Medical personnel such as this Red Cross nurse in Antwerp Belgium learned as they went forced to treat more soldiers than most hospitals could
GAAPLES IN THE MIDST OF BATTLE The medical staff had arrived in Veurne Belgium only the day before They started cleaning the filthy building an old college It would be their hospital for the winter of 1914 But it was dark and poorly equipped with only a few beds Even worse many of their hospital supplies had disappeared perhaps stolen during their travels When an ambulance arrived Henry Souttar the physician in charge hurried to greet the medical workers The ambulance held two badly wounded officers and the driver asked whether the hospital was ready to receive patients Souttar had replied they were not How could they treat injuries when they had no
The ambulance attendants said the only other option was to send the wounded to France They might reach help in two or three days The hospital took in the men Another ambulance arrived an hour later and within four days they had 350 patients THE WORLD AT WAR Souttar a surgeon at London Hospital had volunteered when the war which would become known as World War I broke out in 1914 The war had seemed to explode out of almost nothing A small group of Serbs wanted freedom from the empire controlled by Austria Hungary Gavrilo Princip a member of the group killed Austria Hungary's Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife during a parade in Sarajevo Bosnia on June 28 1914 Austria then made demands of Serbia some of which Serbia refused to meet On July 28 1914 Austria attacked While troops mobilized diplomats throughout Europe tried to prevent a full blown war Yet no one was willing to back down and countries not directly involved felt obligated to support their allies The United Kingdom France and Russia made up the Allies or the Triple Entente Austria Hungary Germany and the Ottoman Empire made up the Central powers Later Japan Italy and other countries joined the Allied forces The United States would not join the Allies until 1917 Young men on both sides signed up for war joyfully expecting victory and honor within a few months at most Yet the war dragged out for four years
with unprecedented destruction New weapons were introduced including larger more deadly artillery tanks machine guns flamethrowers and poison gas Submarines brought the battle underwater while aircraft attacked from the sky The new machine guns could fire up to 600 rounds per minute They splintered bones and tore flesh Compared to earlier guns machine guns wounded more people quickly and also caused multiple wounds in one person A victim might have injuries in the head chest abdomen and several limbs Machine guns could also overheat and explode injuring the people operating them Explosive weapons The assassination of Franz Ferdinand center and his wife Sophie sparked the events leading to World War
