4.9 Casualty Services 4.9.1 First Aid Training For some time before the outbreak of war instruction in ARP had been arranged in Bristol by the Medical Officer of Health in cooperation with the St.John Ambulance and the British Red Cross Society. Initially the two voluntary societies divided the city between them, the St.John Ambulance operating north of the river and the British Red Cross to the south, but due to differences in their First Aid methods it was soon decided that the St.John Ambulance should train men for the First Aid Parties and the Red Cross to instruct women in First Aid and home nursing. By September 1939 a total of 15,000 people in Bristol had been given elementary instruction in First Aid and anti-gas measures, while the personnel of the First Aid Service, including paid, part-time, auxiliaries and unpaid volunteers, went on to number some 1700. 4.9.2 First Aid Parties The idea of forming First Aid Parties originated some months before war broke out and between March and September 1939 everyone trained and ready for First Aid duties was allocated to units near their homes. First Aid Parties thus formed cohesive units which were able to take their places 'en bloc' at the Action Depots when the Luftwaffe started its attacks. At three of these, Central, Bedminster and Shirehampton, which were manned by full-time personnel, First Aid Parties and Ambulance Parties were standing by throughout the 24 hours, while the other three, St.George, Knowle and Clifton, would be opened up by part-time volunteers in the event of an air raid. First Aid Parties each consisted of four men including a driver, and were stationed ready for duty at the Action Depots. The function of the First Aid Parties was to render assistance at the site of the raid, and to clear the area of wounded persons in the shortest possible time. It was essential therefore, that the First Aid Parties worked in close cooperation with the Rescue Parties in the liberation of persons trapped under the wreckage. Further, in Bristol when First Aid Parties were sent to an incident they were usually accompanied by an Ambulance fitted with four stretcher racks in the canvas covered rear, while the Parties themselves often used 16 to 20 hp saloon cars with two additional steel stretchers on the roof!. 4.9.3 Ambulances During 1939 one of Bristol's most serious needs was for ambulances and although commercial vehicles, which could be converted easily into ambulances had been earmarked, authority to purchase them did not come from the government until after war had broken out. To meet this need a few second-hand cars were purchased, some trailers ordered and the building of ambulance bodies in Bristol put in hand. In addition the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company gave up 22 single-decker buses manned by Home Guard volunteers, to be used mainly used for evacuating the Receiving Hospitals when they were swamped with casualties, and at Bristol the 15 allocated to the city were converted by the company in one night! However, as the raiding got under way a fleet of ambulances was also provided by the American Ambulance Association, these being based at the Central Health Clinic, while another ambulance, the gift of employees of the Royal Insurance Group of New York, was donated for use by Bristol's Casualty and Emergency Hospitals. 4.9.4 Casualty Service: October 1940 As well as the First Aid Parties and ambulances, by October 1940 the Casualty Services, headed by the city's Medical Officer of Health, had responsibility for the 3 Casualty Receiving Hospitals, 7 Fixed First Aid Posts, 10 Mobile Units, 6 Gas Cleansing Stations and 6 Mortuaries, while by mid-1942 some 14 First Aid Points had also been set up and a further 6 Cleansing Stations provided. 4.9.5 Casualty Receiving Hospitals The Casualty Receiving Hospitals for the seriously wounded of Bristol were Southmead, The Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Bristol General Hospital, while the Cossham Memorial Hospital also received casualties from part of East Bristol and the South Gloucestershire area. During the period of heavy raiding in which there were a large number of seriously wounded cases, many much needed beds in the these establishments were quickly freed by the evacuation, to out-lying Base Hospitals, of all patients who could be safely moved. For this purpose use was made of a number of institutions and hospitals in adjoining counties, including the Royal West of England Sanatorium at Weston-super-Mare, the Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund Home at Kewstoke and Eastern House School. Distributions of fracture and other patients were also made to St. Martin's Hospital at Bath, and Winford Orthopaedic Hospital in Somerset, while St.Monica's Home gave up half their number of beds to replace those lost by the Bristol Royal Infirmary. In anticipation of the German bombers returning the following winter, in 1941 Bristol Corporation extended the existing sanatorium at Frenchay Park to act as an Emergency Hospital to take air raid casualties. However, due to problems on the Eastern Front the massed Luftwaffe formations never returned, enabling Frenchay to be taken over by the American Army in 1942, not returning to Local Authority control until August 1945. 4.9.6 Fixed First Aid Posts & Mobile Units At the start of war women volunteers trained in anti-gas work, First Aid and home nursing, together with older men recruited for First Aid duties were allocated to the Fixed First Aid Posts located in health centres and hospitals. Their function was to receive lightly wounded cases immediately after a raid, and to continue their treatment in the following days, thereby relieving congestion at the Receiving Hospitals. By the end of the war there were eight such Posts, and it was here that the Mobile Units were also housed each of which, staffed by a doctor, trained nurse and six auxiliary nurses, consisted of a large van containing surgical and medical equipment which could be sent to the site of a serious incident, making it possible to set up a dressing station with a minimum of delay. To augment the Fixed First Aid Posts by June 1942 First Aid Points had been established across the city equipped and supplied by local volunteers, who also undertook the work of rendering first aid, supervised by a trained nurse. Although they dealt only with minor injuries the scheme had a positive effect upon the morale of the public who could be treated for their injuries expeditiously. 4.9.7 Gas Cleansing Stations An attack with such blistering agents as Mustard Gas would have presented its own problems and, although never used by the Germans, precautions had to be made to combat the effects. To accomplish this the presence of the substance first had to be confirmed by the local Gas Identification Officer, after which persons who might have been in touch with Mustard Gas, but were not seriously injured, would have been sent to the Public Cleansing Stations, which had been established in six of the city's public baths. Later Bristol's Decontamination Service was extended by the construction of additional Gas Cleansing Stations, concrete cast, in areas of dense population or special vulnerability. 4.9.8 Mortuaries For those who sadly lost their lives during an attack there were six Divisional Mortuaries in Bristol which came into action after each raid, that in the Central Division also being ear marked as a Gas Decontamination Centre for the dead. To transport the victims four mortuary vans would report at each of the three full-time Action Depots and then proceeded to the bombed areas to remove the bodies and return them for identification. After major attacks, during which whole families might perish together, the provision of burial became a problem and so many were laid to rest in large communal graves in Greenbank Cemetery, where both civilians and Civil Defence workers who had fallen victim to the Luftwaffe's bombers were placed to rest side by side amidst the expressions of silent sympathy, more expressive than the spoken word. NEXT