RAPID RELIEF BY RAIL
“IN THE MONTH OF DECEMBER 1914 ALONE, MORE THAN 100,000 BRITISH CASUALTIES WERE EVACUATED ABOARD TRAINS FROM BATTLEFIELDS IN FLANDERS”
It was the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. On 1 July 1916 the Battle of the Somme commenced. Before the sun set, 57,470 soldiers became casualties, and 19,240 of them were dead.
During that horrific day and the three that followed, ambulance trains completed 63 treacherous round trips from stations where wounded men lay awaiting evacuation to port cities on the coast of France. The trains brought 33,392 casualties from the combat zone. The immense carnage at the Somme required the trains to carry wounded well beyond their designated capacity. For example, Train No. 29 transported 761 men while fighting raged on 2 July – more than twice its allotted load.
By the time of the Battle of the Somme, it was terribly apparent to soldier and civilian, field marshal and private alike, that World War I had brought death, injury and destruction on such a scale that had previously been impossible to conceive. Without the yeoman service of the ambulance trains, staffed by tireless medical personnel of the Royal Army Medical Corps and Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Medical Nursing Service – including doctors, nurses, orderlies and other personnel – the fearful harvest
