General Albert Kenner
Details On The Artifact
Complete medal group of General Albert Kenner, including original citations, certificates and tracable medal numbers
A Bit Of History About Albert Kenner
From the beginning of the planning of Operation Overlord, commonly called D-Day the medical planners were facing many challenges. One major problem was the fact that the assault force would suffer its largest proportion of wounded at precisely the time when the fewest medical troops would be on the shore to care for them. General Albert Kenner, the Chief Surgeon for the European Theater worked closely not only with medical staff but with General Eisenhower to prepare for the invasion.
In January of 1944, General Kenner assembled the chief medical officers of the major invasion commands to reach a common figure on casualties so that their position could be given to General Eisenhower. For planning purposes, the numbers presented to SHAEF were 12% wounded on D-Day, and 6.5% on D+1 and D+2, with declining number thereafter. Putting real numbers on it, First Army surgeons had to think about treating or evacuating over 7200 on D-Day with another 7800 in the next forty-eight hours. Preparations had to be made for treatment and evacuation of wounded troops. One can only image the cost in lives had the medical division failed in their efforts to treat and evacuate the wounded.
Even with a great deal of preparation there was still apprehension among the medical staff as D-Day approached. General Kenner stated “The whole medical situation during the first few day’s hinges on two unknown factors, namely weather and number of casualties. If both are in our favor, then evacuation will be satisfactory. If weather is good and casualties heavy or if weather is bad and casualties light, the medical situation while becoming serious will probably remain under control. But if the weather is bad and the casualties heavy then it will be impossible to meet the situation”
Through the leadership of General Kenner, the medical staff met the D-Day situation using well-defined plans and with well-trained medics. As D-day approached General Kenner expressed guarded confidence in the sufficiency of their preparations. Kenner declared “The British and U.S. medical services are organized and prepared to adequately support Operation Overlord” As D-Day arrived General Kenner recognized the fact that all the planning and all the preparation he and the medical staff gave for success on D-Day no longer rested in his hands but in the performance of thousands of doctors, technicians, aidmen, and nurses on the ships and in the aircraft heading for Normandy.
More Photos Of The Archieve
General Guy Denit
A Bit Of History About Guy Denit
The largest amphibious operation of the Pacific war to date, the attack on Leyte would employ an entire field army of more than 200,000 troops and a flotilla of more than 700 ships. Counting personnel staging for future operations, some 258,000 Americans would be on Leyte by the end of the fighting. Overall logistical responsibility for the operation belonged to MacArthur’s service forces, and to General Guy Denit who prepared to call upon all the medical resources of the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) to support the effort. He summarized his duties: transportation on troop and cargo transports of battalion medical troops; portable surgical, field and evacuation hospitals, surgical teams, and surgeons; arrangements for care of casualties suffered by air attack en route; establishment of evacuation by sea and air after the landings; planning for initail supplies; refrigeration for whole blood; and establishment and maintenance of isolated installations equipped to accomplish all categories of definitive surgery. His consultants also provided instructions in the newest advances of military medicine. In this personal description of his role as Chief Surgeon General Denit acknowledges that if he is successful in this mission the number of lives saved would be immeasurable.