Aeromedical Evacuation from Normandy Published June 5, 2014 By Judith Taylor Senior Historian, Air Force Medical Service WASHINGTON -- This article is the first in two-part series that looks at the experiences of aeromedical evacuation from Normandy in the words of the flight nurses and medics who flew the missions 70 years ago. On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces began the largest seaborne invasion in history when some 160,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers landed on the beaches at Normandy, France and began pushing inland. By the end of June, an estimated 715,000 men had joined them in an effort to defeat Germany and the Axis powers. Casualty rates were high on D-Day, 12,000 in the first day alone; almost 4,500 of those were killed in action - leaving thousands of wounded to be evacuated from the area, many by the newly trained members of Medical Air Evacuation Squadrons. Although official aeromedical evacuations began on D+5, Evelyn Andersen Taylor of the 310 MAES remembered the wounded she and her unit evacuated on D+4. These soldiers had only received first aid and were still wearing their combat fatigues. Official aerovac began when 2d Lt. Grace E. Dunham , chief nurse of the 806th MAES, flew into Normandy in a C-47 that was still painted with invasion stripes. Upon landing, she jumped from the airplane wearing her oversized flight suit, provided care to the wounded, and flew with them to England. Mable Strube Lada, flight nurse with the 813 MAES, remembered her first glimpse of Normandy 18 days after the invasion. "My first trip as a flight nurse was D+18. Wearing gas mask, helmet and carrying a canteen full of water, we flew into the beautiful sunrise over the English Channel. Sitting on bombs and barrels of gasoline, we landed at Omaha Beach, France on a bull-dozed air strip. When the dust settled and the C-47's door opened, there were hundreds of white crosses. There lay broken dreams: sweethearts, husbands, fathers, sons. Young men all with aspirations and plans for the future gone." By the end of the month, flight nurses and flight medics had helped evacuate about 7,500 patients from France to England. By the end of August 1944 the 31st Air Transport Group and its associated MAES had evacuated over 20,000 patients from the Normandy area. USAF. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez) Photo Details / Download Hi-Res USAF. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez)