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The Lifesavers
  • Published: 22 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241744079
  • Imprint: Viking Non Fiction
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $65.00
Categories:

The Lifesavers

The Trailblazers of the Second World War Who Took Blood Into Battle

Formats & editions
Hardback
22 Sept 2026
EBook
19 Mar 2026
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The remarkable true story of the trailblazing men and women of Britain’s blood transfusion service in World War Two

THE LIFESAVERS were a small group of men and women who during WW2 were at the forefront of global progress in saving lives. Britain’s wartime blood transfusions service collected, preserved and courageously delivered blood, creating ground-breaking advances to improve survival rates with an impact comparable to the discovery of penicillin.

We meet the nurses who built and tapped the bank of volunteer donors (1.5m registered by the end of the war); the unsung technicians responsible for storing, preserving and moving the blood; and the specialist medical officers who risked their lives in traversing battlefields across the globe to give transfusions.

From Britain to the Balkans, Sicily to Japan, this trailblazing work was adopted around the world, and its lessons are still being taught today as NATO turns to methods from WW1 and WW2 in preparing for future conflicts.
  • Published: 22 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241744079
  • Imprint: Viking Non Fiction
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $65.00
Categories:

About the author

Roderick Bailey

Roderick Bailey is a Research Fellow in the history of medicine at the University of Oxford. His previous books include the Sunday Times bestseller Forgotten Voices of the Secret War and, as one of the SOE’s official historians appointed by the Prime Minister, Italy: The Secret War against Mussolini. In 2011 he deployed to Afghanistan as a British Army reservist and was awarded a Queen’s Commendation.
RB

Also by Roderick Bailey

Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross
Forgotten Voices of D-Day
Forgotten Voices of the Secret War
The Wildest Province
See all

Praise for The Lifesavers

'The dazzling story of the heroic, extraordinary efforts by small groups of doctors to overcome every impediment to achieve a remarkable aim: to save lives by introducing blood transfusions on the battlefield . . . This account by a master historian is fresh and vital, history at its best.'

Rob Lyman, author of Victory to Defeat

'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 All That Remains