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The Lifesavers
  • Published: 19 March 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405975483
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 416

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 little-known band of men and women at the forefront of groundbreaking battlefield care in the Second World War.

As part of a new and pioneering service, unconventional and iconoclastic, they pushed and pulled blood from hundreds of thousands of donors into the veins of battle casualties all over the world. Deploying expert teams – officially the smallest units in the British Army – who risked their own lives to reach the wounded and sick, they transformed survival rates with an impact comparable to that of penicillin.

Among them were pre-war GPs, conscientious objectors and a communist doctor who had transfused his first casualty in the Spanish Civil War. Prominent was Gladwin Buttle, a larger-than-life dynamo, who, in North Africa, defied shortages by sending blood into the desert in cleaned-out whisky bottles and sterilizing kit with a broken-down steamroller. Directing was Lionel Whitby – ‘the greatest vampire the world has known’ he was called in 1945 – whose own life was saved in 1918 by blood transfused on the Somme.

Their skills and innovations saw action in some of the most important battles in recent history, forging lifelines that allies sought to replicate but enemies – to their cost – did not. Some continue to inspire life-saving methods of emergency care today.

Bestselling historian Roderick Bailey follows their trailblazing work from the start of the conflict to its end, from Dunkirk and El Alamein to Normandy and the Burmese jungle. Unearthed from rigorous research among diaries, letters and other first-hand accounts, The Lifesavers – a gripping narrative of the Second World War presented from an entirely new angle – tells the full tale for the first time.
  • Published: 19 March 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405975483
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 416

About the author

Roderick Bailey

Roderick Bailey is a historian at the University of Oxford where he specialises in the history of medicine and the study of war and conflict. His previous books include the Sunday Times bestseller Forgotten Voices of the Secret War and, as an official SOE historian appointed by the Prime Minister, Target: Italy – The Secret War against Mussolini. Away from academia he has worked widely as an official observer of international elections in post-conflict and post-communist countries. 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 

Exemplary

Max Hastings on The Wildest Province, Sunday Times

History more breathtaking than any thriller

Melissa Katsoulis on The Wildest Province, Daily Telegraph

A tremendous work of scholarship

Jon Latimer on The Wildest Province, Daily Telegraph

Bailey’s first book establishes him as a modern historian of great skill

M.R.D. Foot on The Wildest Province, Literary Review

Excellent . . . Deserves to be regarded as definitive

Alan Judd on The Wildest Province, Spectator

Inspiring . . . The great skill of this book is to demonstrate that war is both brutal and dizzyingly unpredictable

Sinclair McKay on Target: Italy, Daily Telegraph

Precious testimony to our past . . . with an absolutely flawless series of sources

Angelo Paratico on Target: Italy, Corriere della Sera

Gripping history . . . readable, fast-paced

Ian Thomson on Target: Italy, Observer

A very good read . . . The nightmarish and brutal world of underground work against Fascism in Italy is well covered . . . Drama is ever present

James Pettifer on Target: Italy, Times Literary Supplement

Bailey is a fine historian who has researched his subject and given his tale a strong narrative drive

David Gilmour on Target: Italy, Spectator

Incomparable. The voices speak with utter immediacy of fear, determination, bewilderment, indifference, and unmistakable courage.

Andro Linklater on Forgotten Voices of D-Day, Spectator

A wonderful selection of first-hand accounts

Richard Holmes on Forgotten Voices of D-Day, Spectator

However well you know the history behind the landings, Forgotten Voices of D-Day is bound to offer everyone who reads it a brand new perspective

Legion

Outstanding

Soldier (the British Army’s magazine) on Forgotten Voices of D-Day

A significant and important book . . . Highly recommended.

Jon Mulholland on Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross, Victoria Cross Society

Bailey’s assembly of tales deserves a warm welcome . . . A great deal of it is unknown to the general public

M. R. D. Foot on Forgotten Voices of the Secret War, Literary Review