1 July 1916 wounded who returned to service

[Chris_Baker]

This week, by coincidence, I have researched three soldiers who were all wounded on 1 July 1916 and all returned to overseas service at a later date. All survived the war. Does anyone know of any analysis that has been done to determine how many of the oft-quoted (and oft-misquoted) casualties of that day did return to service?

[phil andrade]

The only figures I have seen cited are of a general nature......from memory, roughly eighty per cent of all wounded men in the British army ( and I presume that this includes those gassed ) returned to some form of duty. The German medical history also indicates a figure in the order of seventy five per cent.

July 1st 1916 was uniquely bad, in large part because so many of the badly wounded could not be recovered, and died on the field.

This leads me to the conclusion that - perhaps - a larger proportion than normal of the wounded who were brought in were sufffering from slight wounds, and that this would be reflected in the preponderance who were returned to duty.

Phil (PJA)

[Lachlan]

Is there any information on what percentage of those returning to duty re-joined active units compared to those who could only return to light duties / labouring / home defence etc ?

[mikerose]

my great uncle served with the hood battalion we was injured in gallipoli and again on the somme each time returning to his unit

[bmac]

For what it is worth the CO of the 87th Field Ambulance of the 29th Division wrote in the WD: "My impression during the first 3 days of the battle enable me to say that quite 45% of the wounded should with proper care and attention be able to return to the fighting line in from 3 to 5 weeks."

[bmac]

If still of interest I have found a Cabinet paper which discusses the manpower issues facing the army in 17-18 which includes an analysis of return rates to General Service for sick and wounded recorded during the periods of Neuve Chapelle, Loos and 'early parts' of the Somme. It divides these stats between the infantry, RE, RA and cavalry and shows the total proportions returning to GS and the rates of return by month. For the Somme, 11,971 cases of wounding were examined of which 7.686 (64.2%) were fit to return to GS in a period of between 1 and 13 months. 53% of the wounded returned to GS in between 3 and 6 months with roughly equal proportions each month. If you want more detail let me know.

[PhilB]

If we`re referring specifically to 1/7/16, I`ve never found a way of determining exactly who were the wounded of that day. Extensive lists of wounded appeared in the Times but never an indication of the day they were wounded. The 11th East Lancs book (Pals) of Bill Turner does do a listing of wounded "in offensive operations 1-5/7/16", which I assume he related from newspapers and private discussions.

[Ron Clifton]

Hello all

The figures given in Casualties and Medical Statistics, in the Medical Official History series, imply that 68% of wounded returned to active duty as A1, 16% returned to duty in a lower medical category (possibly for home service) and 16% had to be discharged.

These figures refer to all British wounded in all theatres for the whole war, and do not of course include those who died of wounds.

The figure of 45% quoted by bmac does, as he says, refer to recovery within 3 to 5 weeks. Return of a further 23% over a longer period does not seem unreasonable.

All of the figures quoted, including those for the Germans, seem to be in the same general range, but in view of the rather special circumstances of 1 July it would be difficult to argue too reliably from the general to the particular.

Ron