12th General Hospital Collection

US Army Base Hospital No. 12 was organized in October 1916 to assist the Allied war effort in Europe during World War I. It was reactivated in February 1942 for service in World War II and renamed the 12th General Hospital. The unit deployed to North Africa in December 1942 and was stationed in Ain-el-Turck, a resort town outside of Oran, Algeria. Unit personnel worked for weeks to turn this collection of 90 villas and cottages into a functioning 1000-bed hospital. In December 1943, the unit sailed to Naples, but personnel spent the next 6 months on detached service—working for various hospitals and commissions in the area—because a suitable hospital facility could not be found for 12th General. From June to November 1944 the Hospital was stationed in an Italian barracks building in Rome and was upgraded to a 2000-bed capacity. At its peak, the hospital housed 3011 patients there. The unit spent November 1944 through September 1945—its final months of active service—in Leghorn (Livorno), Italy. The hospital was set up in school buildings along the coast and was upgraded to a 2400-bed capacity. The 12th General Hospital discharged its last patient on June 29, 1945. The unit remained in Leghorn, however, to serve as a staging area for deployment to the Pacific Theatre or the United States. The unit was officially deactivated on September 15, 1945. During its World War II service, the 12th General Hospital treated nearly 30,000 patients at its quarters in Ain-el-Turck, Rome, and Leghorn. Just over half of these cases required surgery, in which the unit excelled, only losing 53 men on the table. In addition to its hospital cases, 12th General Hospital physicians were instrumental in running the Typhus Commission in Naples, the Venereal Disease Center in Naples, and the Malaria Control Unit.