Surgeon to Soldiers: Diary and Records of the Surgical Consultant, Allied Force Headquarters, World War II

When we try to understand the past, only time can bring perspective. Now, a full generation after World War II, we are beginning to get that perspective. Of particular interest to physicians and historians is the new book by Edward D. Churchill, formerly the chief of surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who narrates his experiences in the war and the transitions from civil to military medicine. Although the book lacks good organization, it has the ring of sincerity and truth, and casts a vast amount of oblique light on the medical services during the war, especially in the Mediterranean theater. The account relies in part on direct narration, in part on quotations from diaries, letters, and reports. In the course of the story we glimpse some of the problems of administration, army regulations and red tape, hospital organization, public health problems, logistic and supply difficulties, and the