In our context a litter is a collapsible stretcher meant to carry wounded, sick, or other physically incapacitated people from one place to another by means of two to four carriers, know as “bearers”.
There were several different models of litter in use by the United States during WWII. The one photographed above is an original war time 9936600 Litter, Straight, Wood, M-1943. A model that frequently pops up in original photographs and newsreel footage.
According to TO&E 7-11 (Feb. 26, 1944), U.S. Army Infantry Regiment Medical Detachment Litter Bearers were designated as Medical Aid Men, MOS 657.
These men were members of their Battalion Section’s dedicated Litter Squad, a group that relied on teamwork. Each 136 man Infantry Regiment Medical Detachment contained 36 dedicated Litter Bearers, 12 to each Battalion Section Litter Squad.
This differentiated them from Company Aid Men, aka Combat Medics, who were designated as Surgical Technicians, MOS 861. Unlike the Litter Squad, members of the Battalion Section’s Company Aid Squad mostly worked independently from one another within the rifle companies they were assigned to.
Like Company Aid Men, and almost all other U.S. Army Medical Personnel in Europe during World War II, Litter Bearers were completely unarmed.
Walking and running while carrying an injured or dying person is an exhausting job. Humans are heavy.
Moving into the combat zone, often after hostilities had ceased or moved on to another location, litter bearers first had to search the ground for people who had been treated, tagged, and left behind by Company Aid Men for evacuation. Usually working in teams of four, the litter bearer’s primary goal was the immediate evacuation of infantrymen from the battlefield to their respective Battalion Aid Station (B.A.S.), an installation set up as close to the frontlines as possible, ideally 300-800 yards away (according to the WW2 U.S. Medical Research Centre). Vehicles allotted to the Medical Detachment were utilized to assist in litter carries whenever possible but they were not always available and carries were often done on foot back and forth from the B.A.S.
Composition of the Infantry Regiment Medical Detachment
126 enlisted men & 10 officers (per the Feb. 26, 1944 TO&E)
This chart shows Company Aid Squads, Litter Bearer Squads, & Battalion Aid Station Squads with the 2nd Battalion Section as an example.
In actuality each of these squads existed in all three of the individual Battalion Sections.
War Department Field Manual
Supply And Evacuation The Infantry Regiment; Service Company And Medical Detachment
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Unit impression: We are portraying the 2nd Battalion Section of the 276th Infantry Regiment Medical Detachment, 70th Infantry Division, United States Army during the Battle of Forbach, France (February 18 - March 2, 1945)