world war 1

• the western front was in france and belgium where the british fought germany
• the conditions on the western front:

  • loss of limbs caused by artillery, causing blood loss
  • dead bodies
  • gas caused blindness
• trench conditions:

  • muddy
  • cramped
  • like a maze so could get lost
  • hard to get people somewhere for treatment
  • illnesses spread easily
  • lots of infections because fighting was mostly on farmland where the soil was filled with moisture
• injuries soldiers faced:

  • shelling from artillery caused loss of limbs and blood
  • people were hit by shrapnel (small part of a shell), caused infections + blood loss
  • shell shock (PTSD)
• ordinary soldiers may be on the front line and have the danger of artillery, blood loss and infection
• soldiers spent 15 percent of their time in the front line and 45 percent of their time away from the trenches
• stretcher bearers would catch illnesses from conditions, their work was hard and the trenches were cramped. they also faced the dangers of the front line
• nurses and doctors struggled with solving blood loss, they may have caught infections and struggled to treat them as they didn't have antibiotics
• why it was hard to get to injured soldiers:

  • the trenches were cramped so there was less space to get to injured soldiers
  • the traverse system meant it would take longer
  • shell holes meant it was harder for stretcher bearers to carry the wounded
• ypres:

  • lots of fighting as there were 3 major battles around ypres
  • new weapons were used there such as poison gas which was used at the second battle of ypres for the first time
• hill 60:

  • gave the germans the advantage as it allowed the germans to fire down on the british
  • mines were used as in april 1915 british miners dug tunnels and placed mines underhill, detonating mines and they blew the hill up
• ypres salient:

  • vulnerable as the germans had high ground overlooking the salient so they could easily fire on the british
  • they had better hygiene as when it rained the water drained downhill because it was high
• somme:

  • unprepared because on the first day the british had planned for 10,000 casualties but there were actually 54,000
  • it was brutal, nearly 400,000 allied soldiers were killed by the time the battle ended 4 months later
• arras:

  • tunnels were built as new zealand soldiers built them through the chalky clay
  • there were good conditions, rooms were filled with running water
• cambrai:

  • this was the first large tank attack, over 450 tanks attacked the german trenches
  • british tanks weren't prepared because they didn't have enough infantry to support them
• rifles were efficient and fired faster. the bullets were powerful so they broke bones and could pierce major organs
• machine guns were used as defence, they could fire 500-600 bullets. they had to amputate limbs, there was a 20 percent survival of broken legs
• artillery were large cannons that fired exploding shells, they caused half of casualties. shells could remove limbs
• shrapnel were small pieces of metal from artillery shell, very small so hard to find
• gas was used, chlorine was the first deadly gas used in 1915 at the second battles of ypres, soldiers were unprepared so hundreds died. caused temporary blindness, loss of taste and smell, chemical burns + suffocation. 5 percent of soldiers died to gas, its easier to treat as you could wash off gas from the skin, give soldiers oxygen and gas masks were made
• stretcher bearers:

  • 16 per 1000 soldiers
  • at least 4 per stretcher
  • had bandages and morphine
• regimental aid post (RAP):

  • 7-12 miles from fighting
  • 7 doctors and other nursing stuff
  • contained operating theatres, x-ray machines and wards with beds for 50 men
  • could deal with thousands at a time but often had more
• base hospitals:

  • could treat up to 2500 patients
  • had operating theatres, x-ray machines and some had specialised centres for example for gas injuries