- -'Wounded in Action' is a 22-minute 1944 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of the wartime Canada Carries On series. The film documents the work carried out by medical services in saving the lives of those who are wounded in action during the Second World War. The French version title of Wounded in 'Action is Blessé au combat'.
- -Every day during the Second World War, fighting men are "wounded in action", the terse military declaration in telegrams sent back to family and loved ones. Compared to similar wounds suffered in the First World War, 97% of the wounded are brought back to health. The first line of medical care takes place directly at the front lines where medical services operate advance stations. All nations provide immediate emergency medical care. In the Soviet Union, nurses are even parachuted down to the front lines wherever the need is greatest. In other theatres of war, stretcher bearers use whatever is there from ambulances, toboggans, and in the Pacific, even donkeys or mules are employed to carry the wounded to treatment centres. More than anything else, the use of aircraft as an ambulance service has made the difference for many of the wounded at the battlefields. Serious cases are also sent home by ship so that skilled medical staff can be enlisted in recovery, convalescence and rest. The object is to try to rapidly intervene in the "golden hours", the first six hours after a wound is suffered. Care for a wounded man follows a basic pattern, first administer first aid on the spot, then quickly transfer the wounded to first aid posts close to the front lines, sometimes working right under the guns of the enemy, or other dressing stations, field hospitals and surgical units behind the rear lines. The wounded are identified by the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps by the serious nature of the wounds. The Canadian Army field dressing stations, working within 4,000 yards of the front lines, treats group one wounds because the patients cannot be moved. Group two wounds require surgical operations within a few hours while group three wounds which make up 3/4 of the cases, have the patients evacuated back to the rear for treatment at hospitals. Doctors and nurses at the front have been receiving support from research scientists, who are using modern science to combat the effects of high altitude flying, heal burns and even reconstruct shattered limbs and faces. New treatments stressing recovery in both body and mind are also showing impressive results.
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