Some More on the Attack on Base Hospital No. 5 in WW I

Continued from September 28, 2017.

Also killed in the attack, besides Lt. Fitzsimons:

Leslie G. Woods, Streator, Illinois

Rudolph Rubino, New York City

Oscar Tugo, Boston

Army Hospital #21 in Aurora, Colorado was renamed Fitzsimons Army Hospital in 1920

There is a Fitzsimons Fountain in Kansas City at the corner of 12th and Paseo del Mayo dedicated May 30, 1922.

In 1947, the American Legion Post No. 8 became the Fitzsimons-Battenfield Post.

--Cooter

Attack on Base Hospital No. 5 in WW I That Resulted in 1st American Deaths in France-- Part 3

Lt. William T. Fitzsimons heard the explosions and summoned Private Hiram Brower to find out what was going on.  The private told him and then went on about his patrol.  Scarcely a minute had passed when there was another explosion.  An aerial torpedo had been dropped at General Hospital No. 18, but it landed in an athletic field and did no damage other than making a deep hole several yards wide.

The plane then went into a semicircular course and a similar bomb was dropped into the reception tent of General Hospital No. 4, followed almost immediately by two bombs dropped within about eighteen inches of each other in from of Lt. Fitzsimons' tent.

He was killed instantly by the first two bombs and then three others were dropped.

I have been unable to find out how these bombs were dropped.  I would say definitely not from bomb bays like in World War II.  I believe most likely by the pilot or another crew member if they had others, dropping them over the side of the plane.

The Attack on Base Hospital No. 5 in WW I-- Part 2

On the night of September 3, 1917 there was an air raid attempt on the coast of England which was turned back by coastal guns.  The next day, a German scouting plane came over Base Hospital No. 5 and it is believed that it might have taken a photograph of the huge U.S. flag by the headquarters and the Germans then decided to make an example of it, even though they knew it was a hospital.

And, this hospital was caring for 2,000 sick and wounded, when the attack came.

Another German raid on England on September 4.  was turned back.At 10:30 the hospital received warning about possible enemy planes.  Anti-aircraft guns at two places in the distance opened fire for a few minutes before the all-clear was sounded.

At 10:55 p.m., without any warning whatever and while all the hospital's lights were on at the 12,000 bed facility, an enemy aeroplane swooped down and started dropping bombs.

--Cooter

Concerning the Attack on Base Hospital No. 5-- Part 1

There is a book published on Base Hospital No. 5 in France during World War I.  It is titles "Concerning Base Hospital No. 5."

It is dedicated to members who made the supreme sacrifice:

Captain Charles R. Rund, Capt. Harry A. Bullock, Lt. William Fitzsimons, Lt. Rae Whidden, Sgt, Walter Sullivan, Pvt. Oscar C. Tugo, Pvt. Rudolph Rubino, Pvt. Colin Powell, bugler, Pvt. Leslie G. Woods and Private John Lydon.

Lt. Fitzsimons, and Privates Tugo, Rubino and Woods were killed in the September 4, 1917, bombing attack.

--DaCoot

Oscar C. Tugo, One of First Americans Killed in France in WW I

From the Harvard Collection, Harvard University.

OSCAR C. TUGO CIRCLE

Photo October 18, 1921.

Private Tugo (1893-1917) enlisted in the Army on May 7, 1917, and was killed as a night orderly during the September 4, 1917 attack on Base Hospital No. 5 which also resulted in the death of Lt. William Fitzsimons.  This hospital was under the auspices of Harvard University.

In October 1921, the public space adjoining the Harvard Medical School quadrangle was named in his honor.  He was one of the first enlisted men killed in France.

--Cooter

First Americans Killed Overseas in World War I-- Part 7: Ex- President Theordore Roosevelt's Response to the Attack

Lt. Fitzsimons was not the only American soldier to lose his life that night.

Privates Oscar Tugo, Private Rudolph Rubino and Private Leslie Woods were also killed in the raid.

There is no doubt that the raid was deliberate.  The German fliers even dropped German coins to show the Americans who had bombed them.

On a page one editorial in the Kansas City Star on September 17, 1917, former President Theodore Roosevelt blasted Germany for Fitzsimons' death saying that they had demonstrated "calculated brutality" and "carried on a systematic campaign of murder against hospitals and hospital ships."

After the war, the U.S. government had a program to enable parents and family to visit the graves of their family overseas.  On July 5, 1930, Lt. Fitzsimons' mother, Catherine Fitzsimons, visited his grave at the Somme American Cemetery and Memorial in Picardie, France.

--Cooter

Death of Lt. William T. Fitzsimons-- Part 6: "Before the Lifeless Remains of Lt. Fitzsimons, I Stood Dazed"

The lieutenant had a calling card on him  reading "Dr. W. T. Fitzsimons, United States Army."  It was ripped by shrapnel from the bomb which is now on display at the memory Hall at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City.

Nurse Louise McCloskey described the aftermath of Fitzsimon's death:  "Words are futile to describe that night, the dead, dying, wounded lying on the floor.  With only a flickering candlelight, someone whispered, 'Lt. Fitzsimons has been killed.'  In the daylight before my misty eyes, coffins were lying side by side holding lifeless bodies of soldiers killed that night.  Before the lifeless remains of Lt. Fitzsimons, I stood dazed."

National World--DaCoot

Death of Lt. William T. Fitzsimons-- Part 5: Should Not Have Been a Target

William Fitzsimons was the hospital base adjutant and second in overall command. as well as commander of the headquarters company and inline for promotion to captain at the time of his death.

The hospital should not have been a German target that night.  Its lights were on, and they knew it was a hospital.

At 10:30 p.m., September 4, 1917, the hospital received warning that German planes were approaching along the coast.  At 10:50, Fitzsimons was in his tent and heard bomb explosions.  he came out and called to the sentry, Hiram Brower to ask if all was alright.  Brower started to answer when a second explosion occurred.  This one killed Fitzsimons instantly.

--Cooter

--

Death of Lt. William T. Fitzsimons-- Part 4: Valuable Target

Fitzsimons returned to Kansas City from Europe on March 27, 1917, and joined the Army Medical Corps and was commissioned a lieutenant.  On April 27, 1917, he entered active duty.

Because of the German Navy's unrestricted warfare against merchant ships, it took three weeks for his ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, reaching Liverpool on August 13, 1917.  Two weeks later, he was at Base Hospital No. 5 at Dennes-Camiers, south of Calais, France.

This was a 12,000 bed facility, but unfortunately it was located close to a munitions storage area and a cement factory, both targets of enemy bombers.

Colonel Robert Patterson, commander of the U.S. hospital, insisted that a large American flag be flown from a very tall flagpole to assert American presence to the Germans.

Quite the Ripe Target for a German Ariel Attack.  --Cooter

Death of Lt. William T. Fitzsimons-- Part 3: Served in Europe Before U.S. Entry Into the War

Historian James Heiman has written a book "Voices in Bronze and Stone: Kansas City's World War I Monuments and Memorials."  he has a whole chapter on Lt. Fitzsimons.

He was born April 18, 1889 in Burlington, Iowa, the oldest of six children.  Fitzsimons attended St. Mary's College in St. Mary's and then in 1908, transferred to the University of Kansas' School of Medicine, receiving his BA in 1910 and two years later his medical degree.

After a year of internship at St. Mary's Hospital, he spent 14 months studying surgery in New York City.

While still a civilian, he went to England as a Red Cross volunteer, arriving September 13, 1914, just a few weeks after the war started.  From there he went to Belgium to treat wounded civilians and soldiers, returning to the United States on December 10, 1915.

--DaCoot

Death of Lt. William T. Fitzsimons in the Hospital Attack-- Part 2: First American Officer Killed in World War I

I did some more research on yesterday's post.

From the September 3, 2017, Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal "100 years later:  First officer killed in WW I was a doctor in Kansas" by Steve Fry.

Lt. William T. Fitzsimons was a northeastern Kansas surgeon in the U.S. Army, who was killed just three weeks after he arrived in France in 1917.

On September 4, 1917 a German aircraft made a late-night raid over the massive military hospital he was assigned to.

He had stepped to the door of his tent when a bomb landed within a dew feet of him and blew up, killing him instantly.  He was 28 at the time and became the first U.S. officer killed in the war.

--Cooter

World War I Chronology, Sept. 1917-- Part 1: First Americans Killed

SEPTEMBER 4

First American killed in France

Germans bomb American  hospital units at Dannes Carriers.  Four were killed and wounding nine Doughboys.

One of the men was the first American officer killed in the conflict, Lt. William Fitzsimons of Kansas.  Also killed were Privates Oscar C. Tugo, Rudolph Rubino and Leslie G, Woods.

--Cooter