New Books In Military History

The pages of Battle Surgeons are inscribed with the 371 days of front-line duty worked by medics of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Set within the epic of European airborne missions, Battle Surgeons animates their band—the stalwart surgeons, their happy-go-lucky chaplain, and the youthful dentist—as they navigate World War II. Up the gray peaks of Italy they trod, where Captain Sheehan was shot; and in the marshlands of Anzio, where Captain Sheek withstood the worst malaria could throw; and the Dutch lowlands, where Captain Shapiro crossed broad rivers; and through Belgium’s frozen forests, where Captain Halloran lamented the injury of a friend; through all this and more the doctors were in it, at places whose names echo through history: San Pietro, Anzio, Nijmegen. In the wake of Sicily, the book’s sub-plot opens. Casualties were a struggle to evacuate and clear due to deficiencies in equipment, organization, and training. It ignited a series of reforms within the 82nd Airborne Division which the book