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Life in the trenches - Part 5

60 second histories

This video covers:

A description of how injured soldiers were taken care of both on the battlefield and in the trenches by their comrades and the medical officer

If you’re wounded you’re first looked after by your comrades. If it’s a minor wound you use your field dressing, you take out the cardboard tube and remove antiseptic, you snap off the end, pour it onto the wound and then apply the bandage. If you can walk you’ll be treated as walking wounded. Your officer will sign a wounded tag and send you back to the support trenches. Once there, the Medical Officer will patch you up and either send you to the base hospital or back to the front if you’re not too badly hurt. If you are badly wounded the regimental stretcher-bearers will be sent for; they’re normally in the support trenches not far away. These men are trained in first aid so they will plug any holes and try to stop the bleeding, they’ll then carry you out of the trenches. If they can, they’ll put you on a stretcher but very often the stretchers don’t fit in the trenches so it’s easier to carry a wounded man out.
Eras: 
20th Century
WW1
Topics: 
Trench Life
Medicine & health
Character: 
WW1 British infantry soldier
Key words: 
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