Illnesses and injuries on the Western Front

• The trench environment and the nature of the fighting led to a range of illnesses and conditions that required medical treatment
• Trench fever


  Illness spread by lice, with symptoms including severe headaches, shivering and pain in the joints
• Measures used to prevent trench fever

  1. Clothing and bedding disinfected

  2. Bathhouses built

  3. Louse-repellent gel given to soldiers

  4. Soldiers picked lice out of clothing
• Trench fever continued to be a problem until the end of the war
• Trench foot


  Condition caused by waterlogged trenches, with symptoms of swollen, blistered and blue feet
• Measures used to prevent trench foot

  1. Soldiers ordered to change socks twice a day

  2. Soldiers encouraged to rub whale oil into feet

  3. Mechanical pumps sent to reduce flooding
• Dysentery


  Infection affecting the bowels, causing stomach pains, diarrhoea and dehydration
• Shell shock


  Psychological reaction to the trauma of war, often misunderstood and soldiers accused of cowardice
• There were 80,000 recorded cases of shell shock within the British army
• Today, doctors would recognise the symptoms as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Weapons used on the Western Front

  • Rifles
  • Machine guns
  • Artillery
  • Shrapnel shells
• Injuries caused by the weapons and terrain

  • Gunshot wounds
  • Removal of limbs (amputation)
  • Internal damage to the body and head
  • Broken bones
  • Blood loss
  • Loss of sight as a result of gas attacks
  • Loss of hearing and disorientation due to bombardment from artilery
  • Infection and gangrene
  • Shell shock or PTSD
• Shrapnel shells were used as weapons in the war, with a hollow shell filled with tiny metal balls exploding mid-air and wounding many soldiers
• Rapid-fire and more powerful weapons led to bullets and shrapnel going deeper into the body, introducing pieces of material and soil that could lead to infection
• The bacteria from fertiliser in the soil led to soldiers dying from gas gangrene, which military surgeons had little experience of
• Types of gas used

  • Chlorine gas
  • Phosgene gas
  • Mustard gas
• Chlorine gas


  First used in 1915, caused suffocation and sometimes death. Before gas masks, soldiers would soak cloth with urine to stop breathing it in
• Phosgene gas


  First used in 1915 at Ypres, caused suffocation and led to a very quick death
• Mustard gas


  First used in 1917, did not cause a smell but burned the skin, causing internal and external blisters, and caused suffocation and death