![]() ![]() Other American hospitals arriving later in the summer of 1917, remained assigned to the American forces.” The Allied pattern of medical triage and evacuation became the model for American efforts. “The first six to arrive in France took over British General Hospitals and provided hospital level care for the British. And indeed, American medical entry into the war came first in the form of hospitals. This was to use less transport and to maintain military morale, with the goal of returning the men to the front as quickly as possible. As the war wore on, more of the wounded were kept in France, at hospitals far back from the lines. More advanced treatment occurred at hospitals, either back in Britain or in France. ![]() Each station provided stabilization and immediate care, with some basic surgeries, such as amputation, at Casualty Clearing Stations. The lightly wounded-those likely to recover quickly-and the “moribund”-those likely to die-were kept, and the others sent on. Each move to the rear-always challenging in itself-was based on an assessment of the injury and the chances of survival. I gave him a hypodermic of morphia and we propped him up as comfortably as we could’ and left him there.” Behind the RAPs were Advanced Dressing Stations, then further back Main Dressing Stations, and finally, Casualty Clearing Stations. In one report of a man severely wounded in the abdomen, “Since ‘death awaited him with certainty. Stretcher bearers evacuated the wounded to Regimental Aid Posts (RAP)-or at least those that they had the means to move, for when stretcher-bearers were few, the worst cases were left on the field of battle. For the British Army, for example, the Royal Army Medical Corps developed an extensive system to move wounded from the front to the rear, with triage at each step. Evacuation and triage became watchwords of the war-wounded. Outcomes depended on getting treatment quickly. X-ray of head wound, from: Louis Ombredanne, Localisation and Extraction of Projectiles. Overall the war claimed about 10M military dead, and about 20M–21M military wounded, with perhaps 5% of those wounds life-debilitating, that is, about a million persons. Phosgene, chlorine, mustard gas, and tear gas debilitated more than killed, though many ended up suffering long-term disability. Of course, shooting-in combat as well as from snipers-was another great source of wounding. Even when there was not superficial damage, concussive injuries and “shell shock” put many men out of action. ![]() If not entirely obliterated, the body was often dismembered, losing arms, legs, ears, noses, and even faces. In his book Trench: A History of Trench Warfare on the Western Front (2010), Stephen Bull concluded that in the western front, artillery was the biggest killer, responsible for “two-thirds of all deaths and injuries.” Of this total, perhaps a third resulted in death, two-thirds in injuries. ![]()
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