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Show SERVICE OFARMY Final Report Shows They Bore Their Part of War Suffering. 10,245 OVERSEAS American Amount of 1 Work Done Too Great to Be Calculated. WASHINGTON. Oct. 16 That armv nurses who served overseas with the American forces during the war had! their share of service and suffering I8 Bhown int the final report on the ac- I tivlties' corps, made by Miss JuLa C. j Stlmson, acting director, who headed the army nursing service abroad. Be- tween May 8, 1917, and May 31. 1919. 1 10,215 nurses out of a total of 2l.48uj enlisted for the war saw service ove? -seas. Three were wounded in action and J; 4. luo; uuulm-- - The first six detachments of nUrse-v sent to France replaced nurses in British hospitals. German torpedo at - tacks on hospital ships had forced the 1. 1.. aiui uj cure iur us wounaeri, as far as possible behind the ba'tlej fronts Following up service in ihej base hospitals, American nursing de-tachments de-tachments also began to go forward and in December. 1917. General Haig mentioned a number of them in dispatches dis-patches for gallant service in the casualty cas-ualty clearing stations. But the real work of the American women commenced July 18. 1918, with their own artnv when the final man attack was stemmed and 'he great victorious alUpd offensive start ed. "From July 18 to November 11, the American amount of work done rafl such that no praise would b great enough," Miss Stlmson says. "It was not at all uncommon for nurses t. work 14 to 18 hours a day for three weeks at a time and some hospitals with only seventy or eighty nurses cared for patients to the number of 2100. One hospital had 5000 patients at one time with seventy nurses to take care of them. Officers, nursea and men worked themselves to !'ne.-limit !'ne.-limit of physical endurance and that limit was beyond any which might be expected of human beings." On armistice day. 181,421 American soldiers sick and wounded, were in hospitals, and there was a shortage of 6925 nurses. The records showed that the "peak" of wounded was actually ac-tually reached at Mesves center on November 16, where 20.186 patient were taken into ten hospitals, .vith 394 nurses assigned The shortage of nurses was due entirely to the fict the report says. I hat transportation had not been available to get more into France, .so great was the rjr.h Of combat troops to the lront. Nurses were dropping from fatigue around the operating tables at the finish, fin-ish, but complaints from them were almost nei r heard, MiSfl Stlmson says. Conditions under which the lived were bad in the extreme, crowded crowd-ed in dormitories or tents, usuallv without heat and adequate light, often of-ten without floors, except such as was furnished b) canvass sheeting. Nurses in many instances were required to wash and iron their own uniforms and little recreation could be furnished furnish-ed for their few hours off duty. The homeward exodus began In January, and aboin L'.'.o a week secured se-cured passage during the first four months of the year |