The following is a guest article by Robert Roche, Author of A War on Two Fronts and IT analyst at Blythedale Children’s Hospital.
In early Spring 2021 I published my first novel, A War on Two Fronts, now available on Amazon. The story follows American mercenary William Mann who finds himself stranded in Europe during World War II. He attempts to keep a low profile however, due to circumstances beyond his control ends up recruited by the Nazi party. As the war comes to a conclusion he is tasked with a final assignment while he plans his escape from Nazi’s controlled Germany.
After completing this novel, I began to ponder how this war impacted, shaped, and expanded technology and the healthcare field. What did we learn and how did this pave the future for these fields?
When one thinks of war the first thoughts that come to mind are of destruction, death, chaos, sacrifice and pain. It puts a hardship on one’s family and nation. Everyone from the solders on the front lines to the civilians at home play a role to ensure their county’s survival. Despite these weighty responsibilities these times have forced humanity to evolve, survive, and triumph. We find new ways to adapt, think, and resolve issues. Many of our everyday technology and medication were born from this war. From computers and radars, to penicillin, flu vaccines, and blood plasma transfusions.
As the first world war came to a conclusion, the world was hit with a pandemic just as infamous and dangerous as COVID-19. The influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 virus better known as the Spanish Flu caused an estimated 50 million deaths worldwide. This propelled the US Military to begin working on a cure and in the 1930s scientists began to isolate the virus. The first flu vaccine wasn’t used until 1945 and was only for military personnel. The following year it became available to the public and is still used to this very day.
According to the American Red Cross our earliest record of blood transfusions dates back to 1628 thanks to the British physician William Harvey who first discovered circulation of blood in the human body. It wasn’t until 1940 that plasma was broken down into its components and became available for scientific use. In 1944 it was given to treat injured soldiers fighting in World War II. When transferring blood, one needs to ensure that the receiver is compatible with the donor’s blood type. If the incorrect blood type is donated the body will see it as a foreign invader and begin attacking it which can result in death. Plasma on the other hand doesn’t have the same limitation. It can be provided to anyone regardless of a person’s blood type. This made treating wounded soldiers on the battlefield much easier. In the midst of battle this can make the difference between life and death. When COVID-19 struck one of the first treatments was using plasma from people who had survived the virus because of the existing antibodies found within.
Prior to 1928 before the discovery of penicillin minor cuts, wounds, and scrapes could become infected and often times led to painful deaths. Not until World War II did penicillin become mass produced and used on the soldiers to treat infections. More soldiers were dying due to infections than combat injuries. Penicillin decreased the death rate from 18% to 1%. The medical community was in awe with how much it reduced pain and increased the chance of living. The United States realizing the lifesaving capability of this drug began to mass produce it in preparation for D-Day producing 2.3 million doses. After the war it became widely accessible to civilians.
Medical discoveries weren’t the only advancements made during the second world war. To help aid those fighting on the front lines we needed to grow in the tech field as well. One of our most notable and famous advancements was computers. While the history of computers can be traced back further, the ones during this war are the precursor to what we have today. These devices didn’t have the Candy Crunch or Facebook app on them. Rather they were used for advanced calculations such as airspeed or ballistics trajectories.
As the men were off in Europe fighting the war the development and advancement of computers fell heavily on the women who were left behind. Lieutenant Grace Hopper pioneered computer programming. “Hopper was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages, and the FLOW-MATIC programming language she created using this theory was later extended to create COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today.” As well as Jean Jennings Bartik, whose leadership was instrumental to the development of computer storage and memory. The contributions these and other women made would help pave the path for the computer world for years to come.
Another founder of computer science was Alan Turing for his work on cracking the Enigma code. By figuring this out and understanding it the Allied forces were able to decipher the encrypted messages. With the code broken the Allied forces gained a huge advantage and were able to effectively put plans into action that played a major part in their victory. This technology didn’t disappear after the war ended instead it only continued to grow. This process “analyzed the statistical prevalence of certain letters of the alphabet to understand how they were distributed in messages like points on a map.” Now a days neurologists have similar means on how they map and study neural activity. An example is from only using brain data one can determine which direction a person will move their arms in. In my novel, the Germans struggle to create new codes and plan on teaching it to their soldiers after suffering heavy losses due to their encrypted communication being analyzed and understood by the enemy.
Computers aren’t the only technology that played an instrumental role in the war. After radar systems were created, the idea was to use them as a weapon not as a form of tracking or detection. The idea was to send an electromatic energy beam at a plane burning the pilot alive. Instead of cooking the pilot all that happened was the radar received a bounce back indicating location similar to sonar. As such the idea for a super weapon was scrapped and they started focusing on location detection. This aided the Allied forces with locating enemy vessels. After the war concluded radar was integrated into non-military uses such as airports and weather stations for tracking severe storms.
Although the toll of the war was devastating and the effects of it are still being felt today the advancements that were made in the medical and technology field helped pave the path not only for the United States but the entire world as well. After thinking about this, there is another thing that we should always remember to be grateful for those who made the ultimate sacrifice. The determination to never give up despite the obstacles is truly a testament to the human spirit that not only showed during the war but still continues strong now a days. Another feature that my protagonist, William Mann, shares with the brave souls of World War II.
Go and check out A War on Two Fronts on Amazon now!
References:
https://science.howstuffworks.com/war-drive-technological-advancement.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_during_World_War_II
https://www.history.com/news/world-war-ii-innovations
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html
https://www.livescience.com/65598-penicillin.html
http://www.nww2m.com/2016/02/sci-tech-tuesday-there-were-computers-in-wwii/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper
https://www.history.com/news/coding-used-to-be-a-womans-job-so-it-was-paid-less-and-undervalued
https://news.gatech.edu/2017/12/18/wwii-code-breaking-techniques-inspire-interpretation-brain-data
