The Battle of the Bulge "...was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the second deadliest battle in American history..." (Wikipedia)Healers and Heroes is the riveting day-by-day account of the movements and actions of 22 men from the 26th (Yankee) Division rifle battalion aid station, from its landing on the French coast of Normandy in September 1944, through heavy combat in Lorraine, Eastern France, to its ultimate test in the Battle of the Bulge across the Ardenne during the winter of 1944-1945, followed by the final breakthrough into Germany and the end of World War II in Europe. The main narrator, Lt. Robert Marshall, was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry for his actions on January 9th, 1945 near North Nothum, Luxemburg. Following Marshall's wounding and evacuation, this narrative was completed by SSGT Walter German.

Dr. Logan W. Hovis parachuted onto Corregidor with the 503rd Regimental Combat Team. Dr. Jeremiah Henry Holleman served with the 89th Division all the way into Germany, liberating a concentration camp. Nurse Mary A. Breeding, five feet tall, 100 pounds, served with the 174th General Hospital in France. Dr. Vincent Stephen Conti was awarded a Bronze Star for fighting typhus in Naples, Italy. These accounts and 31 others covering the heroics of 44 individuals working in the Medical Corps are gathered here by editor Patricia W. Sewell. Firsthand accounts are given by doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, front-line medics, Navy corpsmen, medical personnel who served on air evacuation teams and hospital ships, and others who functioned in many different capacities. Autobiographies, interviews, letters and cassette tapes helped compose most of these narratives.

The author describes her family's efforts to help their friends and others who were left homeless and hungry in the aftermath of World War II.

Ken Adams, as a trained medic, was sent out to the Far East and immediately saw action on the Malay Peninsula. Captured at Singapore he initially worked at Changi Hospital. Many moves and much worse capos in Thailand were to follow. He describes his life, work and the terrible conditions endured at the hands of the Japanese and Korea guards and worst of all, the Kempetai secret police.Illnesses such as dysentery, malaria, avitominosis, cholera and smallpox had to be treated with minimal or no medicines. Starvation was a fact of life.The author was frequently moved around and in 1945 took part in a march of many hundreds of miles which inevitably proved fatal to many of his fellow POWs.Liberation and repatriation are movingly described as, most significantly, is the whole process of settling back into normal life after so long in captivity of the worst kind.Healing in Hell is an exceptional account that demands reading.

Lt. Gen. George S. Patton remarked that the “45th Infantry Division is one of the best, if not the best division that the American army has ever produced.” Such praise came at a steep price, for the 45th saw some of the fiercest fighting in the European campaign—from Sicily to Anzio and from southern France into Germany—and racked up one of the highest casualty rates. Through it all, medic Robert “Doc Joe” Franklin—drafted in 1942 and thrust into combat with no specific training or knowledge for treating war wounds—soldiered on, fighting as hard to keep his men alive as the enemy fought to kill them. His medical story, one of the first of World War II, is told here with simplicity, unflinching honesty, and grit. Studded with memorable vignettes—of a friend who “smells” the Germans long before they appear, the dog that acts as an artillery spotter, the lieutenant who can’t see beyond a few hundred feet—Franklin’s memoir documents the almost unbearable drama of ground gained and lives lost as well as the terrible human toll of battle on himself, his comrades, and civilians quite literally caught in the crossfire. A rare look at the fight for lives laid on the line, Medic! brings to life as never before the reality of war.