Following those
wounded during the First World War and those who provided medical
care to them gives a particular view on the conflict.
Mayhew in the
introduction is keen to justify taking a narrative approach to her
account, relying on diaries and memoirs, on the basis that there is a
lack of records to provide a statistical survey, I am not exactly why
this was necessary.
There are 4 wounded
soldiers followed, and a larger number of Medics and Nurses and so
on, and so one might feel that the voice of the wounded is not as
strong as it could be in a book of that title.
One of the issues
might be that the book focused on the times of peak activity and
perhaps underplays the periods of limited activity and boredom that
dominated most of the war.
As with many aspects
of the war, it is a tale of a lack of preparation resulting in early
chaos but systems being put in place which while not perfect were
broadly effective.
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