4 replies to this topic

[Aurel Sercu]

This is a question on behalf of an acquaintance (Marjorie).

Marjorie is doing some research on a man of 8th Seaforths, who in Ypres III beginning of August 1917 at Frezenberg was wounded and in a shell hole for 3 days, had his arm amputated because of gangrene.
The question is : knowing about his injuries, is it possible to trace what Main Dressing Station of Casualty Clearing station he may have been taken to from Frezenberg ? Possibly Remy Sidings I guess ? (Lijssenthoek)
CCS were specialized in specific injuries, weren't they ?

Any reply will be appreciated by me and Marjorie.

Aurel

[John Milner]

Aurel

My grandfather was wounded, machine gun fire, in the attack on Eagle Trench 17 August 1917, and was taken to No 10 CCS at Remy Siding.

Regards

John

[jhill]

As a good overview of the medical arrangements I recommend the on-line version of the official history of the Australian Medical Services.  The relevant chapter can be found here:

http://www.awm.gov.a...l2-sec1-ch9.pdf

I shall endevour to post from this a list of the locations of the principal medical units of Fifth Army.

The general scheme was that casualties were taken down by stages to Main Dressing Stations, which were usually operated by the Corps.  They were sent to various Casualty Clearing Stations depending on whether they were walking cases or stretcher cases.  A special arrangement in place at the beginning of August was a group of CCSs at Brandhoek which was intended to provide surgical operations as close to the front as possible.  Eventually this turned out to be too close and they were moved back.

As always, the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang ait agley, and casualties often ended up at some other station.

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[unitedsound]

On 25th July 1917, my Great Uncle was critically injured in the vicinity of Aeroplane cemetery, west of Frezenberg. A head wound.

From there, he was taken to Potijze ADS and finally to no.10 CCS at Remy SIdings.

[Aurel Sercu]

Thanks, John, Jhill and Unitedsound, that sure helps a lot !

I found here
http://www.1914-1918.net/ccs.htm
that at the time (August 1917) at Remy Siding there were CCS's 10, 13 and 17, and at Brandhoek numbers 32 and 44.
Should anyone know if one of these was specialized in so far men were sent there for amputation ...

Aurel