The accumulation of experience in thoracic trauma surgery was developed along with the war. During World War I, people began to recognize pneumothorax, hemothorax and pus thorax as important causes of wartime deaths, thus establishing the basic concepts and methods for the management of pneumothorax, hemothorax and pus thorax. In the Second World War, the understanding of maintaining the integrity of normal physiological structures became more refined, and therefore, the treatment of chest trauma became more physiological. For example, the wounds of open chest trauma were closed and closed chest drainage was quickly performed to rapidly expand the atrophied lungs and perform the normal physiological functions of ventilation and air exchange; the floating chest wall was fixed to prevent paradoxical breathing; tracheal and bronchial secretions were removed and the airway was maintained by tracheal intubation or tracheotomy. These techniques were simple and easy to perform, and played a very positive role in saving the lives of the wounded in the war at that time. In World War II, Brewer first introduced the concept of “traumatic wet lung” as a response of the lungs to increased blood volume during severe trauma to the brain, lungs, abdomen, and limbs, and in 1944 manufactured the intermittent positive pressure ventilator to effectively treat pulmonary edema associated with various traumatic injuries. Brewer and colleagues also standardized the indications and operative techniques for pleurodesis, developed the surgical management of intra-thoracic shrapnel and foreign bodies, and clarified the importance of antibiotic application in cases of chest trauma and intra-thoracic infection.