# Canadian Medics in World War 2



## joe16 (7 Apr 2003)

Hi, I‘ve been searching the web for a while and I cant seem to find any information on the Canadian Medics of world war two. Is there a specific site where I can find this information? Can anyone help?


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## Michael Dorosh (8 Apr 2003)

Canadian medics were called "stretcher bearers", you may want to use that as a search term.


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## combat_medic (8 Apr 2003)

Or do a search for "Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps"

At the CFMSS (Canadian Forces Medical Services School in CFB Borden, ON), there‘s a ton of information/history, especially in the school library. If you‘re still having problems finding anything, you may want to contact them for some references/titles.


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## mikeninercharlie (8 Apr 2003)

A good starting point would be "Seventy years of service: a history of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps". - Ottawa: Borealis Press, 1977. - 388 p. 
You may want to take your research a little further and discover the stories behind the 9 Cdn Medical VCs, the sole Cdn soldier to be awarded the Queen‘s Scarf, the CAMC Pte who receievd the  Nobel Peace Prize and another CAMC Pte who is considered one of China‘s greatest heros...


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## Michael Dorosh (8 Apr 2003)

I don‘t think those books were particularly useful for understanding medical services at the battalion level, which is what I infer the terms "medic" to mean.  Please correct me if I‘m wrong.

An infantry battalion or armoured regiment had its own Regimental Aid Post (RAP); in an infantry battalion, this included a Medical Officer (MO) who was probably a surgeon of some type, his batman, a Medical Sergeant, an orderly, a driver, and 20 stetcher bearers.  Their job was to perform immediate first aid.

Casualties that could not be returned to the line would be sent back from the RAP to a Collecting Point where ambulances could safely pick up wounded, and then to a Field Dressing Station or Advanced Dressing Station for further treatment.  Here, their weapons were collected, X-rays could be taken, etc.  If a soldier could be returned to action quickly, he stayed here, if not, he went to a Casualty Collection Station (CCS) for further treatment and preparation for movement further back to a General Hospital, or possibly even a hospital in the United Kingdom.  

Good info in the book THE BRITISH SOLDIER by Jean Bouchery, who has written a Canadian version THE CANADIAN SOLDIER advertised at www.servicepub.com - it is still being translated into English and was supposed to be published last year, now they are saying by the summer or autumn.


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## joe16 (9 Apr 2003)

wow, thanks for the help.. I‘m going to check out those search titles you suggested. Anyone know of a specific site that will be helpfull?

Thanks for the great info Michael Dorosh, were you or are you currently a medic in the canadian armed forces? 

if I cant find enough information I will probably do a comparison of the modern day medics and the medics of world war 2. (this is for a 30 min presentation for school im doing btw, I thought this would be an interesting topic that I‘d like to learn more about.)


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## Michael Dorosh (9 Apr 2003)

Not even close!

Most university libraries have a good selection of regimental and corps histories; the RCAMC history is at the University of Calgary library. Try and get it through interschool loan, perhaps, if there is a University near you, or check the local public library.  Most WW II histories were done in the 1950s and 60s and are long out of print.

Bear in mind most of these histories are pretty dry, written by officers who actually served with the corps or regiment in question, and at a time when their buddies in the unit were still alive.  Hence, a lot of controversial stuff isn‘t mentioned.

There are probably some personal accounts of military doctors out there also, but no titles come to mind.  Go to www.canadiansoldiers.com (my website) and click the forum button.  You might ask some questions there also for WW II related stuff.


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