“Genetically engineered fluorescent bacteria can hunt for mines Battlefields strewn with mines are one of the nastiest legacies of war. They ensure that, long after a conflict has ceased, people continue to be killed and maimed by its aftermath. In 1999, the year the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty came into force, there were more than 9,000 such casualties, most… Read More
War Surgery, The First World War & Major L.B. Robertson
Discussion Paper Title The University of Toronto’s lasting contribution to war surgery: how Maj. L. Bruce Robertson fundamentally transformed thinking toward blood transfusion during the First World War. Summary During the Great War, Canadian military surgeons produced some of the greatest innovations to improve survival on the battlefield. Arguably, the most important was bringing blood… Read More
Delivering Deployed Skills Training for Whole Blood Collection by a Special Operations Surgical Team
Research Paper Title Deployed skills training for whole blood collection by a special operations expeditionary surgical team. Background Noncompressible haemorrhage is the leading cause of potentially preventable battlefield death. Combining casualty retrieval from the battlefield and damage control resuscitation (DCR) within the “golden hour” increases survival. However, transfusion requirements may exceed the current blood component… Read More
Surprise & Conquer…
“Whoever can surprise well must conquer.” John Paul Jones (1747 to 1792) in a letter to the American commissioners to France, 10 February 1778. Papers of Benjamin Franklin, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This appears as “Who can surprise well must conquer” in John Paul Jones, Fighter for Freedom and Glory by Lincoln Lorenz, p.… Read More
Battlefield Realities: The Aftermath of the Fight
Research Paper Title Ancestral Custom: War Dead in Ancient Greece. Abstract In the aftermath of battle, those who survived were left to contemplate an eerie spectacle. What confronted them was a scene of distorted humanity: a field of broken bodies, abandoned weapons and the mournful cries of the wounded and dying. Birds circled expectantly overhead, whilst dogs scavenged… Read More
A Most Disagreeable Ambush!
“Nothing concentrates the military mind so much as the discovery that you have walked into an ambush. Brigadier-General Robert Broadwood was confronted with this disagreeable news soon after dawn on 31 March.” (Pakenham, 2004, p.390). Reference Pakenham. T. (2004) The Boer War. London: Abacus.
Camouflage Required…
“The Boers ‘will not play the game fairly’, said one of the soldiers. Ralph drew a different lesson. Those gleaming insignia, the stars and buttons and buckles of the professional soldier, were all very well in the drawing-room. In the sunshine of the veld they blazed like a heliograph. Against an invisible enemy, the British… Read More
Boot Camp & Military Fitness Institute 