A new book, Frontline Surgeon, tells the story of Kiwi Doug Jolly, one of the most influential and highly-regarded war surgeons of the 20th century. In this extract, author Mark Derby describes how Jolly arrived in Spain in 1936 as a medical volunteer during the Spanish civil war.
His first orders, which changed very little over the following two years, were to form a surgical team to set up and staff a 50-bed mobile field hospital, based just behind the front line and capable of moving at short notice as the tide of battle shifted. The hospital would ‘deal with those wounded men who could not safely be transported over a long distance. These cases were mainly in the abdomen and chest, and bleeding wounds.’ This mobile unit was required to ‘move frequently with troops, and send our wounded men to Madrid which lay some ten miles in our rear and to the south.’ Jolly was issued with a high-level military permisio de viaje (travel pass), essential in the distrustful milieu of the besieged city, which permitted him to ‘travel freely through Madrid and the battlefront and receive information, strictly in accordance with the instructions of the military command. It is obligatory to submit… proof of the information that has been obtained.’
Read the full extract on The Post here.
