Western Front Summary

Locations

Ypres Salient:

  • Germans had the high ground and could see the Allied movements
  • British trenches were low-lying, water logged and muddy

Events:

  • 1914 - First Battle of Ypres
  • 1915 - Hill 60 - man made hill that was blown up by the British to gain high ground
  • 1915 - Second Battle of Ypres - chlorine gas
  • 1917 - Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) - terrain issues

Somme:

Event:

  • Battle of the Somme - high casualty rate (400000 allied casualties in total) - loss for British army - put pressure on medical services

Arras:

  • Chalky terrain allowed the to build a network of underground tunnels
  • Underground hospital with running water, many beds, electricity

Event:

  • 1917 - Battle of Arras

Cambrai:

Event:

  • 1917 - Battle of Cambrai
  • First major use of tanks - failure
  • They didn’t have enough infantry to support the tanks

Evacuation Route

Stretcher Bearers:

  • Fetched wounded men from trenches and No Man’s Land
  • Carried basic medical supplies
  • Limited by the supplies they had
  • Weren’t enough at the start of the war
  • Difficult to work in muddy conditions
  • Hard to manoeuvre in narrow trenches

Regimental Aid Post:

  • In dugout/behind a wall
  • Not far front front line
  • First aid
  • More severe wounds received pain relief then were sent to dressing stations
  • Dangerous being close to fire and artillery
  • Poorly lit/dirty
  • Only one medical officer per battalion

Dressing Station/Field Ambulances:

  • Field ambulances - mobile team of doctors and nurses
  • Dressing stations usually set up in tents or derelict buildings a mile from front line
  • Severe cases went to CCS by motor/horse drawn ambulances
  • Wasn’t enough ambulances at the start of the war

Casualty Clearing Station:

  • 10 miles from front line
  • In tents or huts
  • Operations would happen
  • Triage system - minor wounds, critical injuries, hopeless cases
  • Easily overwhelmed

Base Hospitals:

  • Serious cases from CCS
  • Teams of doctors/surgeons
  • More advanced operations could be done
  • Up to 2500 patients
  • Laboratories/x ray departments/operating theatres etc
  • Transport from CCS was slow and painful which caused delay and cost lives

Injuries

Trench Fever:

  • Flu like symptoms
  • Spread by body lice
  • Drugs like quinine and salvarsan 606 were ineffective
  • Passing electric current through an area of the body was more successful
  • Prevention - disinfection/washing clothing, delousing stations

Trench Foot:

  • Caused by damp conditions
  • Tight boots made it worse as they prevented blood flow
  • Caused numb, swollen, painful feet with blisters
  • Followed with gangrene
  • Treatments - cleaning and drying feet, amputation
  • Prevention - dry socks, whale oil, foot inspections

Shell shock:

  • PTSD
  • Caused by stress
  • Soldiers were called cowards
  • Treatments - rest, good food

Debridement - cutting infected tissue from the wound and stitching back together

Carrel-Dakin method - putting sterilised salt solution in wound through a tube to keep wound clean

Thomas Splint - pulled leg straight to stop bones grinding and reduce blood loss

Blood Transfusions:

  • Had to be done from person to person - find a way to store blood
  • Blood clots

Sodium citrate stops clotting

Citrate glucose helps storing

X ray machines:

  • Overheat quickly and had to be left to cool down

  • More machines were produced

  • Created mobile x ray machines

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