Overview

• Britain struggled to scale up penicillin production despite Fleming’s 1928 discovery, forcing urgent imports from America ahead of D-Day.
• Churchill’s red-ink annotations on a February 1944 Ministry of Supply report express disappointment at securing only one-tenth of the anticipated antibiotic output.
• Ministry of Health adviser Prof FR Fraser projected 50,000–100,000 Normandy casualties and recommended procurement of up to five billion penicillin units per month.
• War Office protocols in May 1944 mandated rapid field training for medical staff, injections at five-hour intervals and yellow 'PEN' labels to prevent gangrene and sepsis.
• After prioritizing military cases, officials limited civilian penicillin access to trained staff in larger hospitals until full public availability in 1946.