Their job is to put themselves in the heart of danger - to run into battle to rescue the wounded and to risk their own lives to try and save the dying. Doctors, nurses, medics and stretcher bearers go where the bullets are thickest, through bomb alleys and mine fields, ducking mortars and rockets, wherever someone is hit and the shout goes up - 'Medic! We need a medic over here!' War at its rawest is their domain, an ugly place of shattered bodies, severed limbs, broken heads and death.

This is the story of those brave men - and, increasingly in this day and age, women - who go to war armed with bandages not bombs, scalpels not swords, and put saving life above taking life. Many have died in the process, the ultimate sacrifice for others. But wherever the cry of 'Medic!' is heard, it will be answered. From the beaches of Dunkirk to the desert towns of Afghanistan, there can be no nobler cause.