Western Front

• Battle of Ypres (EEP)


  1. First battle in 1914

  2. Second battle in 1915 - first use of chlorine gas by Germans

  3. Third battle in 1917 (Passchendaele) - extreme muddy conditions, 245,000 British casualties
• Battle of the Somme

  • Took place in 1916
  • 60,000 British casualties and 20,000 deaths on the first day
  • 400,000 allied casualties in total
  • Huge pressure on medical services
• Battle of Arras

  • Took place in 1917
  • British used network of underground tunnels and built underground hospital
  • Still suffered 160,000 casualties
• Battle of Cambrai

  • First major use of tanks by Allies in 1917
  • Initial success but land quickly lost due to lack of infantry support
• Evacuation route

  • Stretcher bearers
  • Regimental aid post (RAP)
  • Field ambulance and dressing station
  • Casualty clearing station
  • Base hospitals
• Stretcher bearers


  Fetched wounded from trenches and no-man's land, carried basic medical supplies, worked in dangerous conditions
• Regimental aid post (RAP)


  In frontline trench or close behind, run by battalion medical officer, bandaged minor wounds, sent more severe cases to dressing stations
• Field ambulance and dressing station

  Mobile teams of medical professionals, set up about a mile behind frontline, treated wounded by dressing wounds, sent severe cases to casualty clearing stations
• Casualty clearing station


  Large tents/huts about 10 miles from frontline, run by doctors and nurses, had operating theatres and used triage system
• Base hospitals


  Civilian hospitals far from frontline, received serious cases from casualty clearing stations, had advanced resources and could treat up to 2,500 patients
• War wounds


  • Varied depending on body part, common issue was blood loss
  • Treatment could include amputation
  • Army tried to prevent with steel helmets
• Infection


  • Risk increased due to conditions, gas gangrene was a particular problem
  • Antiseptic dressings often ineffective
• Poison gas injuries


  • Caused temporary blindness, skin irritation, coughing
  • Initially no protection, later gas masks issued
• Trench fever


  • Caused by body lice, flu-like symptoms, left soldiers too weak to fight
  • Treatments like drugs and electric currents tried
• Treatment of soldiers for gas attacks

  • Soldiers did not have any protection against death in 1915 when it first occurred, so many resorted to urinating on their hand keys and holding it over their faces
  • From July 1915, the army realized they needed to give more protection and gas masks were issued
• Trench fever


  • Caused by body lice that were often in the clothing and the kits used by soldiers in the Western Front
  • Caused flu-like symptoms and left soldiers too weak to fight
• Treatment of trench fever

  1. The army tried drugs like Quinine and Salvarsan, but these were found to be ineffective

  2. Eventually they started to use a method of passing electric currents through different areas of the body, which had a little bit more success
• By 1918, 15 percent of men in the Army were seen as unfit for duty due to trench fever
• Trench foot


  • Caused by the damp wet trench conditions, where many trenches would become waterlogged and soldiers' boots and socks were constantly wet or damp
  • This caused numb, swollen and painful feet, and in some cases gangrene
• Treatment of trench foot


  1. Cleaning and drying the feet, with the worst cases of gangrene requiring amputation of toes or feet

  2. Prevention became very important, with the army encouraging soldiers to change their socks twice a day and doing foot inspections
• Shell shock


  • A psychological illness caused by the horrible stress of fighting on the Western Front
  • Caused symptoms including tiredness, nightmares, shaking, and the army initially did not understand it and thought it might be contagious
• Approximately 80,000 cases of shell shock were recorded, but it is likely to have been much more than that
• Improvements in surgery and treatment

  1. Debridement - cutting away damaged and infected tissue from a wound as soon as possible

  2. The Carrel-Dakin method - using a sterilized salt solution to try and keep wounds clean, but it only lasted for about 6 hours
• Compound fractures


  Caused major blood loss, with only 20% of men with these injuries surviving at the start of the war
• Use of the Thomas splint


  1. A brace that pulled the leg straight to stop bones grinding against each other and reduce bleeding

  2. Taught to all medical officers, it increased the survival rate from 20% to 82%
• Development of blood transfusions

  1. Initially had to be done person-to-person, but solutions were found to allow blood to be stored for up to 4 weeks using citrate and glucose

  2. This led to the first blood bank for a battle at Cambrai in 1917, and the development of portable blood storage machines
• Improvements in x-ray machines

  1. At the start of the war there were not enough x-ray machines and they would overheat quickly

  2. Governments produced more x-ray machines and made them mobile, so that by 1916 most casualty clearing stations and base hospitals had their own x-ray machines
• Developments in plastic surgery

  1. Surgeons lacked experience in dealing with facial wounds, so techniques like skin grafts were developed

  2. By 1915, 11,000 reconstructive operations had been completed, allowing thousands of men with facial wounds to be treated
• Improvements in brain surgery

  1. At the start of the war, brain surgery was not carried out often as it was very complex and dangerous

  2. Surgeons like Harvey Cushing developed techniques like using a surgical magnet to remove metal fragments, using rubber bands to limit bleeding, and using local anaesthetic instead of general