Title: War Surgery and Medicine

Author: Stout, T. Duncan M.

Publication details: Historical Publications Branch, 1954, Wellington

Part of: The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945

This text is the subject of: ‘Something of Them Is Here Recorded’: Official History in New Zealand

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Field Sanitation

Where units were on the move from island to island or to new sites, some sanitary personnel from the field hygiene unit were included when possible in the advanced group of troops. Their primary object was to establish latrines on the beach-heads for immediate use and to arrange a rubbish dumping area where rubbish could be accumulated and later dealt with. Two types of field latrines were advocated: either a simple hole to be filled in after use, or a hole with a covering of a simple hinged lid over a foot square piece of board with a latrine hole in the centre. A hole thus covered could be used for some time.

Sanitary policing of any newly occupied area or beach-head was immensely important as gross fouling could occur in the first hour, and the resultant damage to health was out of all proportion to the time the area had been occupied.