COBI US Field Hospital Limited Edition Set 2268

COBI's US Field Hospital Limited Edition is a 1:35 set built from 402 blocks: a WC-54 ambulance 16 cm long, plus a military medical tent with equipment. Multi-part wings, a brick radiator and a windscreen with printed wipers are included. Two figures come with the set — a medic with a stethoscope and a four-sided printed helmet, and a figure exclusive to this edition: a military surgeon in a mask and a stained apron. A new stretcher, a numbered laser-engraved plate and a certificate signed by hand by COBI's president complete it.

The chain, not the hospital

A wounded American soldier in 1944 did not go to a hospital. He went through a sequence, and the sequence is why he survived.

A company aid man gave first aid where he fell. Litter bearers carried him to a battalion aid station — a tent or a cellar, minutes away — where bleeding was controlled and plasma given. From there an ambulance like this one took him to a collecting and clearing station, and then to a field hospital where surgery was possible. Each stage was closer than the last had been in any previous war.

The numbers that came out of it are remarkable. Of American wounded who reached a medical installation alive, roughly 96 per cent survived. In the First World War the equivalent figure was around 92 per cent, and the difference represents tens of thousands of men.

Three things did it: blood plasma, which could be carried forward and given by anyone trained; sulfa drugs and then penicillin; and the speed of the chain itself. The surgeon in this box is at the end of it. The ambulance is what got people there.

The WC-54

Built from 1942 to 1945 as the standard US Army ambulance, and still in service through Korea despite a successor existing. Some were still running in European countries in the 1960s.

In the COBI range

Set 3111 is the Dodge WC-56 command car on the same chassis, and 2295 the medical Willys MB with a stretcher — the first stage of the same chain.

Specifications

Pieces: 402 · Figures: 2, one exclusive to this edition · Scale: 1:35 · Medical tent, stretcher, numbered plate, signed certificate
Model dimensions: 16 × 7 cm (6.3 × 2.8 in)