Young Writers Society

I've been trying to find common wartime causes of amputation in WWII soldiers, but all I can find are names of people with "leg amputated due to injuries sustained in World War II" and hardly any information after that. What usually caused injuries that required amputation during WWII?

I don't know the specifics, but I'm guessing most infections bullet wounds ect.

I'm not sure about WWII specifically, but I believe the most common cause of war-time amputation are infected wounds (gangrene, etc.).
I could be wrong, though.

edit: Wikipedia to the rescue. The article on amputation gives a list of common reasons for amputation, among other things. It's not the Encyclopedia Britannic, but it's free.
Of course, it's not WWII-specific, but I think that the reasons would be similar.

Infections --> Gangrene --> non-treatment for a certain amount of time --> required amputation.

Look it up! ^_^

Thanks. I've heard of gangrene, but I've also heard of explosions, fire and whatnot, so I wasn't sure what was most common (or what was even real).

... are you talking about amputation for medical reasons (eg: gangrene, etc) or amputations being the injury itself (eg: stepping on land mines, although I'm not sure those were widly used in WWII, if at all)?

Meep wrote:... are you talking about amputation for medical reasons (eg: gangrene, etc) or amputations being the injury itself (eg: stepping on land mines, although I'm not sure those were widly used in WWII, if at all)?

For injuries. I do know that anti-tank mines were used in WWII, but I wasn't entirely sure if one could just lose a leg if they stepped on one, rather than getting killed altogether.

person + anti-take mine = insta!death, or so I would assume, but I'd bet that a hand grenade could take off a limb without actually killing you. (There's an unpleasant thought.)

Sorry I can't be of more help, most of my WWII-era knowledge is bigger weaponry (eg: airplanes, A-bombs, etc.) I did find a page that detailed a bunch of WWII-era weapons, though.

Meep wrote:p
Sorry I can't be of more help, most of my WWII-era knowledge is bigger weaponry (eg: airplanes, A-bombs, etc.) I did find a page that detailed a bunch of WWII-era weapons, though.

Oh, thanks so much

Meep wrote:person + anti-take mine = insta!death, or so I would assume, but I'd bet that a hand grenade could take off a limb without actually killing you. (There's an unpleasant thought.)

Sorry I can't be of more help, most of my WWII-era knowledge is bigger weaponry (eg: airplanes, A-bombs, etc.) I did find a page that detailed a bunch of WWII-era weapons, though.

That is correct. Person+Anti-tank mine=instadeath. Also, while a hand grenade could, theoretically, take off limbs without killing you, odds are if you're close enough to the blast for it to take a limb off, most liikely you're going to be dead. (due to shrapnel, etc)

Some common causes of amputation are:
Bullet wounds
shrapnel
gangrene
shattered bones
etc

also in the air force IF yousurvived a plae crash limbs were most likely lost do to the in bending and riping of the aircraft. ugh who wold want to have a story with amputation thats horribly depressing!


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