Chain of Evacuation

• CCS's had to be close enough to the front lines so that they could receive wounded soldiers as soon as possible but far enough away from the fighting not to come under enemy fire themselves.
• Chain of Evacuation:

  • Stretcher Bearers
  • Regimental Aid Posts
  • Advanced Dressing Stations
  • Casualty Clearing Stations
  • Base Hospitals
• Stretcher Bearers

  • Collected the injured
  • Was a dangerous job as they worked in no mans land during ongoing fire
• Regimental Aid Post

  • Immediate First Aid
  • Located near Front Line in communication trenches or abandoned buildings so that soldier could quickly get back to battle after treatment
• Advanced Dressing Station

  • Dealt with serious injuries
  • Located in abandoned buildings, tents or bunkers
  • Had RAMC staff
• Casualty Clearing Stations

  • Dealt with critical injuries
  • Set up in buildings like factories and schools, located near a railway line so that patients could be sent to base hospitals if needed
  • used a triage system where men were divided into 3 groups: the walking wounded that could be treated and sent back to fight, those needing hospital treatment and people who had no chance at survival - they were made comfortable but medical resources were not used on them
• Base Hospitals

  • Located near the coast so that patients could return to Britain
  • Divided into wards based on wounds allowing doctors to experiment and specialise in particular injuries
• RAMC - Royal Army Medical Corps

  • Mainly provided medical treatment
  • Responsible for medical care
• FANY - First Aid Nursing Yeomanry

  • organisation that sent women volunteers to help
  • Provide emergency first aid
  • Drove ambulance wagons
• Underground Hospital at Arras

  • Beginning of November 1916
  • Fully working hospital that included: waiting rooms, 700 spaces for stretchers to be placed as beds, operating theatre, resting spaces for stretcher bearers, a mortuary, electricity and piped water
  • known as Thompson's cave
• Transporting the wounded problems

  • Roads were destroyed from shelling
  • Land was previously farmland meaning that it contained bacteria
  • Shelling and gunfire made transprtation dangerous
• Ambulance wagons

  • originally horse-drawn but they made injuries worse and many soldiers died upon impact
  • Motorised ambulances were introduced but couldn't work on too muddy land
• Trains, barges and ships

  • Used to transport the wounded to base hospitals or home
  • some trains had operating theatres
  • Canal barges were slow but provided a comfortable journey