"Anticipating the Ambulance" Topic
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Tango01 | 15 Feb 2019 8:52 p.m. PST |
"The rate of recovery for battlefield casualties depends on the work of skilled medical personnel and the availability of efficient transport vehicles. During the entirety of the Napoleonic Wars, the Army Medical Department was ill-equipped to transport sick and wounded soldiers effectively. This frequently resulted in a heavy reliance upon local authorities to provide the necessary resources. Thus, by default, the same transportation methods used to supply food and other equipment also conveyed the sick and wounded. Availability ultimately dictated choice; hence, bullock carts and, to a lesser degree, waggons were commonly used to transport soldiers in ‘sick convoys'1 especially during the Peninsular War. With few exceptions, such carriages were consistently unreliable; carts and waggons were prone to breaking down usually as a result of bullocks dying from exhaustion or starvation, rocky roads left vehicles in disrepair, and local drivers had little to no protection against marauders. By comparison, the Royal Waggon Train, supplied with spring waggons from Britain, was more sophisticated. It was certainly better than no provisions at all, but the Royal Waggon Train did very little to alleviate suffering largely due to a lack of supply and its inability to cope with torturous terrain. Depending on terrain, inclement weather and medical logistics, the evacuation of casualties could, at times, prove impossible; thus soldiers, unable to help themselves, were left to perish on the battlefield or were forsaken by the roadside. Although conditions slightly improved during the last years of the Peninsular War, largely as a result of Sir James McGrigor's work as Chief Inspector of Hospitals for Wellington, a sufficient supply of medical carriages was never fully guaranteed. Despite McGrigor's recommendations, problems procuring medical transportation vehicles persisted long after the Peninsular War. Thus, casualties from the Battle of Waterloo suffered accordingly…." Main page link Amicalement Armand |
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