Where was Howard Florey sent in 1943 for penicillin field trials?

Howard Florey was sent to North Africa in 1943 for penicillin field trials.

The Medical Research Council decided that penicillin had advanced far enough for field testing, but supplies remained scarce, so trial locations were kept secret to prevent overwhelming demand. Florey was sent to the North African campaign, arriving in Algiers aboard a hospital ship in May 1943.

Florey worked with Hugh Cairns, who arrived in June with a stockpile of 40 million Oxford units of penicillin. During the following two months, they travelled between Algiers, Sousse and Tripoli, with time in Cairo, treating more than one hundred cases and preparing a detailed report.

North Africa was an important wartime testing ground because Allied forces were conducting active military operations there. The trials helped assess penicillin in difficult field conditions, although they were not the beginning of the drug’s development: Oxford laboratory work and earlier clinical cases had already established its promise.