FRANCE
ENLISTED MEN PREPARE TO LAUNCH A BARRAGE BALLOON over one of the beaches in Normandy. Balloons were attached to cables and by means of winches could be raised or lowered to the desired altitude. These balloons were used to protect ships and beach installations from low-flying enemy aircraft. When the balloons were in position the enemy would not fly low over the beaches for fear of running into the cables which kept the balloons in place.
FRANCE
MEDICAL CORPS MEN TREATING AN ENLISTED MAN for a wrist wound. When casualties entered a battalion aid station within a few hundred yards of the front, they were immediately screened and sorted. Wounds were redressed, and perhaps morphine or other drugs were given when available. Those whose wounds permitted were evacuated to the rear, while those whose wounds did not permit further evacuation were held, treated, given plasma, and then moved farther back.
FRANCE
AN EVACUATION HOSPITAL with a 750-bed capacity, Normandy, 24 July (top). Army surgeons perform an operation out-of-doors (bottom). In World War II the number of deaths per hundred casualties was one half of that during World War I. Responsible for this reduction was the surgical skill and painstaking care rendered by personnel of the Medical Corps aided by better surgery, the sulfa drugs, penicillin, plasma, and whole blood.
