St. Agnes Academy of Legazpi City - Testimonial

Testimonial

On 1 April 1945 at 1100 hours, the Third Portable Surgical Hospital disembarked from the USS LSM 203 onto the beach at Legaspi Port in support of the 158th Regimental Combat Team assaulting the port…

After a brief reconnaissance of the area…it was decided to establish … installations on the grounds of St Agnes' Academy, on the north side of Route #1 about half way between Legaspi Port and Legaspi…By 1530 hours on D-Day or 1 April our hospital was in operation.

We received six patients during the afternoon, all of them medical patients since there were no battle casualties until that night or early the next morning. This was the first time in our combat history that we had an opportunity to make use of a building in setting up our hospital.

The main building of St. Agnes' Academy had been left with only the charred walls standing after the bombing and strafing attack the day before our landing. Three of the nuns had been burned to a crisp and the charred bodies could be seen in the main hall of the building.

However, a two-story residential building of the Academy, just to the west of the main building, was very slightly damaged and could be adapted to our needs. There were two large rooms and a small verandah on the ground floor. We used the verandah as a receiving and shock treatment pavilion, the smaller of the rooms as a surgery and the larger as a ward for the most seriously wounded casualties.

The second story of the building consisted of three rooms, one of which we used as a laboratory. The other two were used to store the civilian possessions, furniture and so forth, which had been scattered throughout the house. The remainder of the hospital was set up in tents on the Academy grounds. Three ward tents for the patients were pitched in front of the ruins of the main building. Three squad tents for the enlisted personnel, one squad tent for supply, a large wall fly for the kitchen and two small wall tents for the officers were pitched to the right of the ward tents, in front of the building that we were using as surgery and ward.''

There were two heavy long wood tables in the house and these served very well as operating tables. The 506th Medical Collecting Company (less detachment) was set up on the Academy grounds adjoining us on the east. As soon as the hospital was established everyone turned to digging a foxhole for use that night. The night proved to be an unpleasant one. Before dark the Japs began shelling the troops in Legaspi, only a few hundred yards from where we were, with artillery, rockets and heavy anti-aircraft guns.

This was our first introduction to Japanese rockets and it was somewhat demoralizing. There is a weird, almost unearthly "whoop" when they are launched, followed by a variable period of silence before the contact explosion which is like the heaviest of artillery.

Most of the men never did get used to the whoop and the suspense of the silence following it ... We remained in this …location from 1 April to 28 April, an unprecedented length of time for us to retain one position in combat…From 1 April to 28 April we operated on one hundred fifteen major battle casualties... On the morning of 28 April we evacuated all remaining patients to the 71st Evacuation Hospital, struck camp and at 1000 hours departed for Camalig, Albay…"''

- Extracts from the report of the Third Portable Surgical Hospital of the United States Army on its activities on 1 April 1945, the day after SAA was bombed.