Western Front Medicine (1914-1918) Flashcards
Where was the western front?
The Western Front was the area in Belgium and France where the Allies fought the German Imperial Army from 1914 to 1918.
What did the Geneva Protocol ban in 1925?
The Geneva Protocol banned mustard gas in 1925.
What was the dugout?
The dugout was an area dug into the side of a trench, where men could take protective cover. In addition, soldiers could eat and sleep in the dugout.
RAP stations were sometimes in dugouts.
Why were trenches dug in zig-zag patterns?
Trenches were dug in zig-zags to stop enemies from shooting straight down them.
What did the duckboards do?
The duckboard drained soldiers feet to prevent diseases such as trench foot.
What did parapets do?
Parapets were filled with sand to shield enemy fire.
What did the firestep do?
The firestep allows the soldiers to fire towards the other trench.
Trenches were 2.5m deep and this step gave them extra height.
What was the ammunitions shelf?
The ammunition shelf was an area in which ammo was kept near the firestep.
What were the 4 types of trench?
There were 4 types of trenches: Front line, support, communication and reserve trenches
What was the communication trench?
The communications trench ran through the other trenches.
Describe the reserve trench
The reserve trench was at least 100 metres behind the support trench and was where reserve troops could be mobilised for a counter-attack if the frontline trench was captured by the enemy.
What was the frontline trench?
The frontline trench was where attacks would be made from.
The ‘fire trench’ (frontline trench) was the most unpleasant and dangerous trench, with machine guns and barbed wire.
Describe the support trench
The support trench was about 80 metres behind the frontline trench and the troops would retreat there if the frontline trench came under attack.
At the very rear were artillery emplacements.
Holes were dug into the side of the trenches where the men could take cover when needed. These were known as the dugouts.
Why were German trenches better than British trenches?
German trenches were better than British trenches because the British thought they were only going to be temporary but the Germans predicted a stalemate so they spent more time on their trenches.
Give one advantage of the trench system
Advantages:
Simple to make and cheap to build
Easy to defend with few men using barbed wire, artillery, etc
Give one disadvantage of the trench system
Disadvantages:
Hard to attack as the soldiers had to cross no mans land (the area between the two trenches) which had been destroyed by shell fire and was a mass of mud and craters.
Trenches were very dirty and unhygenic as there was no running water or flushing toilets.
What were the three ways of building trenches?
The three ways of building trenches:
Entrenching
Sapping
Tunnelling
What was entrenching?
Entrenching involved many soldiers standing in a line and digging.
What was sapping?
Sapping involved 1 man digging outwards from the end of the trench.
What was tunnelling?
Tunnelling was similar to sapping. One man dug outwards from the end of the trench, but a layer of earth was left along the top of the trench until it was completed.
What was the ideal trench depth?
The ideal trench depth was 6 feet
Who first dug trenches? Where?
Trenches were first dug by the British and French Armies in Northern France in 1914.
What was the aim of trenches, originally?
The aim of trenches was to act as a barrier to stop the rapid advance of the German army.
Why would trenches need to be constantly repaired?
Trenches would need to be constantly repaired due to the weather and constant bombing.
How did the way trenches were built change?
At first, trenches were temporary and built quickly using sandbags and shovels in existing ditches.
As the war went on, trenches became part of the ‘stalemate, used to defend and launch attacks.
Trenches became more complex with bunkers, drainage, hospitals and accomodation.
Trenches also became more dangerous with machine guns, concrete bunkers and barbed wire used as defenses.
Give 3 problems of trenches, in the summer
Problems in the summer:
Hot (which could cause soldiers to overheat, faint, get heatstroke)
Very uncomfortable
Sweating
Sun in soldiers eyes
Sewage
Smell
Dead bodies
Rat infestation
Give 3 problems of trenches, in the winter
Problems in the winter:
Soldiers could get trench foot from all the water
Get a fever
Flooding trenches
Poor hygiene
Bad weather
Rat infestation
What was trench foot?
Trench foot was the painful swelling of the feet, caused by standing in cold water and mud.
How did soldiers attempt to solve trench foot?
Prevention was key.
Soldiers rubbed whale oil into their feet to protect them.
Keeping feet dry and regularly changing socks helped too.
Soldiers had another person check their foot for trenchfoot. They would then check that person’s foot.
What was gangrene?
Second stage trench foot: Gangrene.
Body tissue decomposes due to lack of blood to the body tissue.
How was gangrene solved?
If gangrene developed, then amputation was the only solution.
What was trench fever?
Flu-like symptoms: High temperature, headache, and aching muscles.
500,000 men were affected with this illness.
Trench fever was caused by lice.
How did soldiers attempt to solve trench fever?
By 1918, the cause was linked to lice.
Delousing stations were set up, which resulted in a decline in cases of trench fever.
What was shellshock?
Shellshock: Symptoms: Tiredness, headaches, nightmares, loss of speech, uncontrollable shaking and mental breakdowns.
It is estimated that 80,000 men experienced shellshock.
(This was closest to modern day PTSD)
How did they attempt to solve shellshock?
The condition was not understood at the time.
Craiglockhart Hospital treated 2,000 men.
However, some men were accused of cowardice.
They were punished for this, some were even shot.
When did Britain declare war on Germany? Why did they do this?
Britain declared war on Germany on August 4th 1914 when Germany invaded France through Belgium.
Who did the British government send to northern France at the start of the war? What was their aim?
The British government sent the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) to northern France to try and stop the German advance.
By the end of 1914, what happened to most of Belgium and northern France?
By the end of 1914, much of Belgium and northern France had been occupied by the Germans.
When did trench warfare begin?
Trench warfare began when both the British and Germans pulled back their forces
What type was most of the fighting, between 1914 and 1918?
Between 1914 and 1918, most of the fighting done on the Western Front (France/Belgium) was trench warfare.
What does the British sector include?
The British sector includes the strategic areas of Ypres, Arras, Albert and the River Somme and many of the largest battles in the war were fought in this sector.
Give two medical impacts of World War One
The medical impact of WW1:
There were 2.7 million casualties in the British sector of the Western Front during the war
1/4 (700,000) of these casualties were not seen by medical services because they were killed/prisoners.
The remaining 2 million were treated by medical services in France or back in England.
Of those treated, 5.6% (150,000) died from their wounds.
Therefore the vast majority of those treated survived their wounds and illnesses: a testament to the successes of the medical care during WW1 (of course, many of these might be killed later in fighting).
What percentage of wounds were bullets responsible for?
Bullets were responsible for 39% of wounds.
What percentage of shells injured soldier’s arms and legs?
60% of injuries from shells, were to the soldier’s arms and legs.
What percentage of wounds were high explosive shells and shrapnel responsible for?
High explosive shells and shrapnel was responsible for 58% of wounds.
If not fully removed, what would shrapnel or bullets cause?
If not fully removed, shrapnel or bullets would cause infection
What did the soil the men were fighting on, contain? Why was this a problem?
The soil where the men were fighting was old farmland.
It contained fertiliser which caused bacteria.
This bacteria caused tetanus and gangrene.
How fast could gas gangrene kill someone?
Gas gangrene could kill a person within a day
At the start of the war, what did soldiers wear on their heads?
At the start of the war, soldiers only wore a soft cap on their heads.
By 1915, what were soldiers wearing on their heads?
By 1915, soldiers were wearing Brodie helmets on their heads
By what percentage did the Brodie helmet reduce fatal head wounds?
It is estimated that the Brodie helmet reduced fatal head wounds by 80%.
How many British soldiers died from gas attacks?
There was only about 6,000 British soldiers who died as a result of gas attacks
What masks did the British army give troops in 1915?
In 1915, the British army gave troops gas masks, which became more sophisticated over time
When was chlorine gas first used? By who?
Chlorine gas was first used by the Germans in 1915 at the 2nd Battle of Ypres.
Before gas masks, what did soldiers do to stop gas getting into their lungs?
Before gas masks were introduced, soldiers soaked cotton pads with urine and pressed them to their faces to stop the gas getting into their lungs.
The British retaliated with Chlorine gas at the Battle of Loos. What went wrong?
The British retaliated with Chlorine gas at the Battle of Loos, but the wind changed direction and the gas blew back on the British lines.
When was phosgene gas first used? Where?
Phosgene gas was first used at the end of 1915 near Ypres.
What were the effects of phosgene gas? How long did it take to kill someone?
Phosgene gas had similar effects to chlorine gas but killed faster - within two days
When was mustard gas first used? By who?
Mustard gas was first used by the Germans in 1917.
Give one feature of mustard gas
It was an odourless gas
It killed within 12 hours
Caused internal and external blisters
Passed through clothing and burned the skin
How long did it take mustard gas to kill someone?
Mustard gas killed within 12 hours
Roads were bombed, and there were craters in the roads. What effect did this have on ambulance drivers and injured soldiers?
Roads were bombed, so ambulance drivers cannot drive on it.
Constant shelling creates craters, destroying roads.
Because the roads can’t be used, soldiers could die or cuts could get infected from the wait.
Most fights were on farmers fields, which uses fertiliser. Why was this a problem?
Fertiliser contained bacteria and could infect wounds or burn skin
Mud was everywhere. What effect would this have on stretcher bearers?
Mud was everywhere and massively slowed down stretcher bearers.
Stretcher bearers were also exposed to the shellfire, which could turn 100 casualties into 900.
As they needed 8 people to carry 1 person, due to the mud.
Men were often shaken about on horse-drawn carriages. Why was this a problem?
Men were often shaken about on horse-drawn carriages, this led to injuries getting worse.
How many people could horse-drawn carriages carry? Why was this a problem?
Horse-drawn carriages could only carry six people
Due to them having six spaces, they couldn’t keep up with the amount of casualties
Give two problems with horse-drawn carriages
Horse-drawn carriages couldn’t cope with the amount of injuries and deaths.
They were also not very secure and due to men being shaken about, the injuries often got worse.
Horse-drawn ambulances could only carry 6 people.
They had to go very slow.
They were uncomfortable.
What were barges used for?
Barges were used to transport wounded soldiers to the base hospitals on the French coast.
When did the first ambulance train come into use?
The first ambulance train came into use in November 1914.
Give one advantage and disadvantage of a train, compared to a barge
Trains could go faster than barges
But, trains were less comfortable for soldiers
Why were trains criticised for damaging the war effort?
Trains were criticised for damaging the war effort, because too many of them were moving around France and Belgium.
They were clogging up the network of transportation which made it difficult to transport healthy soldiers to the frontline.
Give one advantage of a barge/canal boat?
Canal boats could carry lots of wounded soldiers
Canal boats were very comfortable
What was the main disadvantage of canal boats?
Canal boats were very slow, they went at 2-4mph
