“Smile all the same”: this was the poignant motto of the broken faces, these miraculous survivors of the Great War who came out of the trenches alive but left their faces there. During the fighting, 11 to 14% of wounded soldiers were hit in the head. 15,000 very seriously, atrociously mutilated of the face, sometimes unable to swallow, speak, eat. Rifles, shells, shrapnel, flamethrowers of this first world conflict caused considerable and unprecedented damage. These men with gaping wounds flocked to distraught hospitals. Cared for by specialized centers located far from the battlefield, these wounded will, reluctantly, inaugurate a new medical specialty: maxillofacial surgery.
