M38CDN Ambulance

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

The following information is NOT specific to Canadian Jeep Ambulances. However, it could be useful to have a look at anyway.

Steve Turchet (Updated: Sep 23, 2021; Original: Mar 20, 2019 wrote the following article for Military Trader Vehicles ...

"Willys to the Rescue! Military Jeep Ambulances: A salute to the various types of jeep ambulances manufactured by Willys Overland and Kaiser Jeep that spanned the decades between WWII and the Vietnam War"

The article is loaded with photographs of Jeep ambulances. The article also outlines a link to General Motors Holden to modify Jeeps as ambulance for the Pacific theater.

On the Pacific front, the jeep’s capabilities as an ambulance were quickly recognized by the U.S. Marine Corps. The General Motors-Holden factory in Melbourne, Australia, modified Marine jeeps for dedicated ambulance use. Today, these specialized ambulances are referred to as “Holden Jeeps.”

Click on the link to the Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au. Then look in the top right hand corner for the "search". Clicking on this will bring you to the Search page and then type in the keywords Jeep Ambulance and there is a range of over 100 photographs, more than 5 films and some drawings. Just be aware that the keyword search does not always bring precise results. Sometimes there may be results that feature a Jeep and later on an Ambulance that could be an ambulance bus.

Just had a quick search on YouTube and found a link that explains the Australia contracts for modifying the Jeep ambulances NMMC WWII Iwo Jima Ambulance Jeep accessed 24th January 2025 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ9ZSBdfUks

Unless you like seeing a film of the tyres of different military vehicles drive by - skip to the 2:00 minute mark of this video ... WWII USMC Holden ambulance jeep on Iwo Jima COLOR (silent) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDBxvT54ZOc

Enjoy!

Kind regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

After some digging I did manage to find photographs that describe a photograph of This GPW of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (RCAMC) accessed 24th January 2025 from, https://cj3b.info/Fire/MilitaryAmbulances.html

This webpages features a number of photographs RCAMC ambulances. There is also another link embedded within the webpage that leads to "another RCAMC ambulance".

I did find copies of some of the same photographs that are included on the Royal Canadian Medical Service Association website. https://www.royalcdnmedicalsvc.ca/ab...world-war-two/ This might prove to be a great place to see if any of their members have any photographs of Jeep ambulances that were taken by their relatives while they served and were kept in the family.

Enjoy!

Kind regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

The English had an airborne version of a medical Jeep. Click on the link to see photographs of them British Airborne medical jeep, circa 1944. Interestingly the spare tyre is mounted in front of the radiator. Accessed 24th January 2025 from,
http://www.spanglefish.com/16parachu...?pageid=213441

I have an Australian Army 1963 Land Rover Series 2A Ambulance so I have strong interest in military ambulances.

Kind regards
Lionel

[David Dunlop]

Yes, the tire mount is a wooden assembly. The triangular frame is built of square cut, 2 x 2, or slightly less size, true dimensional lumber like you used to be able to purchase as standard lumber up until the mid-1950's, when the industry dumbed the sizes down in order to get more board feet of lumber out of any given tree, but still charged us the same amount.

One side of the frame has a board fitted across the centre half which carries the load of the spare assembly and the whole thing is drilled for various hardware.

I will see if I can get you some photos this weekend.

The Prairie Command member who restored one of these vehicles in the 90's was a Jim Wilson if I remember correctly and he moved out of Winnipeg, hence the disappearance of the vehicle.


David

[donjunior]

Thanks, David, that would be greatly appreciated.

[rob love]

The spare tire on the hood was used on other installation kits for the M38 Jeeps. Some that comes to mind are the recoiless rifle and the line layer variants. I have had a few of the wooden brackets with the spare tire mount, and the wood was more like a 1x4 or 1x3.
I have the ambulance modification instruction, but rather than go into detail, it just says to order two kits (the stretcher rack and the support kit) and follow the instructions contained within those kits.
I had an ex-ambulance M38 about a dozen years back, and it had some holes under the passenger side seat through the toolbox for ducting for a gas heater installation, along with a grill on the outside body going into the tool box.
See here for more info re the hood mounting: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ight=ambulance
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...996#post115996

There is this thread where I asked about some extra holes and brackets in an M38 I had. Peter Simondson said three holes on the sides of the body just behind the driver and codriver were for the stretcher racks. I see yours has the same 3 holes.
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=14896