Surviving the Great War: Medics in the Trenches
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
The brutal nature of the First World War presented frontline medical personnel with an array of horrific and debilitating wounds, inflicted on a previously unimaginable scale. From gas attacks and bayonet wounds to rifle fire and artillery barrages, day-to-day life on the frontlines posed a serious risk to life and limb. The doctors and nurses responsible for medical care rose to the challenge, and the First World War saw a dramatic transformation in the provision of frontline medicine. Many more lives would be saved than lost due to the efforts of these 'lifesavers'. Focusing on the Canadian experience, Tim Cook, author of Lifesavers and Body Snatchers, explains just how important and innovative the work of frontline medical staff was, and reveals the more sinister side of how these advances were achieved.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
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Transcript
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| 0:24.6 | Hi folks, this episode is sponsored by The World, specifically The World podcast, with Richard |
| 0:31.9 | Engel and Yalda Hakim from Sky News. The World is a new World Affairs podcast, hosted by NBC's chief foreign correspondent |
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| 1:23.4 | Hi, everybody. |
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| 1:26.4 | My great grandpa, Robert McMillan, was a doctor in the trenches of the First World War. He traveled from Canada, from rural Ontario, where he was the youngest of several children. He'd had to walk to school barefoot as a child, but he managed to achieve good marks. He managed |
| 1:44.7 | to become a doctor in Toronto, but that career was cut short by the call of King and Country. |
| 1:51.0 | He got on a ship, went to Europe and served in the trenches. The things he must have seen |
| 1:56.5 | are beyond all of our imaginings, perhaps thankfully. I never met him. He died for I was born, |
| 2:02.0 | but my mum was something of a favourite of his. He would sit with her drinking sodas on a hot |
| 2:06.3 | Canadian summer's day, and he suddenly opened up. He would talk to my mum, his young granddaughter, |
... |
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