Stretcher Bearer Protocol - Is it Charles Dodd in the Newsreel? (1 Viewer)

[Peter Reuss]

The other day I received a WONDERFUL suprise from my cousin! When my grandma passed away, my cousin received information about my grandfather, 2 Lt. Charles Dodd, KIA in Fraince, Oct. 31, 1944.

One of the goodies (I'll be posting more later) was this article:

If it's hard to read...basically my grandpa's mother recognized him as a man on a stretcher at about the 2:34 mark in this newsreel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWxfeQrnzlk

Now, I know from other sources that he was killed instantly by a mortar. His legs and midsection took the brunt of it and his face was not damaged.

This clip was probably one of the reasons that my grandma, to her dying day, doubted the report of his death. Others in the family assume that the man in the newsreel could never have been Charles, since Charles was never injured (he'd only been in line for a couple days before his death).

My question...is it possible that the man in the newsreel is not wounded but deceased? Would a stretcher bearer automatically cover the entire body of someone KIA...or is it possible that his face could have been showing (and the filmmaker assumed he was injured and not dead)?

Until I received this box I had never heard about any of this. It would be amazing to think that my grandfather could be included in a newsreel like this!

I know it was a Battle of the Bulge newsreel, but I assume that the Signal Service used whatever film they had available. He was in France...and died only a few months before the Bulge began.

 

[Denver]

Peter
Since your Grandma believes he is her Husband then He is.

 

[Martin Tabony]

I would have thought it perfectly possible that a stretcher bearer would be carrying a man with his face uncovered. It would be a doctor or at least a medic that would decide whether a soldier was deceased or not and surely the streatcher bearer would only by carrying someone he thought had a chance or he would move on to another casualty.
Although I do have a bunch of photos that my mother took of me during the Queen's Birthday Parade, only problem is that they aren't me!
Martin.

 

[trooper]

Stretcher bearers would only concern themselves with the living, the dead would be left until the action was concluded. there would be no point in moving bodies while there were injured needing attention. The man on the stretcher would at least have shown signs of life for the bearers to have moved him. Trooper

 

[Peter Reuss]

From the reports, my grandfather would have been dead for about 5 hours before being moved (the area was under mortar fire).

Wouldn't they have moved his body via stretcher? Was there another way that the dead were moved?

 

[Denver]

The wounded are evacuated first.
The dead would not be removed until the area was safe.
A stretcher would be used to carry the body to the truck.
Somebody in Graves Registration can provide more specific details.