My grandfather was in the Leinster Regiment, 16th Irish Division..........he survived a gas attack, dysentery, and a bullet to the chest near Messines.....I've no doubt he survived purely due to the treatment he received by the medical heroes of the day. My son and I toured the battlefield near Ypres last year.............such tours are a must if you have relatives involved in the conflict.
"The luck of the Irish". 🤞 In stark comparison, my Great Uncle -who served in the Green Howards- died from a sniper shot to the head on his first stint on the Front, aged 19, having been in France for just two weeks.
My grandfather was a stretcher bearer with the 2nd battalion leinster regiment in ww1and tended to many men in and around ypres and guillemont. He survived the war and told many stories about is time in the war.truley amazing man
My Grand Father served in the Australian IMF back in WW1 and was medicaly discharged then re-joined another Corp. He survied the war and passed away in 1943. Brave brave men. All of them. Lest We Forget.
@@TheTraktergirlyes but I'm sure even at a farm death would either have been an animal or someone dying from illnes or maybe some accident but not being blown blown up by artillery or see hundreds of people killed by machine gun right in front of you is kinda different
My great uncle served with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was killed at Passchendale on 28/09/1917. His body was never recovered. He was just 19 years old. Lest We Forget.
Similar story here, 2nd Great granduncle was serving with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and was killed at Bailleul on April 12th, 1918, he has no known burial location. I have his Dogtag and medals which were family passdowns.
@@RobertsArchives Thank you for sharing your story Robert. I can’t help but wonder if your great grand uncle and my great uncle possibly may have possibly known each other(?), or at the very least, knew many of the same men that served with both of them. I suppose we will never know. I think its wonderful that you have artifacts from your great grand uncle to remember his bravery and sacrifice. Lest We Forget.
My GG grandfather (a Kiwi) was with the Aussie 6th (?) Division at Fromelles. We've got a couple of letters from a nurse at a casualty clearing station. The first says he's been wounded but lost both his legs. The second is a day later, saying he passed away during the night. What a horrible night he must have had. He's buried at Bailleul and I visited his grave in 1998.
What was the population of New Zealand and of Australia at the time of WW1? Here in Serbia it used to be 4.2 million pre-war and out of that number - 1.258.000 people died during the war.
@@andrewstevenson118 Oh yeah, it did. Half of the victims were innocent civilians killed during Austro-Hungarian occupation of Serbia 1916-1918 partly as a retaliation for suffering several military defeats against Serbia. After this in late 1915 Austria-Hungary was forced to plead to Germany for direct military involvement which failed to produce results too, until finally Bulgaria joined and attacked Serbia from the east. Some of the victims died of typhoid epidemic, some during the Winter 1915/16 retreat of the Serbian Army & civilians through Albania to Greece. Anecdotally some died after drinking sea water, never being close to a sea in their life and not knowing it's fatal.
Fascinating but dreadful (in the proper sense of the word) considering the scale of the harm. For all our admiration of the courage, leadership, tenacity, duty and skill, we always need to maintain a revulsion for war. Your videos strike a good balance.
Uncle Walter a private was wounded in the legs during the Battle of the Somme, he was taken to an Aid Station and lay outside in the rain, a chaplain walked by and saw him shivering, he went and got an officers coat and covered him, later he heard doctors say we'd better get this one inside he's an officer, that probably saved his life.
My grandfather was called up in 1917 to the Royal Artillery. At sometime in 1918, a German shell exploded behind him, causing shrapnel injuries to the right side of his back and shoulder. After severl operations, probing for splinters and cloth from the uniform, he eventually refused any more surgery. He was never able to lift his arm above shoulder height. He did not come back to a welcoming "Land fit for hero's " but one where he could not get a job because he was competing with those still able bodied at war's end.
My Great-Grandfather, Arthur Linge, was wounded behind the lines in an artillery strike which killed 10 of his Company at a rest area just south of Ploegsteert wood, in November 1914. He suffered a broken leg, a wound to his arm, and a small wound to the back of his head. He was evacuated by field ambulance to Boulogne and admitted to hospital. On arrival, he was well enough on arrival to dictate a letter to his wife and children, but rapidly went downhill and was dead within a week, most likely of septicaemia. As a pre-war regular, it is unlikely that he would have survived the rest of the war, even if he had recovered. His brother, Ernie joined the regiment as a replacement in early January 1915, he was another regular soldier, but was dead by the end of the month, killed by a sniper. Both brothers had two daughters under five years old.
Some how my great grandfather was wounded behind German lines on June 20, 1917. He was a cyclist (bicycle ) corps. Around 11 pm a bullet or shrapnel entered his lower back making holes in his intestines, but not exiting. Four soldiers who were with him carried back to an aid station behind British lines arriving around 7 am in next morning. Amazingly he survived the flu and the wounds, at one point having his legs tied up to his stomach to keep everything together. He met his wife my great grandmother because he was wounded. He lost his brother to German Artillery on Aug 17, 1917 in the afternoon with 3 other men. His brother was in the Canadian Artillery. My Great Grandfather was close to 90 when I was born and I met him several times. He passed away at age 99 telling his nurses that he would not make it to 100. An amazing man who I am not sure ever smiled. I am not sure how he survived his wound. I do not have the bullet or shrapnel , but I do have several of his medals.
Just yesterday I listened to your podcast from a few months ago on this topic. This seems like a great idea for new videos that expand on your discussions and the visuals really add a lot. Great work!
These videos are terrific - they really bring to life everything I've read in books over the years and they've inspired me to dive back into studying this fascinating war.
I used to think that all casualties from the Western Front were evacuated across the English Channel to ports like Dover (as mentioned in this video). However, my colleague, Charles, at the Whitehead Railway Museum in County Antrim has done some research on Ambulance Trains in Ireland. He has discovered that many ambulance trains were used here (in this part of the UK then) to move casualties who had been brought by hospital ships to ports like Dublin and Belfast. The trains then carried the wounded to hospitals and such like places of recovery across the island of Ireland. And these were not just soldiers from Irish regiments - they could have been attached to any British battalion.
_Regarding the losses:_ _In summer of 1916, the home regiment of the city in which I live had within 2.5 months more than 5,000 casualties---with a regimental target strength of 3,000 soldiers_ *. . .*
Excellent presentation. Thank you. My grandfather fought with the Wiltshire Yeomanry and Wiltshire Regt. He was wounded and gassed too. The medics kept him alive. to return to duty twice. As a side note, he tried to join his old regt again in 1939, but they knew his age and casualty record so turned him down. He then went to Hampshire and joined the artillery instead after lying about his age.. Spent 2 years on the anti-aircraft batteries at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, being dive-bombed by Stukas in 1940, until his wounds and effects of the gassing from WW1 caught up with him and he was honourably discharged.
The amount of work that you are putting into this it is it’s unbelievable and the stuff that I’m learning it makes me sad that what we were through first world war and the second we shouldn’t of gone through it they shouldn’t of been a first or second war
My Great Grandfather Walter was treated at Etaples for two weeks in spring 1918. A French nurse wrote to his wife several times. Great Grandma Gertrude told me, back in the 1970s, she re-read these letters until they fell apart. Walter died and remains at Etaples. Gertrude lived as a War Widow for another 65 years. Walter’s death altered the path of my family history. He was 29.
My grandfather was in the Northamptonshire Regiment and wounded by a bullet in the wrist in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915. He was classed as ‘would survive without medical intervention’ so was set aside for later treatment. By the time he had been forwarded to a hospital the bones had begun to fuse and his wrist was bent at an angle and the Mauser bullet still in there. He served through the rest of the war like that and later in the Hime Guard on the east coast from 1940 to 1945. He carried the bullet to his grave in the 1960s.
I worked as a medical consultant for a company that distributed medical products for treating wounds, mainly chronic ones. This company introduced, among other things, the forgotten and seemingly replaced by newer and better products sodium hypochlorite. Several other companies in this industry did the same and this antiseptic is now very popular. What I learned about it today is amazing to me.
This is by far my favourite channel to comsume the two world wars history and I wish videos came out more frequently, but i would not sacrifice the quality. The way you overlay maps, the way you overlay footage and use old time lines on modern map views and then use footage of the fields. I had to pause and study the field at Beaumont hamel from the sunken road to the tree line for a good few minutes as the pure historical significance of that field amd the trauma and destruction is so powerful amd harrowing. It's my number 1 priority on my bucketlist to visit northen france and belgium and to see these sights in my life. I hope my 1yo daughter will come along and understand the significance with me. Genuinely such a powerful way you prodice these documentaries. Along with the podcast, the battle guide production team produces the best content and i view alot of ww1 and ww2 content.
My grandfather was wounded at Gommecourt on the first day of the Somme. He got 30 yards after going over the top in the first wave, then was hit in the stomach by shrapnel. Against the odds he survived and ended up in the hospital at Le Tréport. He never returned to the front and was medically discharged. He died in 1959 aged 65. He was in the Queen Victoria Rifles regiment.
@03:16 "Survivor Basis". To expand on what was said in the video viewers are reminded to near in mind the wounds % listed are those what where survived. A leg or arm isn't as likely fatal. The head seems a bit odd until factoring in the role of the heavy skull providing inner coverage and the helmets outer. What was quickly fatal then are those with low % represented here: the chest, abdomen and back. Those being injuries to the internal organs and prone to heavy bleeding where a tourniquet can't be applied like it can on a limb.
An absolutely outstanding piece of work, so well narrated and so informative. Many thanks for posting. Have you done anything on le Guerle Casse, the broken faces?
My Grand Father was in the 5th Marines, he was wounded in the chest in August 1918. He somehow ended up in a British hospital near Portsmith. He said they told him that with his lung injury he would in all probability die from infection and pneumonia soon. He made it to November 18th, 1963. The bullet still in him.
My Great Grandfather was injured due to inhaling gas. He survived but never really recovered and eventually died in 1922. That story was passed on to me by my Grandmother who was 12 at the time.
My Grandpa took im Convinced artillery Shrapnel at Mouquet Farm Sept 5, 1916. He was with the 13th Canadian Black watch, thrown into the Meat grinder after Australians were pulled out. He almost Drowned in a shell Hole but a man Dragged him out to an Aid station. It Affected the Remainder of his life dying about 1973 in Bala, Ontario.
My grandfather was posted to the right flank at the foot of Vimy Ridge ca June 1917 with the Royal Canadian 42 Regt. Shot to chest in Sept - a minor wound - back at the front in 3 days. Serious shell wound to leg in early October. Ended up in 3 different RCMHs in SE England till shipped home in Jan 1919 to his wife and two sons. Sometime between 1920 & 1922, an ex-British Canadian Military Hospital Aide/Nurse, arrived at his small town RR Stn, asking about hiim. She had a babe in arms. Much drama ensued. Seriously disrupted the family . . . Grand-father 'forced to leave town by 1924. His many old war wounds haunted him till he died in 1953 without leaving the identification of my long lost relative.
My great grandfather was wounded 4 times on two different fronts, he was bombed shot and gassed, although the gassing was by his own side, a leaking canister filled a trench he was moving through to mount an assault. The effect was serious enough that he was awarded a gold strip for the event (one of the last awards for succumbing to your own gas, they stopped that shortly after) but not serious enough to stop him being funneled back into that assault two days later, where he was shot for the first time in his left leg, bad enough to see him all the way back to England. After patching him up he was re-badged and sent to Salonika where he was wounded twice more on separate occasions. Finally seeing him in Ireland for a years worth of convalescence at Ballyvonare. And although the army was very good at patching him up and sending him back the front, they were less good at looking after him when he got home. He had to beg for replacement surgical boots and was turned down multiple times. Finally ending up in an asylum in 1924 where spent the remainder of his days and died in in the 1980s. I have never seen a documentary about the men that came home and how they managed/didnt manage. Someone make that documentary please. It was a battle like any other.
My great grandfather Georg was gassed at Yspre from what he thought was from his own unit nearby. He said it was important to not get in a panic, no running around it attracted more of the gas to you. Stay calm and composed He had the yellow stain on his face ears and neck apparently for awhile. On leave at home he spotted a British POW was working the fields in the village, Georg and the British prisoner spotted each other from afar an noticed both had the stains on their skin, they smirked and nodded at each other as if to say we survived it chum.
@@ericscottstevens Nice story. Yes the camaraderie of combat is like none other, friend or foe. For some of us it is the highest highs. Others despise the idea of it. They call it the glorification of war. But like it or not we see the very best of ourselves at the very worst of times and you cant help admiring those that perform well at their limits.
Another superbly presented video. What unimaginable horror, not just for the poor men maimed and disfigured but for the medical staff trying to deal with incredible numbers and severity of injuries. How they coped is incredible and puts our current health service to shame. My paternal grandmother was a nurse in France. My great uncle sustained a gunshot wound to his face but was fortunate not to be seriously injured, he was killed in the second day of the Somme at the age of 22. Another died of wounds. Such a terrible waste for all involved.
Like and comment while the commercials are running. The reason this is one of the best channels for history of the modern wars is how it brings me into the situation on the ground through the perspective of the people fighting. Time to watch today’s episode.
Hi - the men captured in the famous piece of film carrying a casualty back to the trench were not from the Lancashire Fusiliers as stated, they were Royal Garrison Artillery.
By late 1918, the AEF had the system working pretty well based on the French and especially British practice, so their wounded benefited from the four years of experience before they fought their first battle. My great uncle, a private in the 6th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division, AEF, was shot in the heel October 29, 1918, outside Cunel, France. (ALWAYS keep your heels down when taking cover, kids). He was pretty quickly evacuated from the front, spent Armistice Day in a field hospital, but spent nearly nine months in hospitals because the German bullet (probably from a machine gun laying suppressive fire) pretty well mangled his heel forever, I'm guessing he might have gotten an infection, or he had a bout of the Spanish Flu, which delayed his recovery. He was discharged from Walter Reed Army Hospital in July 1919.
My grandfather (Harry Ludford) served 4 continuous years in WW1 after sailing to England from St. John N.B. in June 1915 with the New Brunswick 26th regiment. He saw action in many of the famous battles, and was one of a few originals that returned in 1919. He was wounded in 1916 and spent a few weeks in Boulogne. Another relative went MIA in 1917 and his body was never recovered. He is named on the Menin Gate memorial.
@@JackFrost008that’s the whole point in warfare in general. Everything there is designed to kill and the things that aren’t, aim to preserve life so that they can be sent out again to kill others or fill in much needed gaps on the front and die at a later hopefully more convenient date. War is perverse and all about the people with the power of sending the not powerful to die, making money from the chaos they create.
My maternal grandfathers brothers served in the AIF during WWI. The older fought at Gallipoli and then at Beersheba with the Australian light horse. Multiple wounds, returned to service after convalence. His younger brother was killed at Messine Ridge on 10 June 1917, again after multiple wounds in 1916 and 1917 (including a spell in a hospital after enjoying life's pleasures in Armentieres). My wife had a great uncle who had a similar record of wounds on the western front and medical issues from the same town as my relative. He then was returned to the front and was killed in May 1918 . Both are still in France and Belgium. My question is, do we have to sort out problems this way again and again and again? Thanks to Battle Guide for providing such good social history of these events.
yeah this one of the videos of the 1st world war you got this so right you brought something to my mind what happend to the wounded men now i know thank you
I remember my great uncle showing me the bullet holes in his stomach. He was a British pilot who got shot down in the middle east. Still crazy that he survived that
My 2nd Great Granduncle served with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the Great War, he arrived in France shortly after July 1st, 1916 and seen his first action at Gueudecourt and recieved a GSW to his right hand. He later fought at Moncy-le-Preux in 1917 where once again, he was wounded by a GSW to his right hand but also recieved shrapnel wounds to his back. He was out of action for the rest of the war but lived a very long life, passing in the 90's.
I read somewhere that the prevalence of gas gangrene could be because much of the fighting was carried out in farmland that had been fertilized with manure (animal and human) for centuries, and every wound was almost certain to be contaminated with the local soil along with all the bacteria it contained. I believe the fighting around Monte Cassino in WWII saw an unusually high incidence of gas gangrene cases for similar reasons.
That location and the caribou memorial is still spoken about in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada 😢 So many families were impacted by those decisions The stretcher bearers were heroic
My grandfather was perhaps a lucky one. He lost a leg in the trenches from a shrapnel wound and fortunately made it back. He retrained as a cabinet maker and lived till 86 years old.
Interesting to see The Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley. Used to visit the grounds and found it fascinating at just how big it was and where all the buildings once stood. Such a shame that they knocked the main building down in the sixties 😢 So many soldiers passed through there on their arrival back from France and the place has Such a poignant feel to it.
I don't know where I heard this but I do recall hearing that before the introduction of the steel helmet to the British army 7 out of 10 headwounds were fatal. The steel helmet 3 out of 10 head wounds were fatal. That's pretty good. I hope that young man with the smashed eyeballs was taken care of in his life. That one got to me. Least we forget.
Yeah that was pretty a pretty sad image to imagine. Even if he was well looked after (probably unfortunately unlikely) his entire life was ruined that day anyway because he was forced to fight and sacrifice himself like every generation before him for wars that never stop waging even after non stop sacrifice. At the rate this world is going currently it won’t be very long until our nations lads are once again, given the call to have your life stolen, body mangled and chewed up by shrapnel and bullets for yet another useless war for the fellas forced to fight and die in them.
It makes me wonder how many wounded died being in the first category and being shuffled around and passed over until an infection brewed up. The one nurse seeing maggots crawling in wounds seems to verify this.
My Greatgrandfather Georg had a gangrene infection on his left shin sustained after a shell fragment hit his trench at Somme/ Longueval on August 31st 1916 with the 5th Bayern Infantry Regiment/2nd company. For decades after the wound on his shin festered where he could not walk on the leg, then it sort of healed over with skin discoloration, unannounced festered again. It was a constant open and healed situation, but the was always working and mobile heading the family brauerei trying to keep this leg scenario at bay. But it could be debilitating in sessions from what I was told with Georg in the kitchen sitting in a chair trying to ease the pain or unsuccessfully manage it. I never realized gangrene was caused by Clostridium bacteria in the soil caused by cow manure, or decades of cow manure not needing oxygen to survive. For centuries the French countryside was filled with Clostridium perfringens awaiting an invading army from Germany.
I believe an Australian doctor changed the way the injured were treated by treating them where they were found if possible. Just like to add that the stretcher bearers were not always from the band but tended to be the strongest fittest men in the unit. Early on it was the band.
Did they have sulpha drugs in the first World War? Thanks for keeping the memory of this horrible four years and the men and women who were there for newer generations to learn how horrible it was. A special thank you for shining a light on true heroes of all wars-the stretcher bearers or medics. Those brave souls who go into no man’s land withOUT a weapon, to collect the wounded!
Very well done. It might be interesting about how enemy wounded would be cared for with the possibility of escape and then into the POW camp. Were they separated early on or did they go through the same process ?
I met an old WW1 vet he was Canadian in a Scotish regament, he said he saw a lot of young men die because they had no penicillan to treat the wounds. Penicillan wasn't invented until 1928.
My Grand father had his foot crushed by a horse drawn ambulance ON ARMISTICE DAY 1918. Spent six weeks in hospital waiting for a pass to be returned to Australia .
A very interesting and well researched documentary. My great uncle,like many lied about his age and joined at 16 I the west Surrey regiment.was wounded in the shoulder and chest in 1917 in Ypres.hew was lucky made it back home and didn't return. Like many others after the war he became a communists all his life, never married and in his mid 30s joined the international brigade and fought francos fascist, and was once again wounded in the leg.in 1979.at nearly 80 he was arrested for punching conservative campaigning in the general election! Was a great character when I was growing up.
my grandfather in nova scotia rifles lost a 3 inch chunk of bone from left leg above the knee oct 1918 outside cambrai he laid in mud for 3 days before stretcher bearers found him he eventually lost leg in 1919 while at hospital in toronto canada he was the lucky one of my relations 4 others didn't come home
Private William George Walker, 46th Battalion, 4th Division 1st AIF received a number of wounds at a several sites including his chest, earned during his service that resulted in him receiving the Military Medal for his bravery against the Hindenburg Line in 1918. His wounds earned him a trip back to London. He survived the War however died in June 1919 from botulism. He never fully recovered his health from the last major wound and he turns up sick on a regular basis. Botulism enters the body via wounds. The Australian Army decided that his disease and death were not related to his military service and denied his widowed mother his pension; William was her only child.
My Grandfather was wounded 5 times during WW1. He was at Passchendale and came home with PTSD. In a Village near me is the Grave of a Soldier in a Machine Gun Platoon. He came home wounded and died the day after the Armistice was sighned , 12th November 1918.... RIP.
My relative was a Sniper he died aged just 32 he was involved in fighting on 23rd of April at monchy le preux they tried unsuccessfully to capture the chemical works there but there were many machine gun posts there and it was quite a German strong hold there. Well anyway according to war diaries of the time the 1/4th Gordon Highlanders were involved in that attack it's believed my relative was wounded on the 23rd and he managed to take out one of the machine gun posts being a sniper they think he may have taken out as many as 6 Germans on that day he was found on the 25th of April still alive that was 2 days later and taken to casualty clearing station number 30 but died of wounds on the 28th of April 1917(bloody April) as it was called at the time because of the many deaths that occurred that month..
Had a great uncle on mums side who enlisted with the AIF & was captured by the Germans on the first night of the battle of Poziers, he never spoke of it & we never knew until we went digging for my great grandfathers records they shared the same name so both came up.
My great great grandfather was a US Army ambulance driver late in the war. After listening to this, I’m wondering if my understanding of his actual role was different. I assumed he drove a small truck, perhaps he did something other than that?
Aussiie/Kiwi co-production for WW1 anniversary ANZAC Girls - gives a good overview of how the Allied medical services and in particular, the nurses, braved the conditions and the social norms , to do their magnificent work - Follows five Anzac nurses from Gallipoli to the end of the War think it's on RUclips!
My grandfather was in the Leinster Regiment, 16th Irish Division..........he survived a gas attack, dysentery, and a bullet to the chest near Messines.....I've no doubt he survived purely due to the treatment he received by the medical heroes of the day. My son and I toured the battlefield near Ypres last year.............such tours are a must if you have relatives involved in the conflict.
Thanks for sharing and yes walking the ground really brings these stories to life.
"The luck of the Irish". 🤞
In stark comparison, my Great Uncle -who served in the Green Howards- died from a sniper shot to the head on his first stint on the Front, aged 19, having been in France for just two weeks.
My grandfather was a stretcher bearer with the 2nd battalion leinster regiment in ww1and tended to many men in and around ypres and guillemont. He survived the war and told many stories about is time in the war.truley amazing man
@@gerryreid4231my great grandfather on my Mom’s side was an orderly on Hospital trains once the US entered the war.
@@gerryreid4231 he may have tended to my Grandfather.............
My Grand Father served in the Australian IMF back in WW1 and was medicaly discharged then re-joined another Corp. He survied the war and passed away in 1943. Brave brave men. All of them. Lest We Forget.
That was a ballsy move by your GF. Well played that man!
Imagine how tough you have to be to go through all that and then go back to the front. Hard as nails
Yeah. a daunting prospect.
Most of the soldiers were farm boys and were naturally tough.
@@TheTraktergirlyes but I'm sure even at a farm death would either have been an animal or someone dying from illnes or maybe some accident but not being blown blown up by artillery or see hundreds of people killed by machine gun right in front of you is kinda different
@@trevdestroyer8209 I was commenting on the 'hard as nails'. I'm well aware of artillery and all the rest.
They had no choice. "Cowards" were shot!
My great uncle served with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was killed at Passchendale on 28/09/1917. His body was never recovered. He was just 19 years old.
Lest We Forget.
Similar story here, 2nd Great granduncle was serving with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and was killed at Bailleul on April 12th, 1918, he has no known burial location. I have his Dogtag and medals which were family passdowns.
@@RobertsArchives Thank you for sharing your story Robert. I can’t help but wonder if your great grand uncle and my great uncle possibly may have possibly known each other(?), or at the very least, knew many of the same men that served with both of them. I suppose we will never know. I think its wonderful that you have artifacts from your great grand uncle to remember his bravery and sacrifice.
Lest We Forget.
My GG grandfather (a Kiwi) was with the Aussie 6th (?) Division at Fromelles. We've got a couple of letters from a nurse at a casualty clearing station. The first says he's been wounded but lost both his legs. The second is a day later, saying he passed away during the night. What a horrible night he must have had. He's buried at Bailleul and I visited his grave in 1998.
What was the population of New Zealand and of Australia at the time of WW1? Here in Serbia it used to be 4.2 million pre-war and out of that number - 1.258.000 people died during the war.
@@matovicmmilan NZ was about one million, I think. Australia about five. Wow, I didn't realise Serbia lost so many.
@@andrewstevenson118
Oh yeah, it did. Half of the victims were innocent civilians killed during Austro-Hungarian occupation of Serbia 1916-1918 partly as a retaliation for suffering several military defeats against Serbia. After this in late 1915 Austria-Hungary was forced to plead to Germany for direct military involvement which failed to produce results too, until finally Bulgaria joined and attacked Serbia from the east.
Some of the victims died of typhoid epidemic, some during the Winter 1915/16 retreat of the Serbian Army & civilians through Albania to Greece. Anecdotally some died after drinking sea water, never being close to a sea in their life and not knowing it's fatal.
@@matovicmmilan Thanks for that. I never knew that. Terrible.
My great Uncle, GSW legs, “this man will not survive an operation “, buried at Estaires
As a reserve military doctor, i loved your work! It's stunning the similarities with today's combat care system
_Thanks to Jean-Henri Dunant_ *. . .*
Thank you for your service 🙏
Fascinating but dreadful (in the proper sense of the word) considering the scale of the harm. For all our admiration of the courage, leadership, tenacity, duty and skill, we always need to maintain a revulsion for war. Your videos strike a good balance.
Thanks James.
A very valid point often overlooked. Well put.
Uncle Walter a private was wounded in the legs during the Battle of the Somme, he was taken to an Aid Station and lay outside in the rain, a chaplain walked by and saw him shivering, he went and got an officers coat and covered him, later he heard doctors say we'd better get this one inside he's an officer, that probably saved his life.
Remarkable. Thank you for sharing. My Great Grandfather, also Walter, was cared for at Etaples for two weeks but tragically did not survive.
Massive thank you for this post, it is often forgotten those that are behind the front lines and deserve as much respect. RIP xx
My grandfather was called up in 1917 to the Royal Artillery. At sometime in 1918, a German shell exploded behind him, causing shrapnel injuries to the right side of his back and shoulder. After severl operations, probing for splinters and cloth from the uniform, he eventually refused any more surgery. He was never able to lift his arm above shoulder height.
He did not come back to a welcoming "Land fit for hero's " but one where he could not get a job because he was competing with those still able bodied at war's end.
My Great-Grandfather, Arthur Linge, was wounded behind the lines in an artillery strike which killed 10 of his Company at a rest area just south of Ploegsteert wood, in November 1914. He suffered a broken leg, a wound to his arm, and a small wound to the back of his head. He was evacuated by field ambulance to Boulogne and admitted to hospital. On arrival, he was well enough on arrival to dictate a letter to his wife and children, but rapidly went downhill and was dead within a week, most likely of septicaemia. As a pre-war regular, it is unlikely that he would have survived the rest of the war, even if he had recovered. His brother, Ernie joined the regiment as a replacement in early January 1915, he was another regular soldier, but was dead by the end of the month, killed by a sniper. Both brothers had two daughters under five years old.
God Bless the medics, nurses and doctors who saved so many. ❤
"God Bless"?
Brave men R.I.P
As a nurse and history buff thank you so much for the video. You've got a new subscriber. Very well done.
Some how my great grandfather was wounded behind German lines on June 20, 1917. He was a cyclist (bicycle ) corps. Around 11 pm a bullet or shrapnel entered his lower back making holes in his intestines, but not exiting. Four soldiers who were with him carried back to an aid station behind British lines arriving around 7 am in next morning. Amazingly he survived the flu and the wounds, at one point having his legs tied up to his stomach to keep everything together. He met his wife my great grandmother because he was wounded. He lost his brother to German Artillery on Aug 17, 1917 in the afternoon with 3 other men. His brother was in the Canadian Artillery. My Great Grandfather was close to 90 when I was born and I met him several times. He passed away at age 99 telling his nurses that he would not make it to 100. An amazing man who I am not sure ever smiled. I am not sure how he survived his wound. I do not have the bullet or shrapnel , but I do have several of his medals.
Thank you for the video and the information.
They cannot have been serious gut injuries or he'd surely have died
Our family doctor served as a doctor in France with the AIF. He was awarded the MC.
This is one of my new favorite history channels, thank you for another stellar mini doc
Thank you... Viewing this made me more appreciative of those wonderful nurses who are mostly overlooked when we study warfare.❤
Just yesterday I listened to your podcast from a few months ago on this topic. This seems like a great idea for new videos that expand on your discussions and the visuals really add a lot. Great work!
Do you have a link to the pod?
These videos are terrific - they really bring to life everything I've read in books over the years and they've inspired me to dive back into studying this fascinating war.
I used to think that all casualties from the Western Front were evacuated across the English Channel to ports like Dover (as mentioned in this video). However, my colleague, Charles, at the Whitehead Railway Museum in County Antrim has done some research on Ambulance Trains in Ireland. He has discovered that many ambulance trains were used here (in this part of the UK then) to move casualties who had been brought by hospital ships to ports like Dublin and Belfast. The trains then carried the wounded to hospitals and such like places of recovery across the island of Ireland. And these were not just soldiers from Irish regiments - they could have been attached to any British battalion.
_Regarding the losses:_
_In summer of 1916, the home regiment of the city in which I live had within 2.5 months more than 5,000 casualties---with a regimental target strength of 3,000 soldiers_ *. . .*
It was said that no UK civilian would ever forget the casualty lists of the Battle of the Somme..
@@davidsigalow7349 _That's true!_
Amazing video. Truly thank you
Excellent presentation. Thank you. My grandfather fought with the Wiltshire Yeomanry and Wiltshire Regt. He was wounded and gassed too. The medics kept him alive. to return to duty twice. As a side note, he tried to join his old regt again in 1939, but they knew his age and casualty record so turned him down. He then went to Hampshire and joined the artillery instead after lying about his age.. Spent 2 years on the anti-aircraft batteries at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, being dive-bombed by Stukas in 1940, until his wounds and effects of the gassing from WW1 caught up with him and he was honourably discharged.
The amount of work that you are putting into this it is it’s unbelievable and the stuff that I’m learning it makes me sad that what we were through first world war and the second we shouldn’t of gone through it they shouldn’t of been a first or second war
Great video mate. Thank you so much. All the best.
My Great Grandfather Walter was treated at Etaples for two weeks in spring 1918. A French nurse wrote to his wife several times. Great Grandma Gertrude told me, back in the 1970s, she re-read these letters until they fell apart. Walter died and remains at Etaples. Gertrude lived as a War Widow for another 65 years. Walter’s death altered the path of my family history. He was 29.
My grandfather was in the Northamptonshire Regiment and wounded by a bullet in the wrist in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915. He was classed as ‘would survive without medical intervention’ so was set aside for later treatment. By the time he had been forwarded to a hospital the bones had begun to fuse and his wrist was bent at an angle and the Mauser bullet still in there. He served through the rest of the war like that and later in the Hime Guard on the east coast from 1940 to 1945. He carried the bullet to his grave in the 1960s.
Great video Dan. I especially liked this episode on the podcast. Keep it up!
I worked as a medical consultant for a company that distributed medical products for treating wounds, mainly chronic ones. This company introduced, among other things, the forgotten and seemingly replaced by newer and better products sodium hypochlorite. Several other companies in this industry did the same and this antiseptic is now very popular. What I learned about it today is amazing to me.
mind blowing stuff, great job on the vid
This is by far my favourite channel to comsume the two world wars history and I wish videos came out more frequently, but i would not sacrifice the quality.
The way you overlay maps, the way you overlay footage and use old time lines on modern map views and then use footage of the fields. I had to pause and study the field at Beaumont hamel from the sunken road to the tree line for a good few minutes as the pure historical significance of that field amd the trauma and destruction is so powerful amd harrowing.
It's my number 1 priority on my bucketlist to visit northen france and belgium and to see these sights in my life. I hope my 1yo daughter will come along and understand the significance with me. Genuinely such a powerful way you prodice these documentaries. Along with the podcast, the battle guide production team produces the best content and i view alot of ww1 and ww2 content.
Exceptional video
My grandfather was wounded at Gommecourt on the first day of the Somme. He got 30 yards after going over the top in the first wave, then was hit in the stomach by shrapnel. Against the odds he survived and ended up in the hospital at Le Tréport. He never returned to the front and was medically discharged. He died in 1959 aged 65. He was in the Queen Victoria Rifles regiment.
@03:16 "Survivor Basis". To expand on what was said in the video viewers are reminded to near in mind the wounds % listed are those what where survived. A leg or arm isn't as likely fatal. The head seems a bit odd until factoring in the role of the heavy skull providing inner coverage and the helmets outer. What was quickly fatal then are those with low % represented here: the chest, abdomen and back. Those being injuries to the internal organs and prone to heavy bleeding where a tourniquet can't be applied like it can on a limb.
An absolutely outstanding piece of work, so well narrated and so informative. Many thanks for posting. Have you done anything on le Guerle Casse, the broken faces?
My Grand Father was in the 5th Marines, he was wounded in the chest in August 1918. He somehow ended up in a British hospital near Portsmith. He said they told him that with his lung injury he would in all probability die from infection and pneumonia soon. He made it to November 18th, 1963. The bullet still in him.
My uncle was old breed,5th,at Okinawa, and more pacific island party's, etc etc
Excellent research and a fascinating presentation. Thank you
Really like your content! Subscribed.
Excellent video, very well done, thank you for making it.
My Great Grandfather was injured due to inhaling gas. He survived but never really recovered and eventually died in 1922.
That story was passed on to me by my Grandmother who was 12 at the time.
My Grandpa took im Convinced artillery Shrapnel at Mouquet Farm Sept 5, 1916. He was with the 13th Canadian Black watch, thrown into the Meat grinder after Australians were pulled out. He almost Drowned in a shell Hole but a man Dragged him out to an Aid station. It Affected the Remainder of his life dying about 1973 in Bala, Ontario.
My grandfather was posted to the right flank at the foot of Vimy Ridge ca June 1917 with the Royal Canadian 42 Regt. Shot to chest in Sept - a minor wound - back at the front in 3 days. Serious shell wound to leg in early October. Ended up in 3 different RCMHs in SE England till shipped home in Jan 1919 to his wife and two sons.
Sometime between 1920 & 1922, an ex-British Canadian Military Hospital Aide/Nurse, arrived at his small town RR Stn, asking about hiim. She had a babe in arms. Much drama ensued. Seriously disrupted the family . . . Grand-father 'forced to leave town by 1924.
His many old war wounds haunted him till he died in 1953 without leaving the identification of my long lost relative.
My great grandfather was wounded 4 times on two different fronts, he was bombed shot and gassed, although the gassing was by his own side, a leaking canister filled a trench he was moving through to mount an assault. The effect was serious enough that he was awarded a gold strip for the event (one of the last awards for succumbing to your own gas, they stopped that shortly after) but not serious enough to stop him being funneled back into that assault two days later, where he was shot for the first time in his left leg, bad enough to see him all the way back to England. After patching him up he was re-badged and sent to Salonika where he was wounded twice more on separate occasions. Finally seeing him in Ireland for a years worth of convalescence at Ballyvonare. And although the army was very good at patching him up and sending him back the front, they were less good at looking after him when he got home. He had to beg for replacement surgical boots and was turned down multiple times. Finally ending up in an asylum in 1924 where spent the remainder of his days and died in in the 1980s. I have never seen a documentary about the men that came home and how they managed/didnt manage. Someone make that documentary please. It was a battle like any other.
My great grandfather Georg was gassed at Yspre from what he thought was from his own unit nearby. He said it was important to not get in a panic, no running around it attracted more of the gas to you. Stay calm and composed He had the yellow stain on his face ears and neck apparently for awhile. On leave at home he spotted a British POW was working the fields in the village, Georg and the British prisoner spotted each other from afar an noticed both had the stains on their skin, they smirked and nodded at each other as if to say we survived it chum.
@@ericscottstevens Nice story. Yes the camaraderie of combat is like none other, friend or foe. For some of us it is the highest highs. Others despise the idea of it. They call it the glorification of war. But like it or not we see the very best of ourselves at the very worst of times and you cant help admiring those that perform well at their limits.
It’s crazy how you can tell a video is gunna be high quality just by the thumbnail alone. It’s why I clicked and watched the whole thing
Another superbly presented video. What unimaginable horror, not just for the poor men maimed and disfigured but for the medical staff trying to deal with incredible numbers and severity of injuries. How they coped is incredible and puts our current health service to shame. My paternal grandmother was a nurse in France.
My great uncle sustained a gunshot wound to his face but was fortunate not to be seriously injured, he was killed in the second day of the Somme at the age of 22. Another died of wounds. Such a terrible waste for all involved.
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The reason this is one of the best channels for history of the modern wars is how it brings me into the situation on the ground through the perspective of the people fighting.
Time to watch today’s episode.
Thank you.
Fifty-nine thousand casualties. What a staggeringly sober figure. Each one of them a human.
Brilliant documentary
Hi - the men captured in the famous piece of film carrying a casualty back to the trench were not from the Lancashire Fusiliers as stated, they were Royal Garrison Artillery.
Thank you. ❤
By late 1918, the AEF had the system working pretty well based on the French and especially British practice, so their wounded benefited from the four years of experience before they fought their first battle. My great uncle, a private in the 6th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division, AEF, was shot in the heel October 29, 1918, outside Cunel, France. (ALWAYS keep your heels down when taking cover, kids). He was pretty quickly evacuated from the front, spent Armistice Day in a field hospital, but spent nearly nine months in hospitals because the German bullet (probably from a machine gun laying suppressive fire) pretty well mangled his heel forever, I'm guessing he might have gotten an infection, or he had a bout of the Spanish Flu, which delayed his recovery. He was discharged from Walter Reed Army Hospital in July 1919.
My grandfather (Harry Ludford) served 4 continuous years in WW1 after sailing to England from St. John N.B. in June 1915 with the New Brunswick 26th regiment. He saw action in many of the famous battles, and was one of a few originals that returned in 1919. He was wounded in 1916 and spent a few weeks in Boulogne. Another relative went MIA in 1917 and his body was never recovered. He is named on the Menin Gate memorial.
Artillery is a killer!
That is the point of it.
@@JackFrost008that’s the whole point in warfare in general. Everything there is designed to kill and the things that aren’t, aim to preserve life so that they can be sent out again to kill others or fill in much needed gaps on the front and die at a later hopefully more convenient date. War is perverse and all about the people with the power of sending the not powerful to die, making money from the chaos they create.
Thank you
My maternal grandfathers brothers served in the AIF during WWI. The older fought at Gallipoli and then at Beersheba with the Australian light horse. Multiple wounds, returned to service after convalence. His younger brother was killed at Messine Ridge on 10 June 1917, again after multiple wounds in 1916 and 1917 (including a spell in a hospital after enjoying life's pleasures in Armentieres). My wife had a great uncle who had a similar record of wounds on the western front and medical issues from the same town as my relative. He then was returned to the front and was killed in May 1918 . Both are still in France and Belgium. My question is, do we have to sort out problems this way again and again and again? Thanks to Battle Guide for providing such good social history of these events.
Soldiers do not die for their country. They just die. And that, makes me weep. We waste each other's lives too much.
This is story which isn’t shown much . Well done
12:00 I helped renovate a trench in Auchonvillers in 2003/04 in the back garden of Avrils B&B.
Thank you for your service.
yeah this one of the videos of the 1st world war you got this so right you brought something to my mind what happend to the wounded men now i know thank you
I remember my great uncle showing me the bullet holes in his stomach. He was a British pilot who got shot down in the middle east. Still crazy that he survived that
My 2nd Great Granduncle served with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the Great War, he arrived in France shortly after July 1st, 1916 and seen his first action at Gueudecourt and recieved a GSW to his right hand. He later fought at Moncy-le-Preux in 1917 where once again, he was wounded by a GSW to his right hand but also recieved shrapnel wounds to his back. He was out of action for the rest of the war but lived a very long life, passing in the 90's.
I read somewhere that the prevalence of gas gangrene could be because much of the fighting was carried out in farmland that had been fertilized with manure (animal and human) for centuries, and every wound was almost certain to be contaminated with the local soil along with all the bacteria it contained. I believe the fighting around Monte Cassino in WWII saw an unusually high incidence of gas gangrene cases for similar reasons.
That location and the caribou memorial is still spoken about in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada 😢
So many families were impacted by those decisions
The stretcher bearers were heroic
Very interesting. Fime narration.
My grandfather was perhaps a lucky one. He lost a leg in the trenches from a shrapnel wound and fortunately made it back. He retrained as a cabinet maker and lived till 86 years old.
Interesting to see The Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley. Used to visit the grounds and found it fascinating at just how big it was and where all the buildings once stood. Such a shame that they knocked the main building down in the sixties 😢
So many soldiers passed through there on their arrival back from France and the place has Such a poignant feel to it.
An excellent into a little thought of consequence of major offences
I don't know where I heard this but I do recall hearing that before the introduction of the steel helmet to the British army 7 out of 10 headwounds were fatal. The steel helmet 3 out of 10 head wounds were fatal. That's pretty good.
I hope that young man with the smashed eyeballs was taken care of in his life. That one got to me. Least we forget.
Yeah that was pretty a pretty sad image to imagine. Even if he was well looked after (probably unfortunately unlikely) his entire life was ruined that day anyway because he was forced to fight and sacrifice himself like every generation before him for wars that never stop waging even after non stop sacrifice.
At the rate this world is going currently it won’t be very long until our nations lads are once again, given the call to have your life stolen, body mangled and chewed up by shrapnel and bullets for yet another useless war for the fellas forced to fight and die in them.
It makes me wonder how many wounded died being in the first category and being shuffled around and passed over until an infection brewed up. The one nurse seeing maggots crawling in wounds seems to verify this.
My Greatgrandfather Georg had a gangrene infection on his left shin sustained after a shell fragment hit his trench at Somme/ Longueval on August 31st 1916 with the 5th Bayern Infantry Regiment/2nd company.
For decades after the wound on his shin festered where he could not walk on the leg, then it sort of healed over with skin discoloration, unannounced festered again. It was a constant open and healed situation, but the was always working and mobile heading the family brauerei trying to keep this leg scenario at bay. But it could be debilitating in sessions from what I was told with Georg in the kitchen sitting in a chair trying to ease the pain or unsuccessfully manage it.
I never realized gangrene was caused by Clostridium bacteria in the soil caused by cow manure, or decades of cow manure not needing oxygen to survive. For centuries the French countryside was filled with Clostridium perfringens awaiting an invading army from Germany.
Can you tell me about the photo at 6:50. Is it taken from the same vantage point as the footage in the previous scene and at a later date?
Yeah are they bodies. If they are ...theres a lot of them!!
I’ve been & seen some of those cemetery’s, it’s shocking & very real, as if time stands still
Your work is awesome!! Would you be able to provide GPS coordinates for the locations so we can view the battlefield from different angles?
As a german, I lost a lot of my great grandfathers on the western in france
My great grandfather was hit in the head by shrapnel during the battle of the Somme. It took him three months to die.
I believe an Australian doctor changed the way the injured were treated by treating them where they were found if possible. Just like to add that the stretcher bearers were not always from the band but tended to be the strongest fittest men in the unit. Early on it was the band.
Did they have sulpha drugs in the first World War? Thanks for keeping the memory of this horrible four years and the men and women who were there for newer generations to learn how horrible it was. A special thank you for shining a light on true heroes of all wars-the stretcher bearers or medics. Those brave souls who go into no man’s land withOUT a weapon, to collect the wounded!
Very well done. It might be interesting about how enemy wounded would be cared for with the possibility of escape and then into the POW camp. Were they separated early on or did they go through the same process ?
Could you do one on the Germans statistics also? Great video 👍
carrel/dakin, eh? 🤔
thx, ill remember that 🤟
I met an old WW1 vet he was Canadian in a Scotish regament, he said he saw a lot of young men die because they had no penicillan
to treat the wounds. Penicillan wasn't invented until 1928.
My Grand father had his foot crushed by a horse drawn ambulance ON ARMISTICE DAY 1918. Spent six weeks in hospital waiting for a pass to be returned to Australia .
I have the shrapnel my great grandad took at passchendaele, he survived
There are two cemeteries. Bindigham and Mendingham which were CCS originally.
All of this because of 1-2 families fighting among each other. Sickens me.. they all got scammed into this. My sincere condolences.
You mentioned the Golden hour
When in the British Army we learnt of the platinum 10 minutes fascinating
A very interesting and well researched documentary. My great uncle,like many lied about his age and joined at 16 I the west Surrey regiment.was wounded in the shoulder and chest in 1917 in Ypres.hew was lucky made it back home and didn't return. Like many others after the war he became a communists all his life, never married and in his mid 30s joined the international brigade and fought francos fascist, and was once again wounded in the leg.in 1979.at nearly 80 he was arrested for punching conservative campaigning in the general election! Was a great character when I was growing up.
my grandfather in nova scotia rifles lost a 3 inch chunk of bone from left leg above the knee oct 1918 outside cambrai he laid in mud for 3 days before stretcher bearers found him he eventually lost leg in 1919 while at hospital in toronto canada he was the lucky one of my relations 4 others didn't come home
No robber barons died during the making of this war.
Private William George Walker, 46th Battalion, 4th Division 1st AIF received a number of wounds at a several sites including his chest, earned during his service that resulted in him receiving the Military Medal for his bravery against the Hindenburg Line in 1918. His wounds earned him a trip back to London. He survived the War however died in June 1919 from botulism. He never fully recovered his health from the last major wound and he turns up sick on a regular basis. Botulism enters the body via wounds. The Australian Army decided that his disease and death were not related to his military service and denied his widowed mother his pension; William was her only child.
My Grandfather was wounded 5 times during WW1.
He was at Passchendale and came home with PTSD.
In a Village near me is the Grave of a Soldier in a Machine Gun Platoon.
He came home wounded and died the day after the Armistice was sighned , 12th November 1918....
RIP.
My relative was a Sniper he died aged just 32 he was involved in fighting on 23rd of April at monchy le preux they tried unsuccessfully to capture the chemical works there but there were many machine gun posts there and it was quite a German strong hold there. Well anyway according to war diaries of the time the 1/4th Gordon Highlanders were involved in that attack it's believed my relative was wounded on the 23rd and he managed to take out one of the machine gun posts being a sniper they think he may have taken out as many as 6 Germans on that day he was found on the 25th of April still alive that was 2 days later and taken to casualty clearing station number 30 but died of wounds on the 28th of April 1917(bloody April) as it was called at the time because of the many deaths that occurred that month..
My Maternal Grandfather was invalided out with wounds in 1917, he got the Silver Star like many others.
Had a great uncle on mums side who enlisted with the AIF & was captured by the Germans on the first night of the battle of Poziers, he never spoke of it & we never knew until we went digging for my great grandfathers records they shared the same name so both came up.
My great great grandfather was a US Army ambulance driver late in the war. After listening to this, I’m wondering if my understanding of his actual role was different. I assumed he drove a small truck, perhaps he did something other than that?
We still use some of the medical care discussed here in modern medicine.
Quextion: weere any major hospitals evacuated during the German offensives of early 1918?
I should add to my previous comment that I referred to Field Hospitals in WW1 = Casualty Clearing Station and General Hospital = Base Hospital...
We've done a dedicated video on gas warfare here on YT
Im in the 39%. Took a 7.62 right through my right foot. Came from above so just missed my noggin.😮
Aussiie/Kiwi co-production for WW1 anniversary ANZAC Girls - gives a good overview of how the Allied medical services and in particular, the nurses, braved the conditions and the social norms , to do their magnificent work - Follows five Anzac nurses from Gallipoli to the end of the War think it's on RUclips!
Adolf Hitler was injured
in a British gas attack . He was temporarily partially blinded and his vocal chords were permanently scarred.