Royal Army Medical Corps

[SOMMESOLDIER]

Hi There,

Does anyone know what this was ? If so where was it used and When ?

Cheers

Tim.

[Sue Light]

Tim

All the ambulance trains used by the British were numbered. Number 6 was originally a French ambulance train of old style and due to heavy casualties during the retreat from Mons, it was 'hi-jacked' by the British, and on August 31st 1914 it began work as a 'dual nationality' unit, known at the time as Entente Cordiale, with a French staff of 25, and 45 men of the RAMC. At the beginning of September it was working between Verneuil l'Etang and St. Nazaire, the journey taking between 2 and 3 days. By October 1914 the train was staffed entirely by the British, and adopted its number '6.' There were no inter-communicating carriages on these early trains, and the staff either had to wait for them to slow down before moving via the outside to the next carriage, or else had to perform a series of gymnastic routines while on the move. By the end of 1915 most had been phased out and replaced out by new trains built in the UK.

Or perhaps your question meant something entirely different!

Sue

[SOMMESOLDIER]

Hi Sue,

Thanks very much for the reply. That is exactly the information I was after.

You say that they were mainly phased out by the end of 1915, I am researching a man who died in September 1918, and on CWGC, he is given as attached to 6th Ambulance train ! Any ideas ?

Cheers

Tim.

[Sue Light]

Tim

There certainly wasn't the clambering around the outside of the trains, so there must have been a lot of updating and replacing of carriages quite quickly, but the numbers remained. No. 6 was certainly in service on the Somme during the first days of July 1916. John Plumridge's figures show that it had authorised accommodation for 272, but was, in fact, carrying nearly 800 casualties on each journey on July 2nd. Presumably it was a slightly different creature from 1914, and continued to evolve.

And taking the story on even farther [and completely off-topic] a later version of 'No. 6' was evacuated and abandoned in the early hours of 18th May 1940, near Albert, and is believed to have fallen into German hands.

Sue