Part of "The Penicillin Holocaust" : Allied POWs dying needlessly of infection because the Allies decided they didn't deserve penicillin...

A whole lot of people died needlessly of infections that wartime penicillin could have/ should have cured --- all because the Allies decided to treat it as a military weapon of war --- only to be used to cure lightly wounded Allied combat troops, to get them back under enemy fire as soon as possible.

Clearly that meant they would rather not have to give penicillin to seriously wounded Allies men or to civilian patients at home or in neutral countries.

In addition, no penicillin for dying civilians in occupied nations or in enemy countries either.

None to enemy troops obviously or to enemy POWs ( though this latter decision was against past custom and current international law.)

But it also meant none for dying Allied POWS behind enemy lines either.

Millions of needless deaths : "The Penicillin Holocaust"

These are just some of the human and moral costs when medical doctors, in their role as government and military advisors, counselled keeping penicillin as a secret weapon of war rather than a public and universal lifesaver.

But one doctor sacrificed his own life to oppose this horrendous policy tooth and nail : Henry Dawson ....