| Original caption: “French soldiers stand guard at the entrance to the hospital for German wounded.” French soldiers guard the German Hospital set up in College Techniqué Emile Loubet, founded in 1898 and named for the 45th Prime Minister of France, Émile F. Loubet (December 30, 1838 – December 20, 1929). On May 7, 1943, the United Kingdom Royal Army 7th Armored Division captured Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, and the United States Army II Corps captured Bizerte, the last remaining port in Axis hands. 6 days later, on May 13, 1943, the Axis forces in North Africa, having sustained 40,000 casualties in Tunisia alone, surrendered. The 267,000 Prisoners of War (POWs) taken at the close of the Tunisia Campaign exceeded all expectations and created a problem with which the Allied authorities were inadequately prepared to manage. By agreement between General Ernest M. Cowell (February 24, 1886 – February 26, 1971) and Brigadier General Frederick A. Blesse (November 22, 1888 – June 4, 1954) and the Provost Marshal General Joseph V. Dillon (January 4, 1899 – August 1, 1971), captured medical and sanitary personnel were divided between the United States, French and British medical organizations according to need, but in the confusion of mass transfers to less congested areas, it was not at once possible to make use of those men to any great extent in caring for their own sick and wounded. Initially, Tunisian POWs were given medical care in regular United States Army hospitals, normal staffs being supplemented as extensively as possible by POW personnel. Where fixed hospitals were not available, dispensary service was given by protected POW personnel under supervision of the medical sections of the administrative companies operating the POW camps. The largest single cause for hospitalization of prisoners in the summer and early fall of 1943 was malaria, with dysentery also high on the list. Many of those taken in the Tunisia Campaign were suffering from malnutrition, which undoubtedly increased the disease rate, as also did unsanitary conditions in the hastily improvised prison camps and along the crowded transportation routes to the rear. Battle wounds were a significant factor only in May. Although 3,066 sick and wounded prisoners of war were evacuated to the zone of interior (the United States) during 1943, 1,982 remained hospitalized across North Africa at the end of the year. Today this building is named Lycée 9 Avril 1938, for the nationalist demonstrations on April 9, 1938, that demanded a Tunisian Parliament from the French Colonial Government. It is a high school. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0840.jpg |
| Image Size | 17.55 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 12012 x 9318 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | June 1, 1943 |
| Location | |
| City | Tunis |
| State or Province | Tunis |
| Country | Tunisia |
| Archive | Library of Congress |
| Record Number | LC-USW3-036463-C |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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