Medicine on the British Sector of the Western Front

Question 1

What where the problems of the trenches?

Answer 1

1.) It was very difficult to move injured men around through the trench system because the trenches were narrow, full of men and equipment.
2.) The trenches were zig zap shape, which meant that it was difficult to get stretchers round corners.
3.) It was hard to move around at night without giving away your position to enemy snipers.

Question 2

What was a Stretcher Bearers?

Answer 2

A stretcher bearer was someone on the battle field who would retrieve the injured, they carried around health equipment and a bed to place the injured on they were a medium sized group of men.

Question 3

What where the problems of the terrain?

Answer 3

1.) Collecting the dead and wounded from No Man’s Land was very dangerous, and sometimes had to be done while under fire.
2.) The constant shelling left the landscape full of craters which filled with water and mud destroying many roads.
3.) As well as being filled with stagnant water and mud, craters could also contain rotting corpses and unexploded shells.
4.) No Man’s Land would often be knee deep in mud, which made collecting the injured very difficult.
5.) Stretcher Bearers would be exhausted from struggling to get the injured out the mud.
6.) Both horse drawn and motor ambulances couldn’t deal with the conditions.
7.) in addition, before the war, the land had been used as farmland and the fertilizer in the soil led to many infected wounds.