D-Day to December 1944: The odyssey of the third auxiliary surgical group in World War II.

As a Major in the US Army Medical Corps, Darrell A. Campbell, MD, led Team 13 of the Third Auxiliary Surgical Group in Europe in World War II. The team began work on June 7, 1944, in a clearing station tent near the beach at Normandy. Subsequently, over the next 7 months, it was assigned to mobile hospitals in 15 different locations in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. Major Campbell kept the log books used to record all of the operations done by his team during this time and brought them home where three were discovered more than 70 years later. These log books contain descriptions of more than 500 consecutive operations done by Team 13. They provide a unique insight into the activities of the surgeons who worked to save lives on the front lines of battle in the European Theater of Operations between June and December 1944 and form the basis for this historical perspective.This is an article on the history of surgery.