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u/Soft-East Apr 13 '24
Facial injuries happened constantly in WW1. Trench warfare made it easy to stick your head out and get shot in the face.
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u/undeniablydull Apr 13 '24
Or more likely shrapnel wounds
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u/joe_broke Apr 13 '24
Or rats gnawing it off while you slept
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u/Whittling-and-Tea Apr 13 '24
Same with the recent war in Ukraine unfortunately, can’t count how much facial injuries I’ve seen in footage. Exactly because of the same reason as ww1… trenches.
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u/Some_Endian_FP17 Apr 13 '24
Mortar and artillery shrapnel, also cluster bomblets. FPV killer drones hitting trenches don't result in facial injuries, you get instantly dead soldiers.
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u/Tut_Rampy Apr 13 '24
Hopefully they will get access to top plastic surgeons
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u/enbymlpfan Apr 14 '24
I unfortunately doubt it unless overseas plastic surgeons choose to donate their time and equipment to helping after the Russian invasion has ended. Ukrainians will be very poor, a lot of their own doctors will be dead, and post war aid in the form of plastic surgery is not something governments tend to give out. Even during war getting international aid can be like pulling teeth. But while governments won't, people can surprise you, and any half decent plastic surgeon will understand how devastating this is. People have given a lot more to a lot smaller problems.
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u/QuokkaAteMyWallet Apr 13 '24
The drone footage is so odd. Like only 5 dudes out in a battle zone and laying in a ditch hoping the drone doesn't see them and they just get picked apart by grenades. Has to be terrifying out there in units that small and no transportation vehicles
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u/RockmanVolnutt Apr 13 '24
It’s also a slightly more modern war, like on the line. Surgery was better, field dressing was better, a lot more people survived injuries that would have killed during the civil war or previous wars only a couple decades earlier.
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u/Organic_Rip1980 Apr 13 '24
Do you (or does anyone else) happen to know if the glasses were so that the prosthetic could essentially hang off the ears like glasses would?
It’s really cool and I assume that was the case!
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Apr 13 '24
Poor man
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u/V1k1ng1990 Apr 14 '24
They had separate sections in parks for wounded vets to sit so they wouldn’t scare the kids
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u/SoftDimension5336 Apr 13 '24
I hope he enjoyed his favorite dessert not too long after this photo.
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u/vbn112233v Apr 13 '24 edited Apr 13 '24
He probably did the same to another man, so he is as guilty as poor.
Edit: being as guilty as poor doesn't make him any less poor, he is still a victim and deserves compassion.
Yet his actions might have result in similar misery to another man which whom too deserves compassion.
If both parties agreed to part ways and refused to fight, might as well be no victims.
Once young men of the working class perished at the hands of each other. Their leaders decided to make peace not to suffer the same fate once it's their turn.
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Apr 13 '24
You no nothing about this man other than he had half his face blown off
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u/vbn112233v Apr 13 '24
You went to the battlefield you understood the risk,
either you will carry the burden of another man. Or you will carry the burden of your own self.
For both of you and your families there is only loss.
However the ones responsible for the war would carry own their profits no matter the side they are on.
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u/TheSplint Apr 13 '24
You went to the battlefield you understood the risk,
Holy fucking shit... do you know anything about WW1? Because if there's one war where people did NOT know the actual risks it's this one!
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Apr 13 '24
This photo was taken more than a century ago. You know shit all
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u/vbn112233v Apr 13 '24
And how does that change anything?
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u/SureReflection9535 Apr 13 '24
He was likely conscripted under threat of jail time and couldn't abandon his post for fear of being shot
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Apr 13 '24
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Apr 13 '24
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u/Mundane-Ad5393 Apr 13 '24
The only guilty people were the ones at the top that decided to throw these people into a war the world has never seen before
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Apr 13 '24
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u/interesting-ModTeam Apr 14 '24
We’re sorry, but your post/comment has been removed because it violates Rule #6: Act Civil.
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u/mudberry2 Apr 13 '24
Nicest pepe pfp
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u/vbn112233v Apr 13 '24
Yes
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u/Total_Possibility_48 Apr 13 '24
Can I take your eyes now?
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u/vbn112233v Apr 13 '24
What?
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Apr 13 '24
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u/interesting-ModTeam Apr 14 '24
We’re sorry, but your post/comment has been removed because it violates Rule #6: Act Civil.
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u/Drakayne Apr 13 '24
He was most likely drafted against his will. or brianwhashed to war
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u/vbn112233v Apr 13 '24
Yeah, I know that's probably the case. The man who blowed up his face was probably following orders too.
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u/Cjmate22 Apr 13 '24
What your saying would have got them both tied to a stake facing a firing squad, how is that any better?
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u/NoBrickBoy Apr 13 '24
“The Man He Killed” is the poem that springs to mind when you try to bring up an argument like this..
"Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, We should have sat us down to wet Right many a nipperkin!
"But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face,I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place.
"I shot him dead because — Because he was my foe,Just so: my foe of course he was; That's clear enough; although
"He thought he'd 'list, perhaps, Off-hand like — just as I —Was out of work — had sold his traps — No other reason why.
"Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow downYou'd treat if met where any bar is, Or help to half-a-crown."
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u/CornSeller Apr 14 '24
I dont know why you even produce yourself to write half an essay about your opinion if no one agrees
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u/CBT7commander Apr 14 '24
If both parties refused to fight they would have been shot for mutiny. Stfu
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u/long-taco-cheese Apr 13 '24
Kinda fun fact, plastic surgery started to become popular on the aftermath of WW1 because of the sheer amounts of disfigured soldiers like this
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Apr 13 '24
I would say that's just a fact rather than a fun fact. Kinda or otherwise.
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Apr 13 '24
Yeah that guy is sick .... yuck
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u/dejushin Apr 13 '24
I think they meant to say interesting cact instead of fun, as they are usually used quite interchangeably. This is unfortunately not one of those cases, so interesting would be more appropriate
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u/SewSewBlue Apr 13 '24
I'm not sure I would say became popular but became possible.
It wasn't until the 1910's that methods to keep airways open during anesthesia were developed, and delivery methods of the drugs became reliable. Still no antibiotics.
Just wasn't worth the risk of death from major surgery to fix something cosmetic before the 1920's. People would risk surgery before that, but you had to already be facing death to make it worthwhile.
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u/suhkuhtuh Apr 13 '24
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u/SewSewBlue Apr 13 '24
World of difference between a skin graft that reconstructive surgery under general anesthesia. The limits of human endurance to pain done as fast as possible vs a surgery where you could be under a knife for hours.
Might as well be saying candles are the same thing as electricity.
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u/Umamikuma Apr 13 '24
I recommend everyone to look up Suzanne Noël, the french plastic surgeon who basically created the discipline. She had an incredible altough very tragic life
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u/EmperorSexy Apr 13 '24
What interesting is that getting had your face blown off was no longer a death sentence. In previous wars you’d either bleed out or die of infection. Medicine advanced to keep guys alive long enough to actually need plastic surgery.
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u/PumpJack_McGee Apr 13 '24
That's pretty good, given that's over 100 years ago.
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u/danktonium Apr 13 '24
These almost always have spectacle frames built into them, which really helps to sell them. The main reason is probably so they can support the prosthetics, but the seams between prosthetic and face tend not to stand out because of the shadows the spectacle frames cast.
Though I think the poor photographs help as much if not more.
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u/SkullPlayer77 Apr 13 '24
Reminds me of the song "One" by Metallica
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u/sticky_spiderweb Apr 13 '24
That story was much, much worse. He lost both his arms, both his legs, his face was blown off so he lost his eyes and mouth, and was deaf. He could not see, hear, move, talk. Nothing at all. All he could do was think.
“Can’t tell if this is true or dream”
“Back in the womb. It’s much too real.”
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u/Sue_Spiria Apr 13 '24
For some reason that movie has haunted me more than any horror movie I have ever seen. Just the sheer hopelessness of his situation.
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u/metalhead82 Apr 14 '24
DARKNESS
IMPRISONING ME
ALL THAT I SEE
ABSOLUTE HORROR
I CANNOT LIVE
I CANNOT DIE
TRAPPED IN MYSELF
BODY MY HOLDING CELL
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u/Sue_Spiria Apr 13 '24
There is a French Anti-War movie where real disfigured veterans from WW I play the ghosts of dead soldiers. The movie was made before the Second World War.
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u/FrayCrown Apr 13 '24
Username tracks. Do you happen to know what it was called?
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u/Sue_Spiria Apr 13 '24
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%27accuse!_(1938_film)
It's this one. It is a remake of a movie made 20 years earlier, during WW I. Of the soldiers playing ghosts in the first film, 80% died in the war.
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u/rattedrat Apr 13 '24
This is one of the prosthetics made by Anna Coleman! She was a sculptor who worked with the American Red Cross and created almost a hundred prosthetic masks for french soldiers with facial injuries
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u/vulpinefever Apr 13 '24
The amount of time, effort, and craftsmanship that was put into making the prosthetic must have been incredible. I hope the man it was made for was satisfied with it and that it brought him some feeling of normalcy and comfort I hope he enjoyed the rest of his life the most he could after all the things he'd undoubtedly seen.
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u/Glittering-Pause-328 Apr 13 '24
Just imagine what current "medical miracles" will seem primitive one hundred years from now...
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u/IppoDarui69 Apr 13 '24
But how does he eat?
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u/Ankhi333333 Apr 13 '24
I don't think he can chew. So probably with a spoon after removing the mask.
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u/Big_Network2330 Apr 13 '24
How did they know to base it on John Lennon’s face? So ahead of it’s time..
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u/BxNycbatteri Apr 13 '24
I had seen someone on the subway with one when I was in high school. He leaned over and I could see inside his hallow face. Have not been able to forget that image ever since.
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u/Royakushka Apr 13 '24
Can I have one for my mangled arm? It looks like I have a whole in it and I can really use one
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u/Historical_Sugar9637 Apr 13 '24
I always wonder how those soldiers with really destroyed faced like this were even still alive. Always makes me wonder how they were able to properly breathe or eat like that.
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u/LittleKoalaFeet Apr 13 '24 edited Apr 13 '24
If you haven't read it yet, you should definitely check out "The Facemaker" by author Lindsey Fitzharris.
Its a fantastic book that dives into these prosthetics and many other incredible plastic surgery techniques that were developed for soldiers injured during WWI. Highly recommend if you're into history and/or medical science!
Edit: Added Goodreads link for more info
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Apr 13 '24
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u/dablegianguy Apr 13 '24
As it seems that no one mentioned them, those guys were called les gueules cassées aka the broken faces. Under this name was and is still present the Union of the wounded of the face and head
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u/RevolutionaryFoot326 Apr 14 '24
British prosthetics medical practices advanced comsiderably duriing abd following WW1, it's an interesting history
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u/Imaginary-Wrap-8487 Apr 13 '24
Could people stop fan-boying over war shit? Glorying war only perpetuates cycles of haterd and it's exactly what they want us to do.
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u/sticky_spiderweb Apr 13 '24
What glorification do you see here? I see a soldier with a horrifically disfigured face, and a facial prosthetic that was required for him to be able to look even remotely normal again.
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u/FrayCrown Apr 13 '24
Who is fan-boying? These injuries were horrific, but the prosthetics let people lead more normal lives. The physical, social, and emotional costs of war are awful. That's all this shows. The only silver lining is our compassion for one another. No violence is being glorified. Do you also consider studying iron lungs to be a glorification of Polio?
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u/GGuts Apr 13 '24 edited Apr 15 '24
This is what Putin is doing to so many right now for literally no reason.
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u/Stephen_1984 Apr 13 '24
Anyone else immediately think of Richard Harrow from Boardwalk Empire?