225th (Parachute) Field Ambulance

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225th (Parachute) Field Ambulance
5th Parachute Brigade
EngagementsOperation Tonga
Operation Varsity
Operation Tiderace
Insignia
Emblem of
the British
Airborne Forces

The 225th (Parachute) Field Ambulance was a Royal Army Medical Corps unit of the British airborne forces during the Second World War.

When raised the

River Rhine
crossing in 1945.

After the war in Europe ended they were sent to the Far East for operations against the

Palestine
. However shortly after arriving the 225th (Parachute) Field Ambulance was disbanded.

Background

Impressed by the success of German airborne operations, during the

field ambulances formed during the Second World War, two, the 181st and the 195th, were glider borne, while the other five, the 16th, 127th, 133rd, 224th and the 225th, were parachute trained.[4]

225th (Parachute) Field Ambulance

On 7 June 1943 the 225th (Parachute) Field Ambulance was raised at

6th Airborne Division.[6]
The war establishment of a parachute field ambulance, consisted of 177 all ranks.[7] With nine doctors in two surgical teams and four sections.[7] Together they could deal with 330 cases in twenty-four hours. With the surgical teams completing 1.8 operations an hour, but if they were required to operate the following day had to be relieved after twelve hours.[8]

It was commanded by a

Company Sergeant Major as second in command. They had fifty men under them, including thirty-eight drivers, four motorcyclists and five vehicle mechanics.[11]

Operational history

Normandy

On 6 June 1944, the 6th Airborne Division, took part in

Sword beach. At the same time they had to secure the landing zone for the division's glider borne forces arriving later that day.[12]

Parachute Field Ambulance troops just before boarding their aircraft.

Under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Bruce Harvey,

3rd Infantry Division, and within an hour sixty casualties were evacuated to the beachhead. Another 280 remaining wounded were being treated at the MDS.[17] Fighting in the area continued through the night and by 05:00 7 June 380 wounded had been dealt with at the MDS. In the first forty hours of the landings, the unit's surgeons had performed forty-three operations.[17]

Following the

51st (Highland) Infantry Division, which had taken over the southern sector of the Orne bridgehead. Then on 18 June, they were withdrawn and sent to a rest area beside the River Orne.[18]

On 20 June they moved back to the front line, treated a steady flow of casualties, mostly from mortar fire and small arms wounds.

River Seine, and was withdrawn becoming the 21st Army Group reserve.[22]

Germany

Ambulance jeep fitted with litters for carrying wounded.

The next airborne operation by 255th (Parachute) Field Ambulance, was

River Rhine in the area of the Diersfordter woods, near the town of Hamminkeln.[23] The 225th now commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel N.J.P. Hewlings still part of the 5th Parachute Brigade would land to the north of the woods, in daylight and a large number of casualties were expected.[24]

Landing on 24 March the 225th established their MDS in some farm buildings at the edge of the woods, and were soon treating the casualties from the landings. The German infantry pulling back from the Rhine actually marched through the farm buildings without discovering the MDS.[25] On the afternoon 25 March the leading units of the 15th (Scottish) Division, linked up with the airborne division.[26]

The 6th Airborne Division then advanced mostly on foot, from then Rhine to

leap-frog to the front, the leading unit accepting all the division's casualties. Between landing and the end of the war the 225th treated 1,083 casualties.[29]

Far East

Withdrawn back to England, on 19 July 1945 the 5th Parachute Brigade departed for India, arriving on 7 August to prepare for operations against the

Japanese Empire. However the dropping of the Atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August ended the war. It had been intended to use the brigade in Operation Zipper, the invasion of British Malaya, instead on 17 September, the brigade travelled by sea to Northern–Malaya and advanced on Kuala Lumpur unopposed.[30] The 5th Parachute Brigade then took part in Operation Tiderace the liberation of Singapore, as part of XV Corps.[31] In Singapore the 225th were quartered in Alexander Barracks, being responsible for the welfare of Japanese prisoners and some Germans who had been part of the German Naval Mission and the crews of two U-boats.[32]

Then in December 1945, the Brigade was sent to Java, to help restore law and order until a Dutch force could arrive from Europe. By 25 December the 225th were in Jakarta[32] The Brigade was then sent to Semarang and the 225th became responsible for the medical welfare of the towns 210,000 inhabitants.[33] When the Dutch force arrived the 225th returned to Singapore arriving on 2 May 1946. Two months later the 5th Parachute Brigade were ordered to Palestine to rejoin the 6th Airborne Division arriving on 9 August. The 225th (Parachute) Field Ambulance being now surplus to requirements was disbanded on 19 August, the men being posted as reinforcements to the divisions other medical units.[34]

Notes

Footnotes
Citations
  1. ^ Otway, p.21
  2. ^ Ferguson, p.6
  3. ^ Cole, p.4
  4. ^ Cole, pp.5–6
  5. ^ Cole, p.6
  6. ^ Ferguson, p.16
  7. ^ a b Cole, p.9
  8. ^ Cole, p.8
  9. ^ Cole, p.222
  10. ^ Cole, pp.222–223
  11. ^ Cole, p.223
  12. ^ Ferguson, p.17
  13. ^ Crookenden, p.56
  14. ^ Cole, p.80
  15. ^ Fowler, p.183
  16. ^ Cole, p.84
  17. ^ a b c Cole, p.85
  18. ^ a b Cole, p.86
  19. ^ Cole, pp.95–96
  20. ^ Cole, p.96
  21. ^ Cole, p.97
  22. ^ Cole, p.102
  23. ^ Ferguson, p.29
  24. ^ Cole, p.159
  25. ^ Cole, p.164
  26. ^ Cole, p.168
  27. ^ Cole, p.170
  28. ^ a b Reynolds, p.87
  29. ^ Cole, p.171
  30. ^ Ferguson, p.33
  31. ^ Chant, p.195
  32. ^ a b Cole, p.197
  33. ^ Cole, p.198
  34. ^ Cole, p.200

References

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