Original Title/Caption: “An operation on wounded American soldier is performed by Major George Marks. The soldier has been wounded in the arms and shoulders by shrapnel from a Jap mortar as he was storming a pillbox in New Guinea.”

Description: In this black and white photograph, two medics tend to a wounded man on a surgical table in a hospital tent.  The injured man’s hands and arms are heavily bandaged, and the medical officers wear helmets and no shirts.  This photograph was taken between 1942 and 1945.

Source: “An operation on wounded American soldier is performed by Major George Marks. The soldier has been wounded in the arms and shoulders by shrapnel from a Jap mortar as he was storming a pillbox in New Guinea.”  Photograph, between 1942 and 1945.  From Library of Congress: Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Call number LC-USW33- 024265-C.  http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8e01067 (accessed March 20, 2007).

Historical discussion: The improvements in military medicine since World War I included more surgeons at the front, the availability of sulfa drugs and penicillin, and a blood bank system including plasma (Technical Information Division, Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army, 10; Cowdrey 165-169).