The Terrain & Impact on Transport & Communications (Edexcel GCSE History)

The Impacts of Terrain on Transport and Communication - Summary

Problems of Transport & Communications Infrastructure

Terrain of the Western Front

• Most of the fighting on the Western Front took place in northern France and Belgium

• The use of trenches led to static warfare where the battlefronts moved slowly

  • This meant that the terrain was constantly affected by shelling

• The terrain had many impacts on soldiers in the Western Front:

Impact of the terrain on stretcher bearers

• It was the job of stretcher-bearers to recover injured soldiers from the trenches and no-man's-land:

  • There were 16 stretcher-bearers per battalion

  • Four to six bearers moved each stretcher

  • They worked day and night

• Stretcher-bearers had to move quickly so that the injured soldier had a greater chance of survival:

  • This made them vulnerable to shelling and gunfire

  • Obstacles like craters, barbed wire, mud and puddles made it difficult for stretcher-bearers

  • They suffered heavy casualties - one unit suffered 42 casualties out of 48

Impact of the terrain on horse-drawn and motor ambulances

• The BEF did not use motor ambulances when they arrived in France in 1914

• Horse-drawn ambulances had many problems:

  • They could not cope with the large number of casualties

  • The movement of the horses on the difficult terrain shook the injured soldiers

  • Each ambulance required 6 horses

• A public appeal run by The Times newspaper raised enough money for 512 motor ambulances by October 1914

• The motor ambulances were to replace the horse-drawn ambulances 

• Motor vehicles also struggled to navigate the muddy terrain

Impact of the terrain on trains, barges and ships

• Transportation of the wounded to Base Hospitals, away from the frontlines, was by train: 

  • At the start of the war the RAMC used French goods trains to transport the wounded

  • The first ambulance train designed for carrying the wounded arrived in France in November 1914

  • Artillery destroyed many railway lines

• Canal barges were also used to transport the wounded to Base Hospitals:

  • The large number of trains used to transport the wounded caused congestion on the train network

  • Canal barges were slower than trains but more comfortable for the wounded

• Hospital ships transported wounded soldiers from the coast back to Britain