western front

• Conditions requiring treatment on the Western Front

  • Trench fever
  • Trench foot
  • Shell-shock
• Trench fever


  • Caused by body lice and included flu-like symptoms including high temperature
  • Treatment: Passing electric current through infected area was effective
  • Prevention: Clothes disinfected and delousing stations were set up
• Trench foot


  • Caused by soldiers standing in mud/waterlogged trenches
  • Treatment: soldiers advised to keep clean but worst cases, amputation
  • Prevention: Changing socks + keeping feet dry and rubbing whale oil into feet
• Shell-shock


  • Caused by stressful conditions of war and symptoms included tiredness, nightmares, headaches and uncontrollable shacking
  • Treatment: Not well understood
  • Prevention: rest and some received treatment in UK
• Weapons of war


  • Rifles
  • Machine guns
  • Artillery
  • Shrapnel
  • Chlorine Gas
  • Phosgene Gas
  • Mustard Gas
• Rifles


  • Fired one at a time/loaded from cartridge case creating rapid fire
• Machine guns


  • Fired 500 rounds a minutes
  • Pierced organs and fracture bones
• Artillery


  • Bombardments were continuous
  • Artillery fire caused half of all causalities
• Shrapnel


  • Caused maximum damage exploded mid-air above enemy
  • Killed/injured
• Chlorine Gas


  • Led to death by suffocation
  • 1915, gas masks given to all British soldiers
• Phosgene Gas


  • Faster acting than Chlorine but with similar effects
  • Could kill within 2 days
• Mustard Gas


  • Odourless gas, worked in 12 hours
  • Caused blisters, burn the skin easily
• Helping the wounded on the Western Front

  1. Evacuation route

  2. Stretcher bearers

  3. Regimental Aid Post

  4. Field Ambulance and Dressing Station

  5. Casualty Clearing Station

  6. Base Hospitals
• Evacuation route


  • Survival depended on speed of treatment
  • Care improved as war progressed
  • 1914 – 0 motor ambulances but by 1915, it was 250
  • Ambulance trains were introduced, as well as, ambulance barges used along River Somme
• Stretcher bearers


  • Collect wounded, 16 in each battalion + 4 for each stretcher
• Regimental Aid Post


  • Always close to the front line and staffed by a Medical officer
  • Selected those who were lightly wounded/needed more attention
• Field Ambulance and Dressing Station

  • Emergency treatment for wounded
• Casualty Clearing Station


  • Large, well equipped station, 10 miles from trenches
• Base Hospitals


  • X-ray, operating theatre and areas to deal with gas poisoning
• Underground hospital at Arras


  • Running water, 700 beds and operating theatre
• RAMC


  • Involved medical officers and learnt about wounds never seen before
• FANY


  • Volunteer nurses, who helped the wounded and also drove ambulances
• The Thomas Splint


  • Stopped joints moving and increased survival rates from 20 to 82%
  • Reduced infection from compound fractures
• 1. rays


  • Developed in 1895, X-rays used to diagnose issues before operations
  • Problems: X-ray could not detect all problems, were fragile and overheat
• Mobile X-rays


  • 6 operated on the front line, used to locate shrapnel and bullet wounds
  • Transported around in a truck and enabled soldiers to be treated more quickly
• Blood Transfusions


  • Blood loss = major problem
  • Blood transfusions used at Base Hospitals by a syringe and tube to transfer blood from patient to donor
  • Extended to CCS from 1917
• Blood bank at Cambrai

  • Adding Sodium Citrate allowed blood to be stored for longer
  • Blood was stored in glass bottles at a blood bank and used to treat wounded soldiers
• Brain surgery


  • Magnets used to remove metal fragments from the brain
  • Local anaesthetic
• Plastic surgery


  • Harold Gillies developed new techniques, skin drafts developed for grafts
• No Man's Land


  Land between Allied and German trenches in WW1
• Trenches


  Long, narrow ditches dug during the First World War
• Ypres Salient


  Area around Ypres where many battles took place in WW1
• Gangrene


  When a body decomposes due to a loss of bloody supply
• Shrapnel


  A hollow shell filled with steel balls or lead, with gunpowder and a time fuse
• FANY


  First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. Founded in 1907 by a soldier who hoped they would be a nursing cavalry to help the wounded in battle
• RAMC


  Royal Army Medical Corps. This organisation organised and provided medical care. It consisted of all ranks from doctors to ambulance drivers and stretcher bearers
• Triage


  A system of splitting the wounded into groups according to who needed the most urgent attention
• Compound Fracture


  Broken bones pierces the skin + increases risk of infection in wound
• Debridement


  Cutting away of dead and infected tissue from around the wound
• Gas Gangrene


  Infection that produced gas in gangrenous wounds