Problems with Communications and Transport

Question 1

Why were horse-drawn ambulances used at the start of the war?

Answer 1

Too difficult to use motor ambulances -

constant artillery shells and bombs - destroyed roads - dangerous for stretcher bearers

Question 2

What problems did motor ambulances face when they were used?

Answer 2

destroyed roads - constant artillery shells and bombs

Question 3

How many horses were used to pull ambulances in the muddiest terrain on the western front?

Answer 3

Up to six instead of two

Question 4

What trains had to be used for transporting soldiers to a coastal base hospital in the first few months of the war?

Answer 4

Barges/canal boats - 0ctober 1914 - stretchers both sides of the carriages

before cargo ships were used

Question 5

Why were canal barges sometimes used to transport men?

Answer 5

allowed wounded men to bypass base hospitals on the coast and then straight back to britain on transport boats