Treatment of the wounded in forward areas, was the responsibility of male medical personnel and being on the front lines, this meant they had to work under the crudest of conditions. This included enemy fire and air raids, poor medical facilities as well as unsanitary environments.
 
The Field Ambulance was the organization responsible for the evacuation and treatment of casualties. These units were assigned to support specific brigades, for example No. 14 Canadian Field Ambulance worked with 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade, No. 22 with 8th Brigade, and No. 23 treated 9th Brigade’s casualties. Assault sections of these three Field Ambulance units landed with the infantry on D-Day. From the battlefield, a wounded soldier was moved by stretcher-bearers to his unit’s Regimental Aid Post, from which he was evacuated by ambulance. The RAP (Regimental Aid Post) was set up in haste to deal with the wounded as quickly as possible, so only very basic treatment was available. It was sometimes bypassed and a casualty taken directly to a Casualty Clearing Post, where he might receive blood products or morphine. The entire chain of evacuation to this point was within range of enemy fire, so removal of casualties further to the rear as quickly as possible was obviously of extreme importance. The next step was evacuation to a Field Dressing Station, where intermediate treatment could be offered before transfer to a Casualty Clearing Station, a basic hospital for surgery and short-term convalescence.