Flying Bomb- V1 Bomb Damage in London, England, UK, 1944 D21236

American Ambulance, Great Britain (AAGB) (sometimes wrongly referred to as the Anglo-American Ambulance Unit) was a humanitarian organisation founded in 1940 by a group of Americans living in London for the purpose of providing emergency vehicles and ambulance crews to the United Kingdom during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The idea for the service came from Gilbert H. Carr during a meeting of The American Society in London shortly after the

Dunkirk evacuation The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allies of World War II, Allied soldiers during the World War II, Second World War from the bea ...

. Funding came from private donations, both from Americans expatriates living in the United Kingdom and from the United States and the organisation was headed by Wallace B. Phillips (

Joseph P. Kennedy Joseph Patrick Kennedy (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was an American businessman, investor, and politician. He is known for his own political prominence as well as that of his children and was the patriarch of the Irish-American Ken ...

, then

United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom The United States ambassador to the United Kingdom (known formally as the ambassador of the United States to the Court of St James's) is the official representative of the president of the United States and the American government to the monarc ...

, was Honorary Chairman). Within six weeks of being set up £140,000 had been raised. By the end of 1940 the organisation had raised $856,000. American Ambulance, Great Britain eventually operated a fleet of around 300 vehicles.

Organisation

The work of the Anglo-american Ambulance Unit in Britain, 1941 D3996

The American Ambulance, Great Britain, operated from 17 stations across mainland Britain with five located in London and one each in Cardiff, Cambridge, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham,

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...

and

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...

. For most of the War, the headquarters were at 9

Grosvenor Gardens Grosvenor Gardens is the name given to two triangular parks in Belgravia, London, faced on their western and eastern sides by streets of the same name. Both roads run roughly north to south from Hobart Place and Grosvenor Place to Buckingham ...

in London, formerly the offices of

The Pyrene Company Limited Carbon tetrachloride pump fire extinguisher The Pyrene Company Limited from their beginning in 1914, until 1971 when they became Chubb Fire Security Limited, were among the world's leaders in the manufacture of fire fighting equipment. The name ...

. In March 1945 it moved to 44

Lower Belgrave Street Lower Belgrave Street is a street in London's Belgravia district. It runs north-west to south-east and begins as a continuation of Upper Belgrave Street where it meets Eaton Square. It crosses one through-street, Ebury Street, and ends in a t- ...

Personnel

The ambulance staff were British women aged between 18 and 45 and numbered around 400, some of whom were seconded from the

Mechanised Transport Corps The Mechanised Transport Corps (MTC), sometimes erroneously called the Motor Transport Corps, was a British women's organisation that initially provided its own transport and uniforms and operated during the Second World War. It was a civilian uni ...

(for Women) and the Women's Transport Services (FANY). Members of the AAGB wore the tunic and skirt uniform as worn by those in the FANY but with crossed British and American flags on the sleeve. All training was undertaken in Leeds. During the course of the war, three members of the organisation were killed on active service: * Officer Ensign, Marjorie Stewart Butler (''née'' Pullar). On the 10 May 1941 the

Alexandra Hotel, Knightsbridge The Alexandra Hotel was a hotel at what is now 25–27 Knightsbridge, London. It was originally the Wallace Hotel, and opened in 1858 on the site of what had been a pub, the White Horse, and soon acquired two adjoining houses to allow expansion. ...

received a bomb hit. Butler (one of the AAGB Headquarters staff) was in one of the first ambulances on the scene and went inside to help casualties. But part of the damaged building collapsed on her; she later died of her injuries. * Driver H N Richardson. * Driver Dorothy Helen Daly, killed on the 4 May 1942. The house she was billeted in on Spicer Road,

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

was bombed during the

Exeter Blitz The term Exeter Blitz refers to the air raids by the German '' Luftwaffe'' on the British city of Exeter, Devon, during the Second World War. The city was bombed in April and May 1942 as part of the so-called "Baedeker raids", in which targets ...

. One other member of the AAGB was injured in the attack. Daly was the daughter of the Irish judge and politician Arthur Samuels.

Vehicles

Flying Bomb- V1 Bomb Damage in London, England, UK, 1944 D21247

Flying Bomb- V1 Bomb Damage in London, England, UK, 1944 D21226

All the AAGB's vehicles were painted grey with a red strip and an emblem featuring the British and American flags. Depending on the purpose several types of vehicle were operated by the AAGB * Ambulances attended bombing incidents and transferred casualties to local hospitals and first aid posts. The vehicles were also used to transfer patients (often over great distance) requiring specialist treatment. Several types of vehicle were used - the Ford R.O.I.T, the Ford Clara a (converted panel van), the

Austin K2/Y The Austin K2/Y is a British heavy military ambulance that was used by all Commonwealth services during the Second World War. Built by Austin, it was based on the 1938 Austin K30 30-cwt light truck which as the K2 chassis was built during the w ...

and Chevrolet Ambulances, based on American Chevrolet vans. A small number of ambulances built by

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst t ...

were also operated. * Mobile First-Aid Posts were adapted Fordson E83W vans. They were specially adapted to navigate along roads strewn with rubble and debris following an air raid. These units were able to treat several hundred casualties. These mobile units were accompanied by a truck carrying doctors, nurses and stretcher-bearers. * Surgical Units were vehicles detailed to a local hospital. Their intended purpose was to transport medical teams to a bomb site. But they eventually became mostly used for moving casualties. These vehicles were mostly large American saloon cars.

Maintenance

The cost of maintaining the vehicles was met via subscriptions managed through the

British War Relief Society The British War Relief Society (BWRS) was a US-based humanitarian umbrella organisation dealing with the supply of non-military aid such as food, clothes, medical supplies and financial aid to people in Great Britain during the early years of th ...

of America.

Gallery of AAGB photographs

File:Guy's Hospital- Life in a London Hospital, England, 1941 D2344.jpg, An American Ambulance, Great Britain at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

, London. An AAGB member can be seen on the left. File:The work of the Anglo-american Ambulance Unit in Britain, 1941 D4000.jpg, Mrs Jack Miller of the American Ambulance, Great Britain, paints a white line around the bottom of her ambulance, in order to make it more visible in the blackout. File:Mtc Girls For America- Women of the Mechanised Transport Corps at Work, London, England, 1940 D2531.jpg, Maintenance of an AAGB ambulance. File:Flying Bomb- V1 Bomb Damage in London, England, UK, 1944 D21239.jpg, A police officer has his hand bandaged by women at the rear of an

of the American Ambulance Great Britain following a V1 attack in Upper Norwood.

References

External links

American Gift To Britain 1940 film from British Pathé archives
*https://www.aagb.org.uk *https://www.facebook.com/AAGB1945/ {{Subject bar , portal1=World War II , portal2=United Kingdom , portal3=United States 1940 establishments in the United Kingdom Civilians in war United States military support organizations United Kingdom–United States relations Organizations established in 1940 United Kingdom home front during World War II