World War 1 & the Railways: Difference between revisions
m
no edit summary
HooleHistory (talk | contribs) mNo edit summary |
HooleHistory (talk | contribs) mNo edit summary |
||
Line 56:
=== Ambulance Trains ===
In 1912, when the British government was secretly preparing for war and the Railway Executive Committee was formed to run the railways during the anticipated conflict, plans for 12 ambulance trains to be used in Britain were draw up. They were constructed in railway workshops. When war was finally declared, the trains were ready to transport casualties away from the channel ports.
{| class="wikitable"
|''On 9th July 2016 an ‘Ambulance Trains’ exhibition was opened at the National Railway Museum on the 100th anniversary of what has been described as the busiest day of the Battle of the Somme.''
''In one corner of the turntable building was a coach, built in 1907, for the London and South Western Railway. It was of a type that would have been converted for use in ambulance trains, in which a ward, pharmacy and nurses’ mess room had been recreated.''
Line 66 ⟶ 65:
''The museum’s interpretation developer said the display shed some insight into what historians have usually overlooked - the crucial role that ambulance trains played in the First World War. The mass casualties of this conflict called for evacuation of the injured on a scale never seen before.''
|}
By the outbreak of war, the Royal Army Medical Corps had been founded and they became trained stretcher bearers. Triage was devised at this time so that the seriously wounded could be separated from the “Walking Wounded” and those in most need of treatment received it first.[[File:10HRA2 Ambulance Train.png|center|thumb|437x437px]]
During the course of WW1, many ambulance trains were operated, both at home and on the continent, by the railways. When abroad they were hauled by British locomotives driven by British crews. The Great Western Railway (GWR) operated 62 such special trains to Chester and 134 to Birkenhead. A total of 160 ambulance trains were dealt with at Chester during the war, and, in addition to the Birkenhead trains, many others may well have passed through the station. In the two months after the end of hostilities, a further 10 such trains were dealt with at Chester.
Line 336 ⟶ 334:
== References ==
| |||