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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

GSW (Gun Shot Wound)


Mangoman

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One of my grandfather's cousins served in Howitzer battery of the RFA and in 1915 his position was heavily shelled by the enemy and he received a shrapnel wound to his left arm, and yet his medical record shows he suffered a GSW which is not what I was expecting to read. So did GSW cover a multitude of wounds received during the war?

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This might depend on what is meant by 'shrapnel wound'.  Shrapnel, accurately defined as it then was, is spherical bullets delivered to the target by a carrier shell. These bullets were of course very different to small arms bullets, but wounds by either type of bullet might be considered a gun shot wound.

 

A fragmentation wound, caused by fragments of a burst high explosive shell, are very different and I'd be surprised if the GSW term could be stretched to cover it. 

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GSW and SW seem to be used interchangeably quite regularly - the terms can often be seen swapping backwards and forwards as a man moves down the casualty chain -I suspect that in real terms it made little difference whether the penetrating injury was a piece of metal from a shell or a bullet.

 

Craig

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My Great Grandfather's records read GSW Left Thigh. The shrapnel that was dug out we still have, it's 3-4 inches of heavy, jagged metal from a shell (howitzers recorded as firing upon them). 

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