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Medical Emergency

Major-General 'Ginger' Burston and the Army Medical Service in WW II

Published by Big Sky Publishing
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

Major-General `Ginger' Burston led the Army Medical Service throughout the Pacific campaigns. This pivotal book explains how Burston and his medical team kept Allied troops healthy in primitive and hostile conditions and during the greatest medical emergency of World War II - the struggle against malaria. By keeping the soldiers healthy, and particularly by reducing malaria infection rates from 100 to less than one case per 1000 troops per week, the Army Medical Service assured an Allied victory over Japan. A Medical Emergency tells this remarkable story for the first time. In engrossing detail and using contemporary accounts, veteran historian Ian Howie-Willis brings to life the struggle of `Ginger' Burston and his Medical Service to fight a deadly opponent that decimated the ranks of friend and foe alike. Their victory was key to the ultimate Allied success.

About The Author

Dr Ian Howie-Willis is an independent professional historian. The author of 20 books, he is the Historical Adviser to St John Ambulance Australia. His previous book was An Unending War: The Australian Army’s struggle against malaria, 1885–2015 (Big Sky Publishing, Sydney, 2016). He grew up in Melbourne and lived for ten years in Papua New Guinea and England before settling in Canberra in 1975. He completed his university training with a PhD in history from the Australian National University. He has been married to Margaret Willis (née Vale), a retired school principal, for 58 years. They have three married children and seven grandchildren.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Big Sky Publishing (March 15, 2012)
  • Length: 480 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781921941627

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