Wounded in Action?

[Orpheus]

I am researching a soldier of the Cheshire Regiment. His service papers state that he was wounded in Action and it is described as concussion due to a shell. I think it then says to 19DRS 7th July 1916.

I always assumed that being wounded meant that you had received a gun shot sound or a shrapnel wound.

Can anyone offer advice?

Many thanks,

Nick.

 

 

 

 

 

[RussT]

I would have thought it entirely reasonable to define wounded as being injured as a result of enemy action.

So, except for a self-inflicted wound.

Regards

Russ

[kenf48]

1 hour ago, Orpheus said:

always assumed that being wounded meant that you had received a gun shot sound or a shrapnel wound.

Can anyone offer advice?

The Army’s attitude to “shellshock” has been discussed here and elsewhere on many occasions.  It’s treatment, and even the definition evolved throughout the war.  The Battle of the Somme led to a major crisis.  The date of his wounding is therefore significant in the evolution of diagnosis and treatment as unsurprisingly from July 1st the numbers of men presenting with "shellshock" increased exponentially. 

The Army applied what we might consider a crude definition to describe men who succumbed to shellshock.  If, for example, a man was blown up, or buried as a consequence of an artillery shell exploding nearby and suffered psychological damage but with no obvious lesions it was described as “Shellshock ‘W’ (Wounds). 

Where a man presented with no obvious cause it was described as “Shellshock 'S'”  Sickness or Neurasthenic. The OH Medical Diseases of the War Vol II Chapter 1 notes at time of heavy fighting 50% were classified as wounds, whilst during less intense periods the split was 40% and 60% diagnosed as sick.

This distinction and definition was considered disreputable amongst the medical staff and it was suspected the main reason, which was to prove correct, was to mitigate the Army's Pension obligations.  It made little difference to treatment.

If he was an other rank and you care to share his name we could look at the record.

[Orpheus]

Many thanks for your replies. The soldier in question is W560 Private Albert Green, 13th Cheshire Regiment. 

Nick.

[RussT]

I had interpreted the OP's description of this man's wounding as a one-off "wounding" caused by the blast wave of a near-by shell explosion leading to concussion i.e. the sudden but short-lived loss of mental function that occurs after a blow or other injury to the head. And on that basis he was sent to a Divisional Rest Station to recover,

I had considered Shellshock to be something different i.e. psychological/neurasthenia

Regards

Russ

[RussT]

Well, I had a quick look at his record and he did indeed suffer from shellshock - being admitted on numerous occasions to various medical facilities - even before the concussion event mentioned - and also afterwards.

He was wounded (GSW) a few times in 1917.

He evidently made some sort of recovery because he was sent back out to join the BEF, was wounded a couple of time (GSW) in 1918 and discharged to Class Z on 14/03/1919 (evidently still capable if need be).

An incredible record - not sure I've seen one to such an extent where a man has literally gone through the wars.

Must have been quite a remarkable fellow.

Regards

Russ

[RussT]

Amazingly, he does not appear to have a Pension Index Card/Ledger.

If anyone deserved to make a pension claim, it was him.

Russ

[TEW]

Link to TNA 'Classroom Resource'. War office report on ‘Shell shock 1922.

TEW

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/medicine-on-the-western-front-part-two/war-office-report-on-shell-shock/

Extract from above.

At our first meeting we decided that for the purposes of the enquiry we would treat ‘Shell-shock’ as falling under the following heads:-

• (a) Commotional disturbance [physical motion caused by a nearby shelling]

(b) and/or Emotional disturbance.

• Mental disorders

[Orpheus]

Many thanks for your help. When I read Private Green's service record I was shocked by what he had endured during the war. He was also admitted to hospital with trench foot in December 1917. 

Nick.

[phil andrade]

It makes you think, doesn’t it ? 

This  man’s record of multiple woundings implies assiduous medical care and a high standard of recovery and return to duty for a large number of cases.

That seems a rather callous take on it, bearing in mind the trauma suffered by the individual, but the positive aspect needs to be countenanced, too.

The standard of medical care must’ve been one of the greatest achievements of the BEF 1914-18.

 

Phil

[BillyH]

The man himself (below). He died at Wallasey in1945 aged 50.

BillyH.

[Orpheus]

It's so nice to see a photo of Private Albert Green. He went through so much during the war and died relatively young.

I feel privileged to have his 1914/15 Star & Victory Medal in my collection.

Many thanks to everyone who replied to my request.

Nick.

[brianmorris547]

The Times Casualty Lists had Wounded by Regiment and then Wounded (Shock-Shell) and Wounded (Concussion-Shell). I'll see if I can find his 1916 list. Perhaps Billy H can give the date of the local paper.

Brian

[TEW]

Having looked at his record and a few medical diaries I thought I'd add a few points.

I'm not sure how 13/Cheshires of 25 Division fit into this action whereby he ended up with 19th Division Rest Station (Ebart's Farm, S of Contay) which was under orders from III Corps. Presumably things were being run under a Corps Arrangement.

Green was admitted with Concussion, Shell, he was not evacuated further back and had three days in the DRS before being returned to unit.

III Corps DDMS has a set of Medical Arrangements for late June and mid-July that both state that only those men 'not seriously ill' were to be sent to a DRS, the general trend seems to be to make sure As few sick as possible are to be evacuated. They also don't want to evacuate the moribund.

From the above it appears his condition was not considered particularly serious, despite the 'wounded' entries on his B103 the DRS was supposed to be taking in light sick/ill. The diary for 19DRS (59 FA) states they admitted - ORs 61 Wounded 7/7/16.

Given the next few entries on his B103 I'd suggest his condition was a lot worse than originally seen.

He's evacuated to hospital with conjuctivitis 3/8/16 then diagnosed with impetigo 6/8/16 which changes to ICT face 14/8/16 and eventually NYD (Not yet Diagnosed) Slt at 39 GH 19/8/16.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the eye/face troubles were all functional disorders (psychosomatic?) brought on by his earlier concussion.

He rejoins his unit 3 weeks later with no further description, eleven days later he gets buried by a shell and has another shellshock wounded entry.

He only has 12 days with medical units and is then returned to unit again but a month or so later he's back at a DRS with NYD for three weeks and then gets some light duty? with a Sanitary Section which might equate to about two weeks of work on latrines or shoveling s***.

Having received a GSW injury 3 months later which happens to be to a finger of the left hand I'm surprised there's no entry for a self-inflicted wound.

He then gets gassed which is followed later by two more GSWs to left hand. He is at some stage docked some pay for overstaying a sick leave.

I'm not so sure we're seeing any medical care going on here at all, his conditions are not being seen as serious despite what appear to be repeated psychosomatic disorders and three GSWs to the left hand which is more than a cry for help and ones that would normally lead to an enquiry which could evolve into a court martial.

One tough man!!

TEW

[BillyH]

16 hours ago, TEW said:

I'm not so sure we're seeing any medical care going on here at all, his conditions are not being seen as serious despite what appear to be repeated psychosomatic disorders and three GSWs to the left hand which is more than a cry for help and ones that would normally lead to an enquiry which could evolve into a court martial.

One tough man!!

Assuming your last comment is sarcastic then I think you are being a bit hard on him TEW. Any man who volunteered a month after war was declared and served in France with an infantry regiment until February 1919 was tough enough in my opinion. Incidentally, he was also treated at the Southern General Hospital in Dudley Road, Birmingham from 22nd Dec 1917 until 8th January, admittedly with Trench Foot and not wounds. He returned to France in May1918.

BillyH.

[TEW]

No, wasn't being sarcastic at all. Must have been mentally robust to go through all that.

I've seen records of men completely breaking down after one incident or in one case without stepping foot near the front line.

His concussion event gave him three days at a rest station. Perhaps it was minor enough to warrant returning him to duty, who knows? The following eye/face then NYD problems suggest to me he had post-concussion 'issues'.

I had a look for any medical arrangements regarding shell shock cases circa 7/7/16. Sometimes they can seem quite harsh and take the view that unless an event was witnessed then it must be malingering.

I found virtually nothing, one 4th Army appendix on shell shock was missing from the diary. DGMS diary in June 1916 gives a three tier definition of shell shock one of which is 'concussion' which warrants being a wound.

Just looked at Casualty Lists and he's published for wounded shock, shell in May 1916 which is proir to what I've been calling his first event.

Potentially he ended up with five wound stripes, three for shell shock.

I just didn't see him being repeatedly returned to duty as being due to the top quality medical care. Now I'm being sarcastic!

TEW

 

[kenf48]

From The Official History Medical Disease of the War Volume II chapter 1 Macpherson, may be of interest to explain his initial treatment:-

The problem in the British Expeditionary Force did not become acute until July 1916, during the battle of the Somme. In the first few weeks several thousand soldiers were rapidly passed out of the battle zone on account of nervous dis- orders, and many of them were evacuated to England. When this great influx of patients arrived in England the term " shell shock " had become a generally recognized term, as if it were a new disease, although in fact exactly similar cases formed a well-recognized branch of medical practice before the war. Indeed, certain members of the profession lectured and wrote on the subject as if it were some new and mysterious malady. A complex terminology was evolved, and special treatments were manufactured in bewildering profusion.

Some patients with hysterical symptoms were psychoanalysed, others with mental conflicts were hypnotized ; whilst nearly all were treated on lines which could not fail to impress on the soldier's mind the mysteriousness of his malady. The case of two stretcher bearers in the battle of the Somme may serve as an example. They were not wounded, they were not " blown over " by a shell, but they were tired out and dispirited. As chance would have it, they happened to be engulfed in a swift line of evacuation to England, and within a week one of them sent back the information that they were both in a special hospital for " shell shock " in England, where " the windows were shaded with blue blinds and the walls were specially papered the same colour." There is little doubt that the same treatment would have converted others into the category of fit for " home service only."

In fact, misguided public opinion had raised the psycho-neuroses to the dignity of a new war disease, before which doctors seemed well-nigh helpless. This view became rapidly widespread amongst the soldiers in France. Officers, men, and even in some instances medical officers, imbibed the new doctrine. It wrought untold evil amongst patients, and undoubtedly precipitated a breakdown in a certain type of man who might otherwise have held himself together. When a patient was brought to a neurological centre and was asked of what he complained, he almost invariably answered, " Shell shock, sir." To the soldier's mind it was as much an entity as scarlet fever, with the further addition that, being incurable,shellshock was more to be dreaded. In quite a number of cases the eradication of this false belief from the patient's mind was all that was needed to effect a rapid recovery from his symptoms. To explain to a man that his symptoms were the result of disordered emotional conditions due to his rough experiences in the line, and not, as he imagined, to some serious disturbance of his nervous system produced by bursting shells, became the most frequent and successful form of psycho- therapy. The simplicity of its character in no way detracted from its value, and it not infrequently ended in the man coming forward voluntarily for duty, after having been given a much needed fortnight's rest in hospital.

All wounds and sickness in an army are a military problem. From this purely military point of view the psycho-neuroses presented exceptional difficulties. The experience in the first battle of the Somme had shown what a heavy degree of wastage from the fighting area these cases were capable of causing in the absence of special medical organization for dealing with them. And yet the army in France had hesitated to form special centres which, it was feared, might become homes for unpractical methods of treatment. And here can be seen the origin of the hostile attitude with which the whole subject was to some extent always regarded in France. Everyone in the fighting
zone realized how thin was the line which separated the milder cases of psycho-neuroses (and these formed the majority of the patients) from those individuals whose disability lay in an insufficient stoutness of heart. The military school disputed the possibility of separating the one from the other, and took up the position that the establishment of special centres would open up a flood-gate for wastage from the army which no one would be able to control.

However, the severe wastage of man-power which the psycho- neuroses were causing in France made the problem of dealing with them urgent towards the end of 1916. The consulting neurologist, Lieut.-Colonel Gordon Holmes, and the consulting psychologist, Lieut.-Colonel C. S. Myers, recommended the institution of a special centre for diagnosis and treatment in each army area. These were opened after the battle of the Somme : a northern centre for the First and Second Armies at No. 4 Stationary Hospital, Arques ; at No. 6 Stationary Hospital, Frevent, for the Third Army ; at No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital in the citadel at Doullens for the Fifth Army ; and at No. 21 Casualty Clearing Station, Corbie, for the Fourth Army.
These centres soon proved their usefulness, and in July 1917 a new centre for the Fifth Army was opened at No. 62 Casualty Clearing Station at Haringhe, near Roosbrugge, just prior to the battles of Ypres. This centre remained at Haringhe as the centre for the army occupying the left of the British line until the German offensive in 1918.

.............

The position taken up by the military authorities may be summed up thus. The psycho-neuroses cannot be ignored. Certain cases require medical care. The subject is, however, so bound up with the maintenance of moral in the army that every soldier who is non-effective owing to nervous breakdown must be made the subject of careful enquiry. In no case is he to be evacuated to the base unless his condition warrants such a procedure.

 

[BillyH]

1 hour ago, TEW said:

No, wasn't being sarcastic at all. Must have been mentally robust to go through all that.

Apologies for having misinterpreted your thoughts!    BillyH.

[phil andrade]

Anxious to make a point here  : by today’s standards the medical care provided to British soldiers 1914-18 is bound to look grim.

 

Making allowance for the conditions and circumstances prevalent in the Great War, especially the scale and intensity of the fighting, I would still feel confident in stating that the standard of care was remarkably good.

 

Phil

[squirrel]

Agreed and the advances in medical science and treatment of wounds during the war was outstanding.

 

 

[FROGSMILE]

An interesting thread thanks to all contributors.  After reading all the comments I find myself increasingly of the view that, after the relative chaos of 1914 and 1915, the British soldiers of WW1 for the most part experienced the best medical care ever delivered to a British Army in the field.  Moreover this extended well beyond the theatres of war, with the general hospitals, convalescent hospitals, rest homes and Command depots in Britain and Ireland providing the kind of joined-up medical care that the civilian population could only dream of.  I think that so many soldiers experienced this care to one degree or another, that when they returned home many began to wonder why such attention to health couldn’t be provided for the civilian population.  Although it took another world war, and years more of political agitation, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that the military medical care of WW1 was tantamount to the gestation of the National Health Service.

Edited 22 February , 2023 by FROGSMILE