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Western Front (Trench Conditions (The conditions in the trenches were very…
Western Front
Trench Conditions
The conditions in the trenches were very unsanitary, waterlogged and very packed.
Dysentery was caused due to a type of bacteria inflaming the intestines. Dysentery caused diarrhea and dehydration.
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The trenches were full of vermin (such as lice) and they spread the trench fever. Also, since the trenches were very closely packed, the lice could easily be spread and this continued to spread trench fever.
Soldiers suffered from something called 'trench foot' where the skin and the tissue on the feet broke down.
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By 1915, there were fewer cases of trench foot because the soldiers frequently changed their socks and also put whale oil on their boots to make it waterproof.
Design of Trenches
Trenches were dug down into the ground and the top parts of the trenches were covered with sandbags.
Barbed wire was used at the front of the trench so it can make it harder for enemy infantry to attack head to head.
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Parados were built at the back of the trenches. it was made of sandbags so that the soldiers could be protected from any shell explosions.
Parapets were built on the front side of the trench. it was made of sandbags. it was made to protect soldiers on the front line from getting shot from an enemy infantry in no mans land.
Fire trenches has a fire step held back a wooden plank. men would stand on there and fire their rifles into no mans land. they were protected by bulletproof parapets.
Effects of warfare
Symptoms of shell shock included shaking, tiredness, blindness, hearing loss and mental breakdowns.
Soldiers who suffered from shell shock were seen as cowards because people didn't understand what they went through so much trauma - until the end of the war, then they realised.
Doctors disagreed over the whether shell shock was caused by physical injuries that cant be seen, or whether it was because of the emotional trauma.
Soldiers were constantly around an environment of death, destruction and lots of artillery bombarding them everywhere they went. this caused them to have psychological disorders such as 'Shell Shock'
After the Battle of Somme in 1916, there was an increase in shell shock cases - So doctors sent them off to specialist hospitals.
Chain of evacuation
The Regimental Aid post was set up a few meters behind the front line in a shell hole or dug out. they gave first aid. men who needed more treatment walked or were carried by stretcher bearers to an ADC.
The casualty clearing stations collected seriously injured men from the main dressing stations using motor ambulance convoys.
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Base hospitals were the last stop before being sent back home, these performed X-rays and more complicated procedures
Medical advancements
British soldiers transfused blood from person to person but it was a slow process and not always successful.
The survival rates had increased since 1865 due to Joseph Lister's use of carbolic acid as a way of preventing infections.
In 1915, Alexis Carrel ad Henry Dakin found a new antiseptic solution that could be flushed into the wounds before closure.
A new method called the syringe cannula technique was developed whereby doctors took blood from a donor using a needle and syringe and transfused it into their patient quickly.
Battle of the Somme
On the first day of the Battle of Some, there was almost 60,000 British casualties and 20,000 of them were killed.
On July 1916, the British tried to break through the German line in an area called the Somme.
There were only 174 medical officers treating thousands of serious causalities in the fist week of the battle.