Courage

Courage. Striking Fortress Europe. Unable to develop forces strong enough to assault Hitler's "Fortress Europe” before the summer of 1944, the Allies attacked Sicily and Italy from North Africa in 1943 and struck at Germany through strategic bombing. Beginning in the fall of 1942, US B-17s and B-24s flew daylight raids against German military and industrial targets while the British bombed at night. On a given day in December 1944, the Eighth Air Force sent 726 fighters to escort 1400 heavy bombers, dropping 3,500 tons of bombs. Often casualties were heavy. During the war in Europe and the Mediterranean, the Army's Strategic and Tactical Air Forces losses were 42,000 killed and missing, 14,000 wounded, and over 33,000 who became prisoners of war. Almost 600,000 German civilians died during the air raids. Britain, which had been attacked throughout the war by Nazi bombers and rockets, lost over 60,000 civilians., In late 1943, American and British forces seized Sicily and invaded Italy. The 300th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, comprised mostly of Vanderbilt University medical personnel, was part of the Allied force. Staffed by 200 Vanderbilt doctors, nurses, and members of the Red Cross, the 300th cared for 3,000 patients per month during offensives at Anzio, Monte Cassino, and Rome. At home, Thayer Army Hospital in Nashville and Kennedy Army Hospital in Memphis treated wounded veterans. , When General Dwight Eisenhower was appointed to command all Allied forces in Europe, Nashville native Lieutenant General Frank Andrews succeeded him as commander of US forces. Two months later in May 1943, he was killed in the crash of a B-24 in Iceland. Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., is named in his honor.