A homage to the courage and determination of the men and women who cared for -- and saved the lives of -- the hundreds of thousands of British soldiers who were wounded at the Western Front.      Wounded is the story of a journey: from injury on the battlefield to recovery in Britain. It is the story of the soldiers themselves, from the aid post in the trenches to the casualty clearing station in the rear, from the base hospital to the ambulance train returning them to Blighty. But it is also the story of those who cared for them -- stretcher bearers and medical officers, surgeons and chaplains, nurses and ambulance drivers. People on the verge of collapse, overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of casualties and terrible injuries who, with determination and improvisation, saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Wounded is the story of the men and women who made it possible.

Wounded: The Long Journey Home From the Great War

Biographies & Memoirs

Mayhew, Emily

Leaders & Notable People

Vintage Books

The number of soldiers wounded in World War I is, in itself, devastating: over 21 million military wounded, and nearly 10 million killed. On the battlefield, the injuries were shocking, unlike anything those in the medical field had ever witnessed. The bullets hit fast and hard, went deep and took bits of dirty uniform and airborne soil particles in with them. Soldier after soldier came in with the most dreaded kinds of casualty: awful, deep, ragged wounds to their heads, faces and abdomens. And yet the medical personnel faced with these unimaginable injuries adapted with amazing aptitude, thinking and reacting on their feet to save millions of lives. In Wounded, Emily Mayhew tells the history of the Western Front from a new perspective: the medical network that arose seemingly overnight to help sick and injured soldiers. These men and women pulled injured troops from the hellscape of trench, shell crater, and no man's land, transported them to the rear, and treated them for everything from foot rot to poison gas, venereal disease to traumatic amputation from exploding shells. Drawing on hundreds of letters and diary entries, Mayhew allows readers to peer over the shoulder of the stretcher bearer who jumped into a trench and tried unsuccessfully to get a tightly packed line of soldiers out of the way, only to find that they were all dead. She takes us into dugouts where rescue teams awoke to dirt thrown on their faces by scores of terrified moles, digging frantically to escape the earth-shaking shellfire. Mayhew moves her account along the route followed by wounded men, from stretcher to aid station, from jolting ambulance to crowded operating tent, from railway station to the ship home, exploring actual cases of casualties who recorded their experiences. Both comprehensive and intimate, this groundbreaking book captures an often neglected aspect of the soldier's world and a transformative moment in military and medical history.

Wounded: A New History of the Western Front in World War I

History

Europe

Oxford University Press

Wounded

Charnwood

A truly inspiring tale about the history of the Guinea Pig Club. Plastic surgery was in its infancy before the Second World War ― the most rudimentary techniques were known only to a few surgeons worldwide. The Allies were tremendously fortunate in having the maverick surgeon Archibald McIndoe operating at a small hospital in East Grinstead in the south of England. After arguing with his superiors, McIndoe set up a revolutionary new treatment regime and rightly secured his group of patients, dubbed the Guinea Pig Club, and honoured place in society. Based on extensive research into official records and moving first-person recollections, this extraordinary book brings home the heroism and triumphs of this courageous band of men and contains updated material on how their example is inspiring today’s wounded veterans.

The Guinea Pig Club: Archibald McIndoe and the RAF in World War II

Americas

Dundurn Press

The Four Horsemen - War, Pestilence, Famine and Death - first appeared in the Book of Revelations a thousand years ago, but they continue to track us in our own time. This original and inspiring study by 
celebrated historian Emily Mayhew traces the advances in science, technology and humanitarianism that are enabling us to take them on, one by one.\n'The beauty of The Four Horsemen is how she takes her quaking readers to the edge of the abyss . . . I was left moved and uplifted . . . [A] first-class example of popular science' The Times 
'[A] thoughtful and ultimately uplifting analysis of the unsung heroes of our age' Independent\nIt begins in Mosul, our oldest surviving city, and the extraordinary coalition created in a matter of days to save its people from the worst horrors of the liberation battle against ISIS. As the city and the humanitarian operation that helped it to survive are restructured for a new age, Mayhew shows other people whose work gives us hope for the future, from the search to find new ways to discover and use antimicrobial medicines and the innovations in preventing the spread of deadly viruses; the laboratory work being taken to protect crops from disease and reduce famine, and why the potato, not the banana is the future; to the unique courage and resolution of those dedicated to securing the rights of the dead and their families.\nStanding in the way of the Horsemen is what Emily Mayhew calls, 'the most extraordinary alliance ever to come together in defence of our humanity.' These are the doctors, scientists, statisticians, engineers, peace negotiators, pharmacists, historians, forensic scientists, vaccinators and volunteers who are creating solutions to life and death problems which threaten us all. They are the new heroes of our age and this book is about them.

The Four Horsemen

Science & Math

riverrun

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Quercus Publishing

A Heavy Reckoning: War, Medicine and Survival in Afghanistan and Beyond (Wellcome)

Medical Books

Wellcome Collection

Wounded: From Battlefield to Blighty, 1914-1918

Military

Bodley Head

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