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Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous: Operating Equipment & Practices

Ambulance Trains: misc_equip248

Two more publicity photographs showing the inside of Continental Ambulance Train No 18

Two more publicity photographs showing the inside of Continental Ambulance Train No 18 (see also 'misc_equip246'). On the left is a photograph of the treatment room in the Pharmacy Coach. The floor and lower half of the wall was lined in lead to make it easier to disinfect. On the right is one of the kitchen areas with centrally placed oven, multiple sinks and storage units.

Although these publicity photographs show a clean and well equipped ambulance train, the realities of operating these trains during the conflict can be imagined when looking at the statistics. For example, between August 1915 and January 1919, one of the trains built by the Great Western Railway (Continental Ambulance Train No 16) had carried a total of 157,562 patients. Their busiest day was during the Battle of Arras (between 9th April and 16th May 1917), when the British and Empire troops suffered over 150,000 casualties during a series of offenses designed as a diversionary attack to relieve pressure on the French Army. On 3rd May, it is recorded that Continental Ambulance Train No 16 carried 824 wounded patients, when the train was designed to carry around 450 patients. Such overcrowding was not unusual, another nurse on Continental Ambulance Train No 15 (see 'misc_brc&wc142') reported that; 'Patients laying everywhere in the grounds of the clearing station, the walking wounded were in hundreds and were fighting to get on the train, they had to be kept back by a guard to enable the bearers to get the more serious cases on the train.'

For more details of Ambulance Trains see 'misc/ambulance'.

Robert Ferris

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