With Them Through Hell: New Zealand medical services in the First Word War(With Them Through Hell: New Zealand medical services in the First Word War)

For New Zealanders, the First World War was not just a grueling conflict but also the nation's biggest health challenge. Military personnel had to deal with horrific injuries caused by high velocity bullets, artillery fire and chemical weapons. Infectious diseases were a constant and grave threat. Health professionals prepared and supported the 100,000 New Zealand servicemen and servicewomen who served overseas, while those who stayed at home had to fill the gaps left by absent colleagues. In the midst of this, the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic hit both troops overseas and New Zealanders at home. For the first time, this book tells the collective story of how our troops were supported and cared for by dedicated teams of doctors, nurses, dentists, ambulance officers, orderlies and sanitation and hygiene workers, and the important role of veterinarians in caring for horses. It explores the coming of age of New Zealand health services and details such significant figures as Henry Pickerill and Harold Gillies, who rebuilt shattered faces and treated burn victims - in doing becoming the fathers of plastic surgery. Battlefield Medicine celebrates the way New Zealanders delivered the best of healthcare under the most difficult circumstances.

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Feeling the Heat CHAPTER 1 CROSSING THE SEA 30 CHAPTER 2 GETTING IT WRONG 52 CHAPTER 3 SICK AND TIRED 78 CHAPTER 4 FROM DESERT TO DISASTER 100 CHAPTER 5 SURVIVING IN THE SAND 126 Part 2: From Chaos to Care CHAPTER 6 MEDICS IN THE MUD 146 CHAPTER 7 NOT FAR FROM THE FIGHTING 174 CHAPTER 8 A GOOD HOME 192 CHAPTER 9 SAFE AT SEA 218 Part 3: Unexpected and Unsung CHAPTER 10 TEETH TROUBLE 244 CHAPTER 11 CARING FOR THE ANIMALS 264 CHAPTER 12 HOLY MEN AND HEALING HANDS 290 CHAPTER 13 WOMEN AT WAR 314 Part 4: Maimed and Mended CHAPTER 14 VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 336 CHAPTER 15 MAKING IT BETTER? 358 CHAPTER 16 BROKEN SURVIVORS 386 MAPS 409 ABBREVIATIONS, NOTES, BIBLIOGRAPHY, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, ABOUT THE AUTHOR, INDEX 412

About the Author :
Anna Rogers has an MA in English from Canterbury University and has spent most of her working life as a freelance fiction and non-fiction book editor. She has also been a bookseller and a sub-editor for the Listener. Her eight books of non-fiction include While You’re Away: New Zealand Nurses at War 1899–1948 and illustrated histories of the West Coast and Canterbury. Anna co-edited Annie’s War: A New Zealand Woman and Her Family in England 1916–19 (2014) and contributed an essay to How We Remember: New Zealanders and the First World War (2014). She has also edited an anthology of writing about Christchurch and adapted books for radio, and she is a regular book reviewer.

Review :
‘This is a book that will grace any bookshelf or coffee table but don’t expect anyone who casually picks it up to merely flick through and then put it down. This book draws you in and doesn’t let you leave unchanged. . . . With Them Through Hell is a gripping, well-researched and fluidly written history. It’s a milestone volume.’ — Sue Wootton, Corpus ‘The author skillfully escorts general readers on an unforgettable journey, through well-worked territory, casting new light on the everyday work of the medical services in wartime.’ — Barbara Brookes, New Zealand Journal of History