Western front

• Ypres


  German’s had high ground

  trenches flooded and muddy

  Germans used poisonous gas

  GB dug tunnels under Hill 60

  GB took the hill.
• The Somme

  1916

  huge casualty rate

  60,000 casualties on the first day

  Overall 400,000 casualties for allies

  450,000 German casualties
• Arras


  New Zealand soldiers dug tunnels underneath

  Joined the tunnels with ancient tunnels

  Created underground hospitals
• Cambria


  Late 1917

  1st large tank attack

  450 British tanks used
• Front line Trench 


  Firing Line

  Nearest to the enemy

  Spent 15% of the time here

  Built in zig-zag shape
• Command Trench 


  10-20m behind front line
• Communication Trench


  Linked front line to other trenches
• Support Trench


  200-500m behind front line

  Spent 10% of time here
• Reserve Trench


  Further back then support trench

  30% of time spent here

  Most counter attack from here

  45% of time away from trenches
• Rifles


  More efficent in WW1

  More pointed bullets to go deeper

  Covers a mid - long distance
• Machine Guns


  500 rounds per minute

  Major part of trench defences

  Mass produced
• Artillery


  Follow upto cannon

  Millions of shells made

  Could fire 900kg upto miles

  Biggest killer of soldiers
• Shrapnel


  Hollow shell with steel lead

  Exploded mid air

  Hit men in trenches or no man’s land
• Bullet Wounds 


  Break major bones & vital organs

  Blood Loss

  20% survival rate when a bullet hit the leg
• Blast Impact 


  Bullets , shrapnel and shells
• Artillery & Shrapnel


  Caused major blood loss

  got trapped in the body

  caused many head injuries
• Helmets


  -Steel helmets came into use 1915

  -Sufficent supply by summer 1916

  -Made head injuries worse due to blast impact
• Infection

  • Bullets & fragments deep in body
  • Carried muddy clothing into body
  • Soil from Western front got into body
  • Infection lead to death
• Gas Impact

  • Germans used chlorine gas in Ypres 1915
  • Urine on handkerchief over nose was used as protection
  • tempory blindness
  • Eyes Swelling
  • 5% of GB soldiers died from gas
• Strecher Bearer


  Recovered dead or wounded soldiers

  • Dealt with mud , craters & crowded trenches
  • Only 16 per Battalion
  • 4 men carried sometimes 6-8
• RAP


  Close to front line

  • Medical Officer
  • Bandage light wounds
  • Underfire
  • 1 med officer & Stretcher Bearers
• Field Ambulance/Dressing Stations


  Large mobile stations

  Support staff & nurses

  Set up dressing stations in tent

  Triage

  Miles behind front line
• CCS


  Large well equipped medical facility

  7-12 miles behind front line

  7 doctors with more nurses & staff

  Operating theatres , x-rays, 50beds
• Base Hospitals


  Civillian Hospitals

  Take 2500 patients

  Near railways

  Arrive by train or barge or motor ambulance

  Patients sent back to GB
• Ambulances 


  1918

  250 in France by 1914

  Horse ambulances used In mud

  Barges carried wounded down River Somme
• RAMC


  Kept men healthy and treated them

  Recruited doctors by raising age limit to 45
• Nurses


  Army changed attitude towards nurses

  Cooking , cleaning , changing dressing and painkillers
• VADs


  Volunteer Aid Attachment

  • mainly middle/upper class women
• FANY


  Started in 1917

  Recruited to GB army from 1916

  Carried supplies to Front

  Supplies food and mobile baths
• Listers Antiseptic


  Carbolic Acid to kill bacteria in wound

  Death rate in surgery 46%to15%

  Used carbolic spray to stop infection
• Aseptic Surgery 


  Stops germs getting into the wounds

  Clean operating theatres

  Clean hospitals

  Sterilise Instruments

  Surgical gowns

  Face masks
• Röntgens X-rays


  Identify broken bones

  Identify bullets & shrapnel
• Landsteiner's Blood Discovery 


  Identify blood groups

  Meant blood transfusions can happen

  Couldn‘t store blood as it clotted
• Thomas Splint Solution


  Created by Hugh Owen Thomas in 1916

  The splint pulled the leg lengthways

  Death rate went from 80-20%
• Lewisoh Solution


  -Lewisohn Addams sodium citrate

  -Increased blood transfusions a lot

  • Saved many lives
• Blood Bank Solution


  -made for major attacks

  • added citrate glucose to blood
  • Got blood to the wounded
• Keynes Solution


  -Geoffrey Keynes created a portable machine for blood

  • Took blood closer to the front line
• Plastic Surgery (problems)


  -Danger of infection

  • Terrible wounds from bullets & shells
• Plastic Surgery (solutions)


  -Skin grafts

  -11,000 plastic surgery operations

  -7 French hospitals had plastic surgery
• Brain Surgery (problems)


  -little brain surgery before 1914

  -Time consuming

  -A few head operations just bandaged