History of Hospital Train No.52 and Its Personnel: American Expeditionary Forces, France, 1917-1919 is the first title to be digitized in the State Library's World War I digital repository collection. The text is the personal narrative of James Lloyd Knipe who volunteered his service at the U.S. Army recruiting station in York, Pennsylvania and was assigned to the Medical Corps. The narrative, written from his home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1943, describes his unit's Atlantic Ocean crossing in 1917. The major function of his service on the hospital train was the transportation of the sick and wounded from field and evacuation hospitals to base hospitals.
The wounded were frequently transported to destinations in Bordeaux in southwestern France. With the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918, Hospital Train No.52 made several trips to the U.S. occupied zone in Germany. Another trip was made to Geneva, Switzerland to help repatriate American prisoners of war held at Restatt, Germany. The illustrated text includes biographical sketches of the commissioned and non-commissioned officers, nurses, cooks, train mechanics, and privates on pages 179-254.
Although World War I lasted from 1914 to 1918, the duration of the United States participation was April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918. The total of 4,734,991 U.S. troops served; 46% of this number served overseas.
History of Hospital Train No. 52 and Its Personnel: American Expeditionary Forces, France, 1917-1919 can be viewed at: http://accesspadr.org/u?/sstlp-wwi,0
