Medical advances:
The carnage and the bloodshred at the front caused major manpower shortages, and it was important to get every man that had a chance of survival back to health so that they could be sent back to the front. New technology is making this possible.
Military field ambulance:
Horse drawn carriages for transporting men from the front were already in place, but these motorized vehicles could go where no horse had ever gone before and did it faster.
Modern nursing:
Florence Nightinggale set a great example of this during the Crimean war, but the technology has become more advanced and the injuries differently. Medical authorities have descided that this is the time for a major overhaul in medical treatment.
Casualty clearing station:
This is a hospital behind the front lines, where much better care can be made then at the front
Advanced dressting station:
When a soldier was wounded, he was taken behind the front to an advanced dressing station where first-aid was given and emergency amputations made. If he was suspected to make it, he was transferred to a casualty clearing station.
Advanced dentistry:
New equipment and better anahestetics has led to less painful and more advanced ways of fixing injured teeth
Improved surgery:
At earlier operations, the 'victim' was often more in the hand of fate then in the hands of the doctor, death rates were high, and it isn´t until now that really good survival rates for surgery are achieved. These advances are necissary if a wounded soldiers life is to be saved.
Veterinary corps:
It is not only men that get´s wounded and falls ill, the same applies to animals. By gathering all the army vets into special units, a much better system of treatment of animals - especially horses could be achieved.
Triage:
Probably one of the more disturbing facts about war is triage - or mercy killing. At the advanced dressing station, the soldiers chance of survival was estimated, if there was no chance that he was to survive, he would just be given some morphine - or a bullet between the eyes.
Ersatz medicine and equipment:
With the immense number of wounded flowing in, the supplies of medical material quickly ran out and unorthodox methods were devized, such as rolled bewspapers to fix broken bones, or crepe paper bandages tied on with string.
Bromide:
This is a subtance that is supposed to hamper the 'sexual apetite' amongst the soldiers. Although its alledged effects are dubious.
Animals at war:
A running soldier offers a high profile, even when running crouched. Dogs had much lower profiles - and a dead dog didn´t matter as much as a dead soldier. Pigeons are also fast flyers, and can swiftly deliver messages to behind the front.
Messenger pigeons:
Pigeons have been used in war since many hundreds of years, but it is on the battlefield of the great war that their true value is appreciated, soldiers without field telephone sets can easily get in contact with HQ, and when low on food, they can always eat the pigeons...
Spy pigeons:
These were pigeons dropped from aircraft over villages occupied by the enemy, freedom fighters would then attach messages of enemy troop movements to the birds leg and set it free, leaving the birt to fly with this intel to HQ.
Anti-pigeon falcons:
To counter Spy pigeons, and to disrupt communications, special falcons were trained to kill enemy pigeons.
Modern army provisions:
With the appaling conditions in the trenches, something had to be done to aid the troops in their misery.
Army accomodation:
Throughout the great war, soldiers would sleep on the ground, with this, at least some of the soldiers had a bunk bed and basic necessities.
Army nutrition:
It was not until the twentieth and ninetenth centuries that scientisist proved that a human had to get a certain amaount of calories each day to stay healthy, this knowledge has now been applied to the army rations, making the soldiers more healthy and alert.
Army mail service:
Sending letters to close ones was a common sight in the great war, now the army took over the mail service, this ment safer deliveries, but also the censoring out of the gruesome reality of war.
Modern medical provisions:
The knowledge lerarned from early in the war has been applied to make the medical care of the soldiers more effective, and new medicines are lurking behind the corners...
Basic body armour:
This was not widely used in the war, but did give the wearer a sense of extra protection.
Specialized assault training:
The early assaults in the war were simply mass-scale attacks on a broad front with vast casualties, now, elite units are popping up, and regular soldiers are getting more effective att assaulting enemy positions.
Antibiotics:
In the 1920-ties, Alexander Fleming discovered that one of his experiments had gone horribly wrong, a fungus had contaminated a petri dish with the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. But as he studied the petri dish more carefully, he found that the fungust was actually destroying the bacteria! He had discovered the worlds first antibiotics, pnicilin.
Insulin:
Insulin is a hormone produced in the islets of Langerhans that regulates the level of blood sugar and fat metabolism. People with the disease Diabetes mellitus are unable to produce that hormone, and had until now relied on pig insulin to keep them going. But now, synthetic insulin can bee produced, greatly aiding diabethics worldwide.
Blood transfusions:
Blood transfusions was until now one of the more hazardous tasks a doctor could perform on a patient, sometimes the patient died, sometimes he survived. Why this happened was a mystery until the discovery of the four types of blood A, B, AB and 0. Now, mortality rates during blood transfusions are sinking.
Infection control:
One of the more vital things in a hospital, infection control tries to keep bacteria at bay. Inn the years before, hospitals had been rather nasty places, with bacteria everywhere, in fact, more people would die in the hospital than in battle thanks to disease and infaction. With the advent of antibiotics, large scale hospital epidemics are just a memory.