by Philip R. Devlin (son)

The 189th was officially activated on 26 August 1944 at Camp Barkeley in Abilene, Texas. The unit's point of embarkation was Boston, Massachusetts, and its departure date was September 25, 1944. Their staging area for departure was Camp Miles Standish in Massachusetts. The unit was transported by train to Boston and departed for the North Atlantic on the USS West Point at 0900 hours on October 4, 1944--my brother Bud's 2nd birthday. The ship transported 7,588 passengers to the European Theater of Operations (ETO)! The trip lasted 8 days. (During this trip, Captain Devlin's 2nd child, William, was born on October 10th back in Connecticut.) The ship docked at Liverpool on October 12, 1944. Early in the morning of October 13th, the unit traveled by train to Southampton--a 12 hour trip. Upon arrival there, the unit was brought to a British transport ship called the Cheshire. The Cheshire transported the unit to France, where the ship lay just off of Omaha Beach. Members of the 189th then disembarked onto LCTs and were taken to Omaha Beach late in the day of October 15th. The immediate problem faced by the 189th was constant, heavy rain for several days. Finally, the unit arrived at their first site: Lison, France, on the Cotentin Peninsula. A 1000- bed hospital unit was constructed there--mainly tents pitched on concrete. This hospital was adjacent to the 2nd Hospital unit, which had been situated there for awhile and from whom the personnel of the 189th learned a great deal. During construction, 2 men stepped on a landmine and 1 was seriously injured.In October of 1944, the unit consisted of the following: 41 officers, 1 warrant officer, 82 nurses, 2 physical therapists, 2 dietitians, 5 American Red Cross workers, and 454 enlisted men.

Colonel Walter L. Peterson assumed command of the site on 17 November. At that time 790 patients were already in the hospital. Adverse weather, lack of electrical power, and an inconsistent supply of clean water hampered the unit. A POW enclosure was prepared adjacent to the hospital, and 250 German POWs were detained there. These POWs were used for maintenance of the hospital facility. None escaped, and all behaved well. In a 6-week period from November 17th to December 31st, the following activities at the hospital took place: 612 operations, 494 serological examinations, 749 bacteriological studies, 1,092 urinalysis studies, 130 parasite studies, 240 tissue studies, 709 chemical tests, 2,082 hematological examinations, 8 autopsies, 80 pints of whole blood, 377 million units of penicillin, 2,151 dental exams, 68 fluoroscopic exams, and 3,355 x-rays. The patients consisted of American, Allied, and German POWs. They usually arrived 100 at a time via a hospital train about a mile away and were transported by ambulance to the facility. Between November 17th and December 31st the unit admitted 1,698 American and Allied patients, 947 POWs, and 71 civilians. 675 of these patients had battle injuries. 124 had neuro-psychic issues; 82 had venereal disease, and 138 had respiratory diseases. By January 1, 1945, most of the patients (88%) were German POWs. By 8 January 1945 the 189th was ordered to become a hospital exclusively for German POWs ranging in age from 15-58. On January 10th five terrific explosions were heard during the evening meal and a number of missiles rained down upon the hospital, damaging some tents. Two munition trains had collided about a mile away, touching off the tremendous series of explosions. A train axle landed in the camp! By January 28th, the hospital's bed capacity was increased to 1500.

On March 1st the 189th was ordered to move east to Mourmelon, France, after 103 days in Normandy. The new site was a former French cavalry post about 20 miles south of Reims and about 320 miles east of Lison. After a great deal of reconstruction, a 400-bed hospital opened up on March 22nd. An airport was located nearby where C-47s would transport wounded Americans from Germany back to the hospital. Basically, the 189th at Mourmelon became an evacuation hospital for the Battle of Germany. 100-200 patients a day were received, stabilized, and then sent by rail to other, safer hospitals in western France. The hospital operated in this fashion from March 22nd until about May 1st. V-E Day occurred on May 8th, and the hospital began to treat severely malnourished civilians on a regular basis, the vast majority of whom were patient and extremely grateful for the care received. On May 8th the 189th along with members of the 101st Airborne held a victory parade on V-E Day. By June the 189th had become an orthopedic center. Following V-E Day quite a number of officers received permission to take leave for the Riviera for 7 days plus travel time, including my father. This leave began on June 28th. Following that leave, the 189th was expected to be deployed to the Pacific, but that never happened due to the war ending there in August.

On October 12th, the 189th received orders to depart for Marseilles via railroad for the trip home. The unit boarded the SS Felix M. Grundy--a Liberty ship-- and departed Marseilles on October 31st, returning to the USA on November 16, 1945. Francis W. Devlin had arrived in the European Theater of Operations as a first lieutenant; he left as a captain. Throughout his time in France, his familiarity with the French language was a great asset. He witnessed a lot of suffering and horrible wounds which caused him later to have bad flashbacks and troubling memories of his war experience.

My father had joined the service well before Pearl Harbor in the spring of 1941. He received training in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and at Ft. Lee Virginia; in fact, my parents were married at Fort Lee on September 6, 1941, almost 3 months to the day before Pearl Harbor. One of my father’s best friends in the Army was a man from Providence, Rhode Island named Philip Belanger. I was named after him. My father’s older brother, Jim, served as a sergeant in the Army in the Pacific. He participated in the re-invasion of the Philippine Islands. As his landing craft approached, another landing craft to his right was hit directly by a Japanese artillery shell. A human arm from that boat landed in Uncle Jim’s lap--one of the many horrors of war. My father’s younger brothers, Dave and Warren, also served. Warren was in the Navy and entered late in the war and did not see action. Dave, however, did see action as a Merchant Marine seaman aboard a ship that transported high octane aviation fuel from New York to the 8th Air Force in England. On a percentage basis more Merchant Mariners died in World War II than in any other branch of the service; unquestionably, Dave Devlin was more consistently at risk during the war than his brothers. The picture of the 4 brothers in their service uniforms above was taken at their in home at 31 Grove Windsor Locks, CT.

Note the new photo from 1965, showing Col. Devlin swearing in the son of a man from Newington, CT. That father was John Semeret, Sr., whom my father met at Mourmelon in 1945. Semeret had been a POW and was treated at the 189th hospital after his release. Read the caption below the photo in the Gallery for more details.

Please Note: If you scroll to the top, you will see a tab in the red bar called "Memorials." If you highlight this tab, a drop down box will appear and at the bottom there will be an option called "Your Memorials." You can then choose another memorial to read. Most of those listed knew each other well or were related to each other or came from the same hometown.

If you click on the “Gallery” tab, you have the option of making each photo much bigger by clicking on individual photos and then by clicking “View Full image.” After you do that, the image may be partially obscured at the bottom. Go to the top left of that bottom section and click on the white rectangle to dock that bottom section to the side. This will reveal a much bigger image. Use the back arrow to get out of the Gallery and back to the memorial site.

Captain Francis W. Devlin