Did 20th century militaries have their own fire-fighter units?
score:13
In some countries between the wars there was a serious Civil-Defense movement. These were part-time civilian organisations aimed at supplementing ordinary firefighters and rescue workers in event of air raids. Britain also had an Auxiliary Fire Service
As of actual military firefighters they were most important for branches of military other than the army. The navies (especially the US Navy operating lot of aircraft carriers in WW2) took it very seriously, appointing damage control parties and training basically all sailors in firefighting. Look for example at this introduction or at this 1945 manual. Apparently, naval firefighters were not a separate unit, but "repair parties" had sailors in preorganized "firefighting groups".
Air bases also had dedicated firefighters. Planes during the WW2 often came in trailing smoke, leaking fuel or with damaged landing gear. Landing in such conditions regularly resulted in the plane bursting in flames. The RAF for example had a separate Fire Service Here are some of their fire trucks. USAAF/C Fire fighting platoons come close to satisfying your requirements, as they belonged to the Army, and moved with their advance (WW2 fighter planes had limited range, so there were many-many airfields in France and Italy at the end of the war.)
But were there actual army firefighters putting out fires in the frontline?
There is a book that might contain the answer, but it is not freely available online.
Yet it turns out that there were. US Army Fire Fighting platoons were mainly base-based (as you describe) but here I have found that some were deployed on Utah Beach on 13 Juny 1944. Judging from the comment that they had to dig in, and from this map and this page, there were almost certinaly in range of German field artillery, which I consider frontline enough for an unit equipped with unarmored trucks. As they needed heavy equipment and - especially important - stable sources of water, I do not think they were deployed closer than this, though more research would be needed.
More post
- 📝 What does a black cloth on your upper left arm mean in the context of 1950s USA?
- 📝 In Chicago, IL, why do most north/south streets change names east of Ashland on the north vs south side?
- 📝 What was a "census" (some sort of compensation) in early medieval Europe?
- 📝 Was the issue of women's suffrage debated during the drafting of the 1809 Instruments of Government?
- 📝 Where and how did the allies scrounge enough food for the Soviets AND the British?
- 📝 How could nonconformist Protestants be buried in graveyards controlled by the established Church before 1880?
- 📝 Where were the Straits dollars printed?
- 📝 Japan allying with Germany in WWII
- 📝 Did any European monarch execute their sister or other direct female relative?
- 📝 Were lay people ever forbidden to read the Bible in the Christian world?
- 📝 How long would it have taken to get to the Poconos in the early 1900s?
- 📝 Please help find these paintings
- 📝 Why do old kitchen stoves have circular openings in the upper surface?
- 📝 To what extent did the 1793 yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia influence the process of relocating the capital to Washington DC in 1800?
- 📝 What determined the duration of preliminary bombardment at Omaha beach?
- 📝 How does a country give "aid" to another?
- 📝 Why was Tegh Bahadur executed by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb?
- 📝 What happened in 1914 that ended the golden age of microbiology?
- 📝 Was there hostile contact between deployed US forces and Sandinista forces during Operation Golden Pheasant?
- 📝 Did Hitler brag about or downplay his war experiences in WW I in appealing to 1932 voters?
- 📝 How many Mendeleyevs there were?
- 📝 Total budget of Nuremberg trial
- 📝 Who swore fealty to his overlord and immediately knocked him down?
- 📝 Are species introduced to England and Wales by the Romans still found near Roman settlements?
- 📝 What is the first verified twin study?
- 📝 Was Sofia really demolished by Bulgarians after 1878 and why?
- 📝 Why were Roman dice elongated?
- 📝 Why wasn't the 1953 Iranian coup d’état considered to be a violation of United Nations Charter?
- 📝 When did husbands & wives start sharing bedrooms?
- 📝 What did the post world war two civilian food ration consist of in the UK?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did 20th century militaries have their own fire-fighter units?
- 📝 Why did some colonies of the British Empire have their own currencies?
- 📝 How did people 'park' their horse and buggy in early 20th century cities? How was theft prevented?
- 📝 Did Soviet Republics like Kazakstan and Azerbaijan have their own military units?
- 📝 Did Roman unmarried men have a preferred hand and finger for wearing their seal ring?
- 📝 Did line infantry units have designated marksmen?
- 📝 Why did so few militaries use semi automatic rifles as their standard issue infantry weapon?
- 📝 How much of an impact did the Roman emperors' civil wars have on their decision to debase the coinage?
- 📝 Why did families in 6th century Mecca send their babies to be raised in the desert?
- 📝 What did the top minds of the late 17th century have to say about Salem witch trials?
- 📝 In Edwardian England, did poor families arrange to have their children buried in the graves of unrelated adults?
- 📝 Did courtiers of antiquity hold in their pee or did they have common commodes available in the king/queen's court?
- 📝 In 19th century India, pre and post Raj, did any private British citizens actually own land in India?
- 📝 Why did fighter pilots wear their hats lopsided during the World Wars?
- 📝 At what point did Soviet armored units have qualitative parity with Wehrmacht armored units?
- 📝 How did militaries dispose of their rubbish in WWII?
- 📝 How did Hitler have his own private militia in 1923?
- 📝 Have any national leaders been kept unaware of their own wars?
- 📝 What degree of choice did slaves have over their sexual autonomy?
- 📝 When did the US colonies/states stop making their own currencies?
- 📝 What was the first instance of native Americans using gunpowder weapons in battle and did they ever make their own powder?
- 📝 Did the Allies punish their own war criminals?
- 📝 What did Central America export in the early 20th century other than coffee and bananas?
- 📝 Did Canada or Mexico have an equivalent of Manifest Destiny at some stage in their development?
- 📝 What rights did women have in Switzerland in the first few years of the 20th century?
- 📝 What effect did tanks have on warfare strategies upon their introduction?
- 📝 Did early nineteenth century commoners know their royalty?
- 📝 Why did Germany have so many important scientists and thinkers around the turn of the 20th century?
- 📝 What did "Dr." after a person's or a business's name mean around the turn of the 20th century in the USA?
- 📝 Did people living in Stockholm, Sweden in the late 1700s (18th century) really have to fetch their mail manually?