Did Canada make its own stretchers?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

I guess they did - if so, where these made to the standard British or US pattern?

Attached is a photo of what I believe is a British-made stretcher.

2505570b-964e-442b-9b34-37eebd244b60.jpg

[Jordan Baker]

I believe Canada made the stretchers to the British pattern. I’ll post some photos later today if I get the time.

[Ed Storey]

Like everything Commonwealth, there are different Marks of Stretcher depending on when they were manufactured and their intended use. A few of the older wartime stretchers used to lurk about in the back of QMs and 4 Brigade in Germany seemed to be the happy hunting ground for strange odds and ends. Some of this stuff migrated to the Balkans when Lahr and Baden closed in the early 1990s, so quite a bit of 4 Brigade material was used in that theatre.

Attached a photograph of a wartime stretcher slung off a Canadian Grizzly taken at Tomaslavgrad, Bosnia in late 2000.

C392-14 WWII Stretcher mounted on Grizzly AVGP - TSG Bosnia - Dec 2000 ECC 112301 copy.jpg

[maple_leaf_eh]

Military equipment has to change with circumstances. In Afghanistan, the troops discovered that when the Medevac helicopter was a US Blackhawk, the issue pole stretcher was too long to fit into the cabin. Consequently the handy and ubiquitous stretcher was replaced by one that folds in the middle for transport.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Thanks for the input guys.

I gather there is not a lot of info about stretchers, even though they saw a lot of use. Same is true for e.g. tentage.

The stretchers do show up in photos of ambulance jeeps for example, and in this interior view of a CMP ambulance.

Any more info is of help!

interior view of model 3G1.JPG

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Ed Storey

Like everything Commonwealth, there are different Marks of Stretcher depending on when they were manufactured and their intended use. A few of the older wartime stretchers used to lurk about in the back of QMs and 4 Brigade in Germany seemed to be the happy hunting ground for strange odds and ends. Some of this stuff migrated to the Balkans when Lahr and Baden closed in the early 1990s, so quite a bit of 4 Brigade material was used in that theatre.

Attached a photograph of a wartime stretcher slung off a Canadian Grizzly taken at Tomaslavgrad, Bosnia in late 2000.

That's amazing Ed. As their function hardly changed I reckon they could serve for a long time.

There must have been a large stash of British or Canadian made stretchers somewhere in the Netherlands, as they turn up at dump stores every now and then. Most seem to have come from Civil Defence stock, taken over from the Army.

As they are too long to ship by parcel service, I need to plan a trip to one of these dump stores and buy myself a pair for use in my C15TA.

Militair-vintage-opvouwbed-legerbed-campingbed-army-stretcher-military-bed-00001.jpg Militair-vintage-opvouwbed-legerbed-campingbed-army-stretcher-military-folding-bed-00005.jpg

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stretcher.jpeg

[Alex van de Wetering]

I wonder if the length of stretchers increased over time, due to people being taller than in the 80 years ago??

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

I wonder if the length of stretchers increased over time, due to people being taller than in the 80 years ago??

Good point! One of the sellers lists the dimensions of the stretchers as follows:

Length over all: 230 cm
Length of canvas: 180 cm long x 57 cm wide

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