Shell Shock was a term used during the First World War to describe the psychological trauma suffered by men serving on the war's key battlefronts - France, Flanders, along the Isonzo and in Gallipoli.

The intensity of the essentially artillery battles fought along these war fronts - most notably in France and Flanders; hence the tag popularly applied to the disorder - often caused neurotic cracks to appear in otherwise mentally stable soldiers.

Symptoms varied widely in intensity, ranging from moderate panic attacks - which sometimes caused men to flee the battlefield: a crime which was invariably regarded as rank cowardice and which resulted in a court martial for desertion - to effective mental and physical paralysis.