Hospital at Wheatley in Oxford in WW2? They were not there for very long. In Mid 1945 they moved out and went to Frankfurt and took over THE Luftwaffe Hospital there and stayed long after the war. I'm writing a book entitled The Forgotten Fortress - a B-17G that crashed on 23rd December 1944. The one and only survivor, Clifford Heinrich was taken to the 97th and had a "Royal" visitor on Xmas Day 1944. If anyone has any information about the 97th, whilst they were in Oxford, I will buy you several beers. Thanks - Michael Rainsberry (michael.rainsberry812fortress@gmail.com)

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your message and glad to see you made it onto the Forum!

Unfortunately we do not have any detailed information in our personal archives relating to the service of the 97th General Hospital during WW2, but I was able to find some information which might be of interest and use to you. From the information I have found, here is a concise timeline of the unit's stay in the United Kingdom:

25 June 1943 > Officially activated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
23 March 1944 > Departed the New York Port of Embarkation for the United Kingdom aboard USS Argentina.
22 April 1944 > Opened station at Wheatley Military Hospital in preparation to receive casualties from Overlord Overlord (A.P.O. 204).
12 June 1944 > First trainload of patients arrives at the 97th General Hospital.
2 August 1944 > A total of 1,449 casualties had been treated by this date.
30 June 1945 > Departed Wheatley for France, and ultimately Germany.
4 July 1945 > Arrived at Le Havre, France where troops staged for 20 days.
30 July 1945 > Opened station at Hospital Plant # 4377 in Frankfurt / Main, Germany.

In case you require further information, it might be worthwhile to contact the US National Archives (http://www.archives.gov). There is a good chance that they will hold original copies of official Unit Histories and After-Action Reports for the 97th. Copies can be obtained from them for a small fee, and I am sure that they will be able to assist further. It would be prudent to request copies of the 1944 and 1945 Annual Reports.

Good luck with your research, and please keep us informed should you discover any further information.

Kind regards,
Ben.