Keeping a Secret
In August, newspapers reported that the American Red Cross would soon dispatch a large ship filled with grain, medical staff, and supplies to France (much of which was already occupied by German troops). Another vessel was to sail to Greece and Serbia. For reasons of security, the details of where and when that ship would reach Serbia, and the main purpose of the expedition -- setting up an emergency hospital -- were not divulged.
The team for Serbia was directed by two experienced Red Cross project leaders – one a young doctor, the other a mature nurse – each of whom had previously created war-zone hospitals in far-flung locales. But the Belgrade mission was going to be a unique challenge: to put together and run a hospital that housed thousands of patients, all the while under repeated barrages of shells that landed randomly on centuries-old plazas and stone buildings.
In anticipation of dealing primarily with battle casualties, the doctors on the team were surgeons. The nurses had signed on for six-month stints. Spoiler Alert: Not all of these volunteers would live to return home.
