Unknown Warriors

Understanding The First World War

Shell shock was unknown before the First World War, but rapidly
  grew to prominence during the conflict. In 1916 it reached
  epidemic levels at the five-month long battle of the Somme, with
  traumatised casualties rising fourfold in number. This divided the
  medics and terrified the military, who feared that troop morale and
  effectiveness would suffer. As the British Army saw it, it was a
  problem that had to be got rid of fast. Their brutal solution was as
  simple as it was callous, with the result that the incidence of shell
  shock dwindled into insignificance in 1917, even at the hellish
  battle of Passchendaele. The truth was, 'war trauma' hadn't gone
  away, it had merely been suppressed. Historian Taylor Downing
  tells this extraordinary and little known WW1 story at www. unknownwarriorspod.co.uk. Listen in and find out more. This is an Understanding History podcast.