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On 4 July 1918, at the Battle of Hamel, the Australian Medical Services used a Field Ambulance Resuscitation Team for the first time, delivering life-saving blood transfusion and early definitive surgery to badly wounded soldiers very soon after their wounds had been inflicted. During the closing months of the war, many lives and limbs were saved by early resuscitation and effective surgery, an achievement that stands out in marked contrast to the situation in 1914, when inadequate resuscitation, outdated surgical methods and appalling delays in delivering treatment resulted in great numbers of unnecessary deaths., (© 2019 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.)

On 21 March 1918, after nearly 4 years of static warfare on the Western Front, German forces launched a massive offensive from the Hindenburg Line against a depleted British Fifth Army. Elite storm troops smashed through British forward and battle zone positions and advanced more than 17 miles in 2 days. By 5 April, the Germans were outside the town of Villers-Bretonneux, 40 miles from their starting position and 15 miles from the railway junction of Amiens. This paper examines the response of the Australian Medical Services to the restoration of mobile warfare and explains the measures that were put in place to deal with the evacuation of casualties., (© 2019 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.)