American casualties on stretchers are being brought in from the battlefield and left on stretchers at a collection point. Eventually they will be loaded on trucks for evacuation to the rear, and eventually to a field hospital.
Medical care on the battlefield was rudimentary and evacuation was extremely slow. One can’t tell the severity of their wounds from the photo, but they must have been severe enough that they could not walk on their own. Despite blood loss, shock and the risk of infection, the men are being left essentially unattended on the ground amid the debris of war, waiting their turn to be sent to the rear, away from the front lines.
If they survived, many of these men would suffer life long disabilities.