The Society of Friends or Quakers is a small religious sect best known for its pacifism but less well known for the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) in World Wars I and II. On 27 September 1939, just 3 weeks after Britain declared war on Germany, the first 61 men of the Second World War FAU began their training and, in early November, they were posted to work in London hospitals which were preparing for air-raid casualties.
On 30 November 1939, Russia invaded eastern Finland, citing historical ownership of the land and the need to defend Leningrad only 30 km from the border beginning what became known as the ‘The Winter War’. Finland lacked allies and the Soviet Union (USSR) expected a quick victory. However, the Finns resisted fiercely and, by mid-December, the Soviets had lost 25 000 soldiers.
In Britain, public support for Finland was growing and over dinner one evening, a member of the FAU suggested they should go to Finland as an ambulance unit. After meeting the Joint War Committee of the British Red Cross to obtain authority to operate in war zones, they sent a telegram to the Finnish Red Cross:
‘Would you accept voluntary male quaker ambulance unit consisting fifty trained personnel twenty ambulances one or two doctors unit would require no payment would you provide food living quarters and petrol would go out under british red cross but would work with finnish red cross cable reply immediately’
In early January 1940, a reply was received:
‘We regret not for service with the army but the government medical board and our red cross pleased receive them for helping the civilian population’
The FAU bought four Ford utility trucks, 20 Ford ambulances and three staff cars. A Swedish company agreed to ship the vehicles for free and personnel at half price from Newcastle upon Tyne to Bergen and, on 6 January 1940, the FAU learned that they were to operate on the battlefield after all.
Later that month, the FAU set off from Newcastle with the men going first and the vehicles following. The FAU arrived in Bergen on 22nd January and travelled to Oslo to await the arrival of their vehicles taking the opportunity to learn skiing and to practise driving in snow and ice.
The vehicles left Newcastle on 20 January; the first four arrived on 8 February but the ship with the rest became ice-bound off Kristiansand. The FAU divided, and eight of them with two ambulances and a stores truck set off for Finland, the rest remaining behind. The second batch of vehicles arrived on 15 February and after a short delay to fit extra heaters in the cabs and ski racks on the roof, they too set off for Finland. Meanwhile, the first party was joined by a Finnish military liaison officer in Haparanda and told they were to work north of Lake Ladoga. They crossed into Finland at Tornio and were sent to the front line by train with the engines running continually to prevent them freezing and then by road at night with headlights blacked out to avoid attracting the attention of Russian aircraft. Vehicles frequently slithered off the road needing rope and pulley to pull them back. When the road became impassable, they were loaded onto a train again before being offloaded to drive the last 190 km to divisional headquarters.
The second party with the delayed vehicles followed the same route, joining up with them on 2 March. The FAU was then divided into three each of them transporting wounded between field dressing stations and regimental first aid posts at night without headlights to evade Russian aircraft, maintaining the vehicles by day and snatching sleep when possible. One ambulance was stopped from driving into Russian territory by alert Finnish sentries. The FAU's battlefield work lasted only 10 days because, on 13 March 1940, an armistice ceded large parts of Finland to Russia; the FAU were now busy transporting civilians out of the area held by Russia. In 12 days, they moved 2500 civilians to safety while also running a canteen for the retreating Finnish army.
On 9 April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. On the 13th, the FAU in Finland offered its services to Norway and on the 17th, they heard they had been accepted. The journey to Norway began by train to Tornio, after which the convoy of 27 vehicles drove through Sweden to Gäddede on the border with Norway where the Swedish frontier guard worried that the convoy might attract the attention of the German military. The FAU discovered that the road was negotiable only at night when the ground was frozen and they would only be able to travel at 5 miles (8 km) per hour. They were twice flown over by German aircraft but, the third time, the aircraft fired at the convoy causing minor damage. In Norway, no one knew anything about them so they headed for the British HQ in Namsos. There they were split once again into three groups with the British, French and Norwegian forces, one member of the FAU staying at the British HQ awaiting ‘important’ news. That night at 9:40 pm, an order came for all allied forces to assemble in Narvik for immediate evacuation. The three groups made their own way, abandoning ambulances and taking what trucks they could. Half of the FAU got away but when the other half arrived at 4:00 am, they found the
‘…quayside and the fjord empty of everything but some ice. There was a note pinned to one of the three ambulances that were on the quayside to the effect that the last boat had left at 1:30 am …’
The stranded half decided to head back to neutral Sweden. Along the way, they picked up some of their abandoned ambulances and arrived in Sweden with twelve ambulances, two trucks and a staff car only hours before. Norway was fully occupied and the border closed. At first, they expected to be in Sweden for weeks but it became months. Funds were needed so they gave their vehicles to the Swedish Red Cross in return for a small amount of subsistence money. One of the FAU, from neutral Ireland, got away on his passport, another five escaped to Iceland on a fishing boat and made it to Scotland, and the rest tried to obtain visas to leave via Moscow but the Russian ambassador in Sweden refused because they had been on the Finnish side of the Winter War. They scattered all over Sweden and Finland looking for work.
An office was opened in Stockholm to keep the remnants of the FAU in touch with London and, in September, they learned the Russian ambassador in London had granted visas and the Red Cross in Cairo had accepted their services. On 8 October 1940, the FAU departed for Riga, Moscow, Odessa, Istanbul, Tripoli and Haifa, arriving in Cairo on 21 October, and were given new ambulances by the Australian Red Cross. They joined the British Army in North Africa until 21 March when they were posted to Greece. When the Allies retreated from Greece, the FAU once again ended up on a deserted quayside and, on 29 April 1941, became prisoners of war. In 1943, they were part of a Red Cross exchange of prisoners and sent back to Sweden!