Mangoman Posted 4 May , 2017 Share Posted 4 May , 2017 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonbem Posted 4 May , 2017 Share Posted 4 May , 2017 I think pretty much so http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/the-evacuation-chain-for-wounded-and-sick-soldiers/classification-of-wounds-using-by-the-british-army-in-the-first-world-war/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummell Posted 4 May , 2017 Share Posted 4 May , 2017 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss002d6252 Posted 4 May , 2017 Share Posted 4 May , 2017 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Crame Posted 7 May , 2017 Share Posted 7 May , 2017 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). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummell Posted 7 May , 2017 Share Posted 7 May , 2017 How extraordinary! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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