This issue will probably be arriving in people’s letter boxes just as we are preparing to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Gallipoli landings on 25 April 1914. The battles fought in Gallipoli, northern Africa and the Western Front, at sea and in the air, would cement the ANZACs reputation as a fighting force and would lead to the development of the Australian and New Zealand Defence Forces of today. They weren’t saints, as the rioting in the Haret el Wassa on 02 April 1914 showed, albeit among troops bored by their current inaction, but these troops were to go on to fight bravely a little over three weeks later in some of the most brutal battles of the war. Roland Perry, in his book, “The Australian Light Horse”, comprehensively chronicles the role of the Australian Light Horse at Gallipoli and subsequently in the Sinai, Palestine and Syria. Although Perry only briefly touches on the health challenges faced, from heatstroke, dehydration, malaria and scorpions to a range of battle injuries, the resilience the men of the Light Horse, and their subsequent victories at Beersheba, Gaza and Jerusalem, were truly remarkable.
In this issue, we have a range of excellent original articles, including articles on mental health among New Zealand peacekeepers, injuries in Army recruit training, the benefits of injury screening tools and an update on battlefield radiology. There is also a challenging review on changes to GP training and
potential impacts on training ADF medical officers and some noteworthy book reviews. Finally, the second excerpt from the HMAS Sydney medical officers log for 10 November 1914 is reproduced. During the second day, HMAS Sydney surgeons and health crew, with assistance from the remaining German surgeon, managed the more than 70 SMS Emden casualties along with their remaining casualties. Despite very limited resources, both the health and other Sydney crew provided whatever care they could to the injured on both sides of the battle; a model that we need to continue to emulate in our modern military medicine roles.
AMMA recently ran its first health Symposium in Wellington on the health impacts of military trauma, which was well received, and we look forward to more papers from our New Zealand colleagues. We continue to get a good range of articles, but other military and veterans’ health articles are always very welcome and we would encourage all our readers to consider writing on their areas of military or veterans’ health interest. The theme of our next issue is trauma management (July 2015) with our October issue looking at mental health. If you have papers in these or other areas, we look forward to hearing from you.
Dr Andy Robertson, CSC Editor-in-Chief
