How useful is the film The Battle of
How useful is the film The Battle of the Somme as a source for an enquiry into injury, treatment and the trenches in the First World War? Learning Resource
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Battle of the Somme The film The Battle of the Somme (1916), a documentary, is one of the most successful British films ever made. In cinemas, audiences were shown the realities of trench warfare including the depiction of dead and wounded soldiers. It shows the preparations and build up to the infantry attack, coverage of the first day of the battle and includes the medical services providing treatment for the injured behind the Front Line. One of the longest and bloodiest conflicts of the First World War, the Battle of the Somme (1916) was an attempt to breakthrough German defences on the Western Front. The British military planned for a quick victory, however the battle lasted over four months and over a million men on all sides became casualties. This resource has been developed in line with the Pearson Edexcel GCSE syllabus: Paper 1 The British Sector of the Western Front, 1914 -18: injuries, treatment and the trenches. *Teachers please check this resource for suitability for some younger students
Use these two sources from the The Battle of the Somme and your knowledge of the historical context to explore: ▪ Injuries ▪ The impact of the environment ▪ Treatment in the trenches
Source A: Bringing in the wounded The Battle of the Somme saw a million casualties in total from all sides; injured, dead and missing. The range of weapons used meant there was a variety of ways men could be wounded. Increasingly large artillery was developed that could fire high explosive shells further and more rapidly than before. The majority of casualties were caused by artillery shells, explosions and shrapnel. Half of British troops on the Western Front sustained some kind of injury. Silent film footage
Source B: Dressing station A dressing station was the first point in the medical chain. Here wounded were assessed and received basic medical treatment. Men with more serious injuries were taken to a casualty clearing station by horse or motor ambulance. Medical care was the responsibility of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) which set up dressing stations like the one seen in this film. Dressing stations were established as near to the Front Line as possible, in places such as dugouts, communication trenches and ruined houses. *Silent film footage
How could you use the following sources to find out more about injuries, treatment and the trenches in the First World War?
What can we learn from this eye witness account? © IWM (Q 4131) Recollections of medical treatment Leonard Ounsworth was a British signaller who fought in the Battle of the Somme. After his neck and jaw were hit by shrapnel from a German shell, Ounsworth was taken to a dressing station (advanced field post), ‘dug into a bank’ to have preliminary dressings applied. He was then taken during the night by horse ambulance, then motor ambulance, to a casualty clearing station. After this, he boarded a train to Rouen, where it was discovered that he also had a piece of shrapnel in his back. 3 mins: 26 sec © IWM (332)
How useful is this object to find out more about the causes of injury? Shrapnel Shell This shell has been sectioned to reveal what is inside. Advances in technology made for improved artillery (large long range guns) meaning that shells could be fired more rapidly and further than before. Shrapnel shells were not designed to destroy trenches, but to injure troops; they contained lead balls that were scattered mid-air to cause maximum damage to the men below. © IWM (MUN 5805)
What does this object tell us about how the troops were prepared for the battlefield? First Field Dressing Pack Every soldier was issued with a (First) Field Dressing pack as part of their kit. Men would therefore be able to dress their own wounds as soon as possible, before medical help arrived. Immediate treatment was vital, particularly to limit blood loss and stop dirt from getting into a wound. The pack contained two bandages along with safety pins for fastening them. Instructions for how to use the pack were printed on the outside of the bag. © IWM (SUR 599)
How might the trenches protect the troops yet make their injuries worse? Troops moving through a trench, shells bursting in the distance Trenches were seen as safe places from direct fire and dugouts provided additional protection. Trenches were dug in a zigzag pattern, so only a small area would be affected if hit by a shell, also making it difficult to fire bullets down their length. Dug into farmland, the soil contained manure which encouraged the growth of tetanus. Disease flourished in the trenches’ unhygienic conditions and relatively minor injuries could be fatal if they became infected. © IWM (Q 5100)
What can this painting tell us about the conditions in which the men were treated? The Doctor 1916 by CRW Nevinson In this painting men are being treated in a dressing station, a makeshift hospital, with straw on the floor. A soldier sitting on a stretcher is crying out in pain as a doctor tends his head-wound. Next to him a body lies on a stretcher, the face covered in bandages. The men have no privacy, however severe their injury. Nevinson was commissioned by the British Government as a war artist; he also worked as a Red Cross volunteer. In his autobiography, Nevinson wrote, 'Our doctors took charge, and in five minutes I was nurse, water-carrier, stretcher- bearer, driver, and interpreter’. © IWM (Art. IWM ART 725)
What does this photograph show us about how the wounded were transported? Horse Ambulances and Stretcher Bearers It was important to treat and evacuate the wounded as soon as possible. Stretcher bearers, with basic medical training, were usually the first to reach an injured soldier and were responsible for administering initial first aid. Stretcher bearers worked in dangerous conditions, often under fire and in difficult terrain. Further back from the Front Line, horse and motor ambulances transported men to casualty clearing stations (basic hospitals). © IWM (Q 4202)
Transcript of Leonard Ounsworth Well the blast, blew me out of that trench. I was just getting to my feet, you know, as you go down, just blew me out of that trench. I bruised my hip on the edge of the trench as I fell out, I think, and I landed about two or three bays away. Well they both dropped, these two officers in front. ‘ Are you alright? ’ I said, ‘yes’. So I started to walk on after them, no bones broken. I walked on a bit and I felt this hand was wet. So I wiped it on my britches and I wiped it a second time on my britches. Everything is dry as a bone but there’s blood running off my hands. Oh hell, I shouted to them, ‘ half a mo’, I am hit after all’. So we sat down in a hole and I got a field dressing. You used to have a field dressing in the corner of your tunic you see. Being a precautious type, I had two, one in each corner. I got one out and he started to bound up round there. I says, ‘I’m alright, it’s me arm’. ‘No, it’s here’. I didn’t know then, I’d got one in here through my jaw where my feint scar is and one in the throat here, just missed the jugular and another one in my back, but they didn’t find out that until I’d got to Rouen, about the one in the back you know. I never felt them. You feel it afterwards mind you. Two officers took me to an advanced field post, dressing station in Bernafay Wood and I was rebandaged there you see. While we were there, there was a man brought in. They had to tie him down with a wire on a stretcher, he’d got shell shock, he was raving mad. Then when it got dark, from there I was put into a horsed ambulance. A pair of horses and a covered wagon sort of thing it was, with two stretchers at the bottom and two stretchers at the top and I was in one of the upper stretchers. From that point, we had to cross what had been no man’s land for twenty-two months. Well the road was in a hell of a state and this thing was lurching all over the place and before long, myself and the other lad in the top stretcher, we were thrown onto the floor. © IWM (332) Battle of the Somme DLR
Transcript of Leonard Ounsworth continued… He got us to Billon Wood and from there we were unloaded and put onto a motor ambulance. There was no room inside, so I was put on the front with a blanket round me and the driver was told to hold onto me so I didn’t fall out. From that point, still during the night, we were taken down to Dive Copse, that was a big marquee. We were laid on the grass there, not even on stretchers, just laid on the bare grass. And they gave us an injection, for tetanus I think, in the chest. Then in the evening we were taken to the station and loaded onto a train for Rouen. That was the first time we saw any nurses. All this guff about nurses on the battlefront, well that was just rubbish. And as she’s pulling my shirt up at the back, there was a sudden stab of pain. I just said, ‘ ouch’, like that. She said, ‘what’s the matter? ’ She was smoking a cigarette and I said, ‘have you dropped a match? ’ She said, ‘I haven’t’, and when she pulled my shirt up, she said there was another wound in the back. There was a piece of shell there, a shell splinter. She said, ‘here’s the culprit’, and she threw it in the grass. Can you tell me a bit more about the dressing station that you went to first of all? Where was it set up and how big was it? It was only dug into a bank, that’s all. They evacuated them as quickly as they could you see. They only went in there to have their dressings put on, that’s all. Nobody stayed there. The ambulances were coming up and taking them away. They were merely to give a man preliminary dressing to stop bleeding and that sort of thing. They didn’t give you actual treatment. © IWM (332) Battle of the Somme DLR
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