Review: PPG-2266

Title: PPG-2266 A Surgeon's War
Authour: Nikolai Amosoff
Publisher: Henry Regnery Company
ISBN: 0-8092-9055-3
Stars: 4 (out of 5)

Picked this book up at a military flea market couple of weeks ago. A very interesting memoir (Diary) of a Soviet Surgeon during WWII. Apparently he is a famous heart surgeon and had found he diary from the war years and had them published.
The book starts off with the authour as a resident Dr. that hears of the war in his small town. With his orders he is formed into a 200 bed PPG or Mobile Evac unit as the Chief Surgeon. When they leave for the front they are horse drawn, and stay that way for 90% of the war. The authour describes setting up the various hospitals in buildings or what is left of them. He also talks about seeing the Soviet Army in defeat and about what the soldiers look like while on the long retreats.
After going through Moscow during the retreat and setting up yet again, he describes various techniques that the Dr.'s learn or have to learn due to the amount of wounded coming in.
During the advance after Stalingrad they go through destroyed villages and towns still setting up and handling the wounded. Their small hospital is upgraded to 600 beds. The authour talks about always being overborn with wounded and before they move he tells how many soldiers they treated. He is also very frank about how many do not survive too.
This diary was written during the war. He speaks truthfully about bad surgery, leaving the wounded to move on and knowing that most will not survive, partisan reprisals. He does not speak about a lot of battles as they were just behind the lines.
Not a bad book and one can see the amount of wounded that one small hospital had to suffer.