RASC Katy Western Desert Austin K2 Ambulance

This Austin K2 military ambulance had wartime royal connections. The vehicle was also featured in several media roles from that era, most notably in the movie Ice Cold in Alex starring John Mills, where it was called "Katy. Our model brings that vehicle back to life as it was seen in the movie. In many photos of then Princess Elizabeth in her wartime ATS uniform, she can be seen under the hood or behind the wheel of a K2 Ambulance, for which she was trained.

The Austin K2/Y Ambulance, affectionately called KATY, was built by Austin between 1939 and 1945 at their Longbridge plant in collaboration with Mann Egerton - known for their expertise in manufacturing bus bodies. It was quite a large vehicle, 18ft long, 7ft 5 inches wide and just over 9 feet high. To save as much space as possible for the wounded, the crew was limited to 2-3 people. The K2 weighed just over 3 tons, was equipped with a 6-cylinder 3462 Austin D-series engine with four gears and had a top speed of about 50 miles per hour. The vehicle had two gasoline tanks, one on each side holding 12 gallons of fuel each. Just over 13,000 K2 ambulances were built, and they proved very popular with British and Commonwealth troops and U.S. forces. Two large doors at the rear opened to allow the K2 to accommodate ten seated wounded or four stretchers. The rear cabin was specially designed by the Royal Army Medical Corps and built by Mann Egerton. The driver's cabin had no doors but instead folding canvas tarps. Thus, patients could also be reached from the driver's cabin through a small interior door with a seat. The exterior of the vehicle consisted mainly of painted canvas. One feature that helps in dating the variations of the K2 was the shape of the roof hatches. The early ones were round, the later ones square.This Oxford Austin K2 is based on the early version with round roof vents.