Red Cross Extensively Used Ford Model T Ambulances In World War I

By today’s standards, the Ford Model T looks like nothing more than a rattletrap of a horseless carriage, but back in the early 1900s, it was considered a tough, capable machine. The Red Cross found the Model T extremely useful – so useful, in fact, that the organization employed a fleet of Model T ambulances during the conflict of World War I.

When WWI was in full swing, Ford Motor Company partnered with the U.S. Surgeon General’s office to make the Model T-based ambulance a reality. They were dubbed “jumpin’ bedsteads” by troops, thanks to their less-than-comfortable rides, but the vehicles were more than prepared for the challenging battlefield environment. Thousands of Ford Model T ambulances were built in the U.S., France, and England before being shipped to the front lines, where they served to safely deliver injured soldiers to hospital facilities.

The first Ford Model T ambulances were built by Ford in France. Workers used shipping containers to build the ambulance body, adding a canvas top, and went on to use the vehicles to transport the wounded to an American-led hospital in Paris in 1914. In the words of an American soldier responsible for driving one of the ambulances, the Model T was touted as being “the mechanical marvel of the war.”

Ford’s incredibly advanced assembly line streamlined the process of building and delivering the Ford Model T ambulances where they were needed. The automaker contributed a fleet of over 950 vehicles with a total value of $500,000 (roughly $16 million when adjusted for inflation), consisting of 375 touring cars, 200 pickups, 200 stripped chassis, and more than 100 ambulances. The automaker also built and distributed 1,454 additional vehicles for wartime use by the Red Cross.

Ford vehicles and engines were not exclusively ambulances during WWI. They were also used as tanks, machine gun vehicles, supply cars, water pumps, and electricity plants, just to name a few.

“(This was) the most remarkable record of motor car service, of performance under seemingly impossible conditions, that has ever been made by anything on four wheels,” said an unnamed U.S. Army veteran and Ford ambulance driver.

The Blue Oval’s wartime efforts continued well beyond WWI. In World War II, the automaker debuted its Ford Jeep prototype, the GP-No. 1. The Richmond Assembly plant itself played a massive role in the conflict, producing armored vehicles and other models for use on the front lines.