THE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES Volume 1 England and Wales Official History of the Second World War

This is the first volume of the History of the Emergency Medical Services, which was first published in October 1952. It contains the history of these services in England and Wales, with a necessary account of the inception and of the work carried out successfully by all its component parts when put to the strain.
The threat of a total war, in which was expected that the population of a country so vulnerable to mass attacks from the air as Great Britain, might sustain casualties far exceeding those which occurred in the Armed Forces, rendered necessary the creation of a comprehensive hospital, ambulance and first-aid service, fully co-ordinated and under the direction of one central authority. It was fortunate that all the many authorities concerned were brought to realise this fact some considerable time before the war, with the result that the Emergency Medical Services came into being and were adequately to function from the very beginning of the war and by the time the great air attacks began, were found to function smoothly and well.