{"product_id":"lifesavers-2","title":"Lifesavers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA remarkable true story about saving life in wartime, not taking it\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A story destined to be told. A fascinating history of blood for the front line. Humbling, awe inspiring and life affirming.' Sue Black, author of \u003ci\u003eAll That Remains \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Lifesavers \u003c\/i\u003ewere a little-known band of men and women at the forefront of groundbreaking battlefield care in the Second World War.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs part of a new and pioneering service, unconventional and iconoclastic, they pushed and pulled blood from hundreds of thousands of donors into the veins of battle casualties all over the world. Deploying expert teams – officially the smallest units in the British Army – who risked their own lives to reach the wounded and sick, they transformed survival rates with an impact comparable to that of penicillin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmong them were pre-war GPs, conscientious objectors and a communist doctor who had transfused his first casualty in the Spanish Civil War. Prominent was Gladwin Buttle, a larger-than-life dynamo, who, in North Africa, defied shortages by sending blood into the desert in cleaned-out whisky bottles and sterilizing kit with a broken-down steamroller. Directing was Lionel Whitby – ‘the greatest vampire the world has known’ he was called in 1945 – whose own life was saved in 1918 by blood transfused on the Somme.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir skills and innovations saw action in some of the most important battles in recent history, forging lifelines that allies sought to replicate but enemies – to their cost – did not. Some continue to inspire life-saving methods of emergency care today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBestselling historian Roderick Bailey follows their trailblazing work from the start of the conflict to its end, from Dunkirk and El Alamein to Normandy and the Burmese jungle. Unearthed from rigorous research among diaries, letters and other first-hand accounts, \u003ci\u003eThe Lifesavers\u003c\/i\u003e – a gripping narrative of the Second World War presented from an entirely new angle – tells the full tale for the first time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56466809061720,"sku":"9780241744079","price":31.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780241744079.jpg?v=1780034483","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/lifesavers-2","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}