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First Army Arrangements

A visit by the Consultant Surgeon 2 NZEF to First Army enabled the techniques of its surgeons to be compared with those of Eighth Army. The routine work in First Army was based largely on information that had been received from Eighth Army. There was, however, less appreciation of the value of whole blood transfusions, a service which had been developed ideally in Eighth Army. The usual procedure adopted was that of giving plasma, on the basis that volume alone of the blood stream was of importance, whereas Eighth Army experience had proved the life-saving value of whole blood. The medical chain in First Army was shorter, patients being operated on in CCSs sometimes only three or four hours after wounding and general hospitals being only about 35 miles behind the CCSs on a good road. (The rapidity of Eighth Army's advances had resulted naturally in extended lines of communication.)