A CCS contained operating theatres, mobile X-ray machines and hospital ward beds.Ī base hospital was where civilians and serious injuries were treated. Here, soldiers were treated by doctors, nurses and surgeons. Seriously injured soldiers were moved to a casualty clearing station by a motor or horse-drawn ambulance.Ī CCS was the first medical facility in which the moderately seriously wounded would receive treatment. Those who needed more treatment were moved on to a dressing station.Ī dressing station was often set up in a tent behind the trenches.
Here light wounds would be treated so that soldiers could return to the front line. They would carry basic medical supplies, such as bandages.Ī RAP was close to the front line, such as in a dugout (a hole dug in the side of a trench). It took four men to carry a stretcher, sometimes more in deep mud. This led to them having to overcome mud, shell craters and crowded trenches, sometimes in darkness. They would go out at night and during breaks in the fighting. Stretcher bearers recovered the dead and wounded from No Man’s Land. Triage was used at the dressing stations to organise the wounded and treat the more serious injuries most quickly. The chain of evacuationĪn evacuation route was used to treat injured soldiers quickly because this increased their chances of survival.
High numbers of casualties led to fast-paced developments in the care of the wounded on the Western Front. Caring for the wounded on the Western Front