'Performing miracles': the importance of Royal Naval Medical Officers in operations 'Overlord' and 'Neptune' during World War II.

摘要

The D-Day landings of World War II on 6 June 1944 involving the landing of over 156,000 troops along the French coast marked the start of both Operation 'Overlord', the Allied invasior of north-west Europe, and Operation 'Neptune', the assault phase of the campaign.(1) Confronted by German forces holding defensive positions, it was inevitable that there would be a large number of casualties and therefore a need for medical services, supplied primarily by the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and the Royal Naval Medical Service, to provide both emergency and on-going treatment of the many wounded. Much has been written about the Army's medical role in World War II including 'Medicine and Victory'(2) by M. Harrison, but the majority of work regarding Royal Naval medicine focuses on World War I, such as the books 'The War on the Hospital Ships 1914-1918'(3) by Stephen McGreal and 'Hospital Ships and Ambulance Trains'(4) by J.H. Plumridge. For information about the Royal Navy in the Second World War, the work of J.L.S. Coulter is the only detailed account of the topic and therefore is the most authoritative.