battle injury

• when was chlorine gas first used?

  1915
• when was mustard gas first used?

  1917
• when were gas masks given?

  1915
• what was used before gas masks to combat gas attacks?

  a handkerchief that was urinated on
• what did gas attacks cause?

  • temporary blindness
  • suffocating feeling
• what caused trench fever?

  body lice
• why were trench foot and trench fever so rife?

  due to the conditions of the trenches
• what caused trench foot?

  standing in flooded trenches
• why was there less cases of trench foot in 1915?

  soldiers began changing socks more
• what happened if you had trench foot?

  gangrene set in and you were more likely to be amputated
• what caused gangrene most?

  wound infection
• what was brought in to combat wound infection?

  injections such as tetanus
• what caused wound infcetion?

  pieces of fabric or metal left under skin
• what percentage of bullets and shrapnel were responsible for wounds?

  • bullets - 39%
  • shrapnel - 58%
• what year were Brodie helmets brought in to combat bullets/shrapnel?

  1915
• how much did Brodie helmets reduce harm by?

  80%
• what is shellshock?

  emotional trauma due to sights in the war
• how many British soldiers has shellshock?

  80,000
• what were people named if they suffered from shellshock?

  cowards or weak
• what were symptoms of shellshock?

  • mental breakdown
  • hearing loss
  • tiredness
  • blindness
  • shaking
• what was brought in to combat trench foot?

  duckboards in the trenches
• What was a Thomas splint?

  a metal frame that helped mend broken bones
• what were disadvantages of the Thomas splint?

  • couldn’t prevent gas gangrene
  • uncomfortable causing soldier more pain
• the Thomas splint increased the survival rate from 20% to 82%
• what did bullets cause?

  fractured bones and pierced organs
• did gas attacks cause lots of deaths?

  no
• what were symptoms of a gas attack?

  • suffocating feeling
  • temporary blindness
  • skin blistering
• how long could it take for gas gangrene to kill someone?

  a day
• how many British soldier died as a result of a gas attack?

  6000
• was there a cure for gas gangrene?

  no