M38CDN Ambulance

[David Dunlop]

If I recall correctly, the owner of the restored ambulance here in town put the spare on the side rather than the hood because he wanted to maintain ease of putting the windscreen assembly down for summer drives.

The vehicle was restored and in the Charleswood area of town for a number of years and then disappeared.



David

[donjunior]

Does anyone have pictures of the spare tire hood mount used on the CDN M38 (without the spare mounted)? Was it unique to the Canadian Army? Is the piece on the cowl on my M38 not part of this mount?

[Wayne Hingley]

There are photos on this forum somewhere that show a little better view of that bracket, but still not a great amount of detail. I think it was in a discussion related to M38s with the 106RR mounted (same hood bracket). The main triangular piece is made of wood, I believe. And yes, the piece on your cowl is part of it.

[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