The History of the Plymouth Ambulance Service 1939 - 1945

At the commencement of World War 2, the Service acquired a bus that had been used as a mobile showroom for the Gas Board (pictured left) - This was converted to transport 12 stretcher cases or 31 sitting cases. Like most ambulances of the time, its roof was repainted khaki to reduce the possibility of direct aerial enemy attack.

Stirling service was carried out by the crews manning the ambulances, often in harrowing and terrifying conditions during the heavy Nazi bombing raids on the City- a situation complicated when two of the four ambulance stations were bombed out of existence.

The large converted ex-Gas Board vehicle proved its worth and helped to convey the many merchant seamen who had survived enemy action in the Atlantic convoys and were landed at Plymouth. On one occasion, the Service was stretched to the limit when 134 survivors from torpedoed ships were brought ashore and needed medical treatment and transportation.

The huge ambulance was also used during a stormy Winter night during the blackouts when a ship who had picked up survivors from a torpedoed vessel, itself went aground at Hope Cove near Kingsbridge. Manoeuvring through the small country lanes, it brought many patients to hospital in Plymouth. The vehicle was used again after the Dunkirk evacuation when it was required to go to Tavistock Railway Station, in the middle of the night and after a heavy snowfall, to collect wounded American soldiers who had arrived on a hospital train. It conveyed them to a
large temporary hospital set-up at Plaister Down