WWII Fanatics discussion

I search the title and author of a book about the world war in a portable / mobile American canvas tent hospital for war fields arrived in France for assisting the battlefields, like a few km far away from the war…. No idea if was a real or fiction story. I don’t remember enough details – just these that impressed me as it was broken book with first and last files missing , I was 11-12 years old and definitely more than 30 years passed since.

Several sequences I remember:

- the way of describing the packing and unpacking the tents to prepare the hospital to follow the battlefields, how they organized the hospital wings and central part. In the days waiting between missions, the officers forced the team to exercise packing /unpacking the whole hospital with the clock to count how faster and faster can do it, including in bad weather conditions and how unsatisfied was even the time was better than average.

- the way of chirurgical team operating 15-24 hours, some doctors just settling for sleep one hour on the ground with blood on their cloths then to drink a diluted coffee and continue to operate. How after everything got stable they dispatched the patients to other hospitals by ambulances, and packed almost everything and ready to receive the call with moving to another battlefield…-the way of how, not once, they were listening the noise of the ambulances (or helicopters /airplanes) coming and the doctor said something: “crap, I didn’t sleep for 20 hours, no chance to sleep a few hours” or all the angry when the medical utensils and pills get out of stock

-The worse case I remember was when the mobile hospital was sent to shadow another the front line and the ambulances (or maybe helicopters..?) already brought and let on the grass hundred of victims as the mobile hospital came late, so late, too late for many. Until the team was able to install the tents and prepare the OperationRooms, the doctors and nurses where navigating between victims to select who can be first, for who is too late, navigate between so many crying people, put signs, give water, and the doctors decided to start to operate even the tents were not fully installed

-oranges and chocolate were so rare. In a certain moment they received oranges and how they shared and even offered one to a local French girl… .

-speaking about oranges and chocolate and antibiotics (I think) they used sold /used as currency on black market too, but I might mix that sequence with my personal life so don’t take this line …

-how 2-3 officers had a day off and went buy car to one small town to party drink. At the back on the night they took a French young couple who didn’t speak at all English, and in a certain moment one of the American officers decided to let the guy down keep the girl. The girl fought and in a certain moment she jumped out of the car and they heard the head cracking on the street. They got panicked as they realized this is the martial court and death penalty for what they did and asked one each other to not say anything and read the newspapers if anything mentioned….
- the winter coming for doctors and soldiers in the tents…complaining about the cold, rain running over and more sickness …

- one german horror that they fund in a village in Alsace (or somewhere in the nord of France where population was peaceful living in a mix of French and German speaking area) in a beautiful village into the hills: the nazi army with 2 weeks ago put a part of their victims in a barn and burned the barn with fire launching guns. The villagers didn’t know what to do and let the barn it like this until Americans arrived. Americans where shocked about the villagers lack of action and living in that smell so they forced all the villagers to clean the dead bodies as the victims deserved their place in the cemetery and under all the burned corpses hey found a still living person (but too late for…).

- The only name I still remember from the book is Shelby.

There were some beautiful sides of the book, too, was quite in a positive way written and let me dreaming that everything will go well, but I don’t remember enough details – just these that impressed me in my childhood…

Is it "Bedpan Comando" by June Wandrey? Is the story of a nurse in WWII.

Yes, I believe Andy is right I read this book two years ago.