Casualty Evacuation for the Somme: British Ambulance Training, Provision and Operation 1914-16

- Blurb -

Over 6.2 million sick and injured troops during the First World War were evacuated from the Western Front. Yet, despite almost every aspect of the First World War having been examined by historians in near forensic detail, very little has been unearthed concerning casualty evacuation - and the start of the long road to recovery. The provision of high-quality treatment and care is an important attribute in the maintenance of morale and the will to fight. Therefore, casualty evacuation deserves more attention, and this book does just that. This book is about how mass casualties were planned for, and then evacuated in an age before many modern medicines, stabilisation techniques and helicopters. The main purpose of this book is to examine the evacuation of casualties from the first days of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. The aftermath of the opening day of this battle, on 1 July 1916, resulted in the highest number of British casualties in any single day. A situation that was to severely test the medical and evacuation services, over a number of days. The book is based upon primary research of the War Diaries of medical units, and in particular those of the medical officers of the ambulance trains. The author has analysed the activity of every hour of every ambulance train in the period of June and July 1916 in order to build a unique oversight of how the evacuation pipeline coped with the crisis. This analysis is revealed after the reader experiences how the army medical services capability and procedures evolved as the war continued. AUTHOR: Jeremy Higgins is a railwayman, reservist officer and historian. 8 b/w photographss, 4 colour maps, 26 tables, 23 graphs, 8 colour diagrams