I think the first effective antibiotic -- penicillin -- was developed in England. Although discovered by Alexander Fleming in the 1920s, I think it took until around 1940 before it had been refined in a way that could be used to treat infections.
I don't believe the Germans had access to antibiotics during WW II.
Sulfa drugs were used by the US troops to kill bacteria that contaminated wounds and were also used by the Germans (developed for Bayer by Gerhard Domagk). From Wikipedia:
For several years in the late 1930s, hundreds of manufacturers produced tens of thousands of tons of myriad forms of sulfa.... As the first and only effective antibiotic available in the years before penicillin, sulfa drugs continued to thrive through the early years of World War II. They are credited with saving the lives of tens of thousands of patients, including Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. (son of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and Winston Churchill. Sulfa had a central role in preventing wound infections during the war. American soldiers were issued a first-aid kit containing sulfa pills and powder, and were told to sprinkle it on any open wound.
Interesting. My hazy recollection from reading the book The Discovery of Penicillin many years ago is that sulfa drugs aren't considered true antibiotics in the modern sense. My impression -- again, this is from a long ago reading -- is that prior to penicillin, the death rate among soldiers in combat from infection was very high. The key problem was that a bullet would drive bacteria from a soldier's clothes and skin deep into his body. I don't think sulfa typically was effective against those type of wounds.
That book makes a big deal about the crash programs in England and later in the U.S. to mass produce penicillin for use in treating wounded troops.
Is there a doctor in the house who can help us with this?
I teach microbiology and I think I understand the definition. Penicillin was a better antibiotic than sulfa drugs which caused kidney damage. It was a secret like Ultra and the allies didn't want the Germans to get it. Hitler wasn't too happy about Gerhard's Nobel prize either. When we teach the Kirby-Bauer method in the lab, we compare the effectiveness of antibiotics like penicillin, tetracycline and sulfisoxazole in killing a selection of bacteria.