Medical officers were trained doctors as they performed surgeries. Medical orderlies and stretcher-bearers could have no prior medical training before the army. Their task was to provide first aid to the wounded on battlefield and then take them away from the front line and deliver them to Aid Posts or Casualty Clearing Stations where urgent surgeries were performed. From there the wounded were sent further to Field Hospitals, if I remember the chain well. That was the order during WWI.
Moreover, according to the book, by WWI Medical Officers had enough authority to take leadership of combatants of lower ranks, if need be.
About medics and weapons during WWI:
Snipers were damnable... one medic shot one from 400 yards this week and was not reprimanded (an excerpt from a war diary)
Such an action contravened the Geneva convention, and like the instances of Medical Officers assuming military command, does not appear to have been a regular occurrence... And although few doctors fired in active operations, many let off steam by practicing with revolvers or bomb-throwing.
Others, however, not only considered such skills to be useless to Medical Officers but felt that, as non-combatants, they ought to have nothing to do with weapons. D. McAlpine was convinced that he should not be carrying a revolver and gave his to a combatant officer.
I haven’t read much on WWII, but I know that in Russia during WWII doctors with degrees received an army training and military ranks. Their main task was to provide medical help, but they were also taught to shoot as there were often cases when they needed to defend the wounded.
In order to join the army, Watson, upon graduating from the university, studied at The Army Medical School at Netley where the future army doctors were expected to wear the uniform, obey the army discipline, and participate in parades. So he must have received military training too together with studying military surgery. I have a post about Watson’s prep studies, and I’ll repost it to this community.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2020-02-29 05:59 am (UTC)Moreover, according to the book, by WWI Medical Officers had enough authority to take leadership of combatants of lower ranks, if need be.
About medics and weapons during WWI:
Snipers were damnable... one medic shot one from 400 yards this week and was not reprimanded (an excerpt from a war diary)
Such an action contravened the Geneva convention, and like the instances of Medical Officers assuming military command, does not appear to have been a regular occurrence... And although few doctors fired in active operations, many let off steam by practicing with revolvers or bomb-throwing.
Others, however, not only considered such skills to be useless to Medical Officers but felt that, as non-combatants, they ought to have nothing to do with weapons. D. McAlpine was convinced that he should not be carrying a revolver and gave his to a combatant officer.
I haven’t read much on WWII, but I know that in Russia during WWII doctors with degrees received an army training and military ranks. Their main task was to provide medical help, but they were also taught to shoot as there were often cases when they needed to defend the wounded.
In order to join the army, Watson, upon graduating from the university, studied at The Army Medical School at Netley where the future army doctors were expected to wear the uniform, obey the army discipline, and participate in parades. So he must have received military training too together with studying military surgery. I have a post about Watson’s prep studies, and I’ll repost it to this community.