Work of the South African military doctors in East Africa during the Second World War

What is it about?

I used a “bottom-up” approach to examine the medical services rendered by the medical units of the Union Defence Force to military and civilian patients in the East African battlespace. In doing so, he discusses the policy framework and examines the multi-factored challenges the South African Medical Corps units faced. Personnel was a recurrent difficulty. Various motives animated the medical personnel to volunteer for wartime service – travel, adventure, patriotism, the sense of taking part in some “big”. But there were professional ambitions too – the building of experience within short timeframes, exposure to wide variety of illnesses and disease, the use of medical innovations, and, more generally, the growth of medical science under wartime conditions. While the learning curve was often steep, Van der Waag argues that the South African medical personnel adapted rapidly to local conditions, trained on the job, and gained experience and battle-hardiness as the campaign unfolded.

Featured Image

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Why is it important?

I show that steady improvement and the growing size and sophistication of the Allied medical deployment led to remarkably few admissions and fewer fatalities during the campaign despite the harsh East African military operating environment.

Perspectives