Questions about Ambulance Transport between ADS & MDS

[seaforths]

I'm hoping some experts on the Field Ambulance can help me with these questions.

1. How many casualties could the Ford and Wolseley ambulances transfer?

2. Did the motor ambulances have a medic on board to work with the casualties while they were being moved?

3. If a casualty died on transfer from ADS to MDS would he be offloaded on the way and handed over for burial at a suitable place that had a cemetery that was already in use?

I'm looking at a shelling incident involving 20 men plus an officer and 10 were killed and the other 10 plus the officer were wounded. As it happened quite close to an ADS they got help immediately and it seems an ambulance (probably a motor ambulance) arrived on the scene quite quickly. However, I can see that one man appears to have died of wounds very quickly and well before reaching the MDS which was at Aveluy. He is buried at Ovillers which was quite close to the scene of the incident and it was on the way to the MDS. Reserve troops were billeted at Ovillers and there was a cemetery so a large military presence but his case kind of sticks out because the main burial places in other DoW cases seem to have been Aveluy where the MDS and Field Hospital was or Contay at 9 (Highland) CCS. The only reason I can think of for his burial place being different is that they offloaded him when he died. It would kind of make sense for them to do that but then again, it does seem a bit odd.

Any help appreciated. Many thanks

 

[seaforths]

This is a map of the area and I've circled the main areas. The incident occurred Pozieres. Casualty DoW and buried Ovillers. MDS was at Aveluy.

[TEW]

Do you know which FA or division was running the ADS and a date?

It's possible rearward evacuation from ADS would be by MAC rather than an ambulance of the FA.

I've recently looked through MAC diaries for 1915 which I'm guessing is a year earlier. The Wolseley ambulance car came with various bodies but were breaking suspension springs regularly. Some were reduced in capacity to four lying cases. Having said that I then saw an incident where X number of wounded were evacuated by Y number of four person ambulances and the maths did not work out.

Also relevant to MACs was the requests for a RAMC orderly to be on board during transport. Seems that in 1914/15 it was not common practise in a MAC but maybe more so in a FA.

I think there could be admin problems in dropping off a body en route. He would have been admitted to the FA and the transport would be in an odd position to be one short at MDS/CCS. 'Brought in dead' or 'arrived dead' are not unusual phrases for medical stations.

Is it possible this man died soon after reaching the ADS and did not actually make it onto the ambulance?

TEW

 

[seaforths]

Thanks Tew,

I think you've pretty much answered it. I revisited the FA diaries. I don't think they would've got 11 wounded men in a motor ambulance car. The FA diary refers to Wolsey and Ford cars that they had at the FA and they were having a lot of problems with them. I also revisited the burial information. It's been a while since I last researched this. I had previously came up with two possible sites of the incident. One was close to the Pozieres ADS and the other at the Sunken Road ADS. Having looked at the burials again, the most likely is Sunken Road. There is a map in the FA diaries which I am hesitant to post because some of the map refs are a bit inconsistent. However, the likeliest scenario for the one who DoW being buried at Ovillers is at the transfer post of Tara Hill ADS which was at Ovillers. If they were transferring them to the Wolseys and he was DOA at Tara Hill, they wouldn't have taken him on to Albert/Aveluy. Interestingly, there is a tiny dot in the R18 square which is where the ones who were killed, were buried. The FA diary (1/3) states the conditions at Red Chateau RAP, ADS & Cemetery were pretty bad and some cases were held up there for hours so I guess that the burial ground which was already heavilly populated with Canadian burials, was more accessible and used instead as there were other burials there over the same time period.

 

Images extracts from TNA documents...

 

[TEW]

All I can add is that it's possible the ambulance/s that collected them from the shelling incident took them to the ADS. Another group of ambulances would then evacuate further back. Eleven in one vehicle, horse or motor sounds excessive.

It's not unusual for a FA to have been assigned extra ambulances from a MAC. Plus there are lorries involved sometimes.

What I should have added previously is that it surely risks the welfare of the other wounded if one man dies en route and a detour has to be undertaken to unload the body. Care of the wounded sounds like the important factor.

I see from the map extract it's a composite with those odd edge squares which seems to have caused map reference problems throughout the war. R.18, 24 & 36 only have sub squares a & c. M.13 & 19 only have squares b & d but no one seems to have read those instructions.

If you'd prefer to PM a date and the division I can checked the evacuation process from ADS to the rear.

TEW

[seaforths]

Thanks again TEW,

Yes the map is a stitch of two maps because as you can see, the rear areas are in 57D SE 2 and the forward areas are 57C SW1 - Parts Of - so it messes up coordinates on the boundary line of the two maps. The FA map kind of visually distorts the distance between locations. I have a trench map too but it only shows the forward lines so nothing available as a cover all areas.

 

My other point was that, if Tara Hill ADS is the transfer point for the ambulance transport between ADS and MDS and a patient dies before reaching the transfer point, I cannot see them transferring a dead man onto the transport to the MDS. The Tara Hill ADS would, in my view transfer those patients still alive as usual and the dead man would be processed for burial at that location - Ovillers. They wouldn't ordinarily do a straight through run to the MDS as that would leave them short to transport any further casualties occuring in the forward ADS/RAP sector.