GREEK ARMY SQUAD MEDIC BAG 1940-1944

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During the Greco-Italian War (Oct 1940 - Apr 1941), the battle against the invading Italian Army was fought on a steep and mountainous terrain. The Greek Army Medical Corps was struggling to overcome all these insurmountable adversities.
Greeks and Italians were exposed to the heavy snow fall and freezing sub-arctic (-20 C) temperatures. Frostbite caused greater losses than those of the actual battles (25.000 Greeks - 22.000 Italians hit by frostbite). Despite the initial shock for the Greeks, the problem has resolved successfully, by using lubricants, animal fat and special woollen stockings that thousands of Greek women of all ages, wove and sent to the front.
Apart from that, medical support provided to the combatants was quite sufficient, aided by the Ministry of Welfare, the Greek Red Cross, various associations and the contribution of many known and unknown Greek Women volunteers. Greek Army issued personal First-Aid-Kit to all its personnel and for each Greek Army battle unit one soldier, trained as a medic, to provide frond line first aid, equipped with special medical gear.
Shown here is a bag, carried by a squad 'medic'.
The contents in the bag are what ever items remained after his home-coming from the war. The same bag was utilized by the members of the Greek Resistance during the triple occupation from Germans, Italians, Bulgarians (1942-1944).

1. Orthopedic belt
2. Personal first-aid kit dated 1937
3. Aluminum syringe container. The content could be sterilized over naked flame (Italian booty).
4. Transport box for hypodermic, intramuscular and surgical eyed needles.
5-5a. Wound dressings of various sizes.
6. Metal tubular containers for safe transportation of pharmaceutical ampoules.
7.-12. Various scissors
8. Catheter
9.-11. Clamps for stitching wounds of various sizes
10. Scissor to remove clothes from trauma

1. Aluminum syringe container. The content could be sterilized over naked flame.
2. Glass syringes.
3. Transport box for eyed, hypodermic intramuscular and surgical needles.
4. Iron strip for ampoule opening.

1. Lobelin a crystalline alkaloid extracted from the seeds of the Indian tobacco plant, used for gun shot wounds and as a respiratory stimulant.
2. Novalgin (Metamizole) used for as analgesic and antipyretic. Metamizole sodium is marketed under various trade names, including Algozone, Algocalmin, Analgin, Dipirona, Novalgin, Neo-Melubrina and Optalgin. Metamizole was first synthesized by the German company Hoechst AG in 1920, and its mass production started in 1922.
3. Tincture of iodine used to disinfect wounds
4. Coramine (Nikethamide) is a stimulant which mainly affects the respiratory cycle. Widely known, it was used in the mid-twentieth century as a medical countermeasure against tranquilizer overdoses.
5. Metal tubular container for safe transportation of pharmaceutical ampoules.