British involvement in the Iraq War

Some 9,500 of the British servicemen and women who deployed on Operation Telic for the invasion and its aftermath were reservists, from the

Notice that additional British forces were deploying to the region (large numbers of RAF personnel were already deployed in Kuwait, Turkey and elsewhere in the region on

The deployment used 64 British and foreign flagged merchant vessels.

Command structure

The force was commanded by a

The

The

The

Post-invasion

After the end of major operations, the main components of the British forces changed greatly.

A further rotation of ground troops occurred in November 2003, with 19 Mechanised Brigade relieved by

In May 2005, 4 Armoured Brigade was replaced by

In May 2006 7th Armoured Brigade, the

Casualties

A total of 179

In theatre both military and civilian casualties were treated by British Field Hospitals (FH), 22 FH in Kuwait and 34 FH in Iraq. 34 Field Hospital was made up of regular troops from their base in Strensall just outside York and members for volunteer reserve units from all over the country. A small 25 bedded hospital was sent across the Kuwait Iraq border in the early days of the war. On arrival at Shaibah the hospital was set up and ready to take casualties within six and a half hours. Everything that you would expect in a modern hospital was present with an Emergency Department, X-ray, Labs, Surgical Theatres x 2, ITU and a hospital ward.

In effect the hospital was based on the front line of the British area of responsibility and was the furthest forward medical unit in recent history. Casualties would often miss out the regimental aid posts and dressing stations and go straight to the hospital. Staff at the hospital worked 12 hour shifts without days off until more staff began to arrive around a month later. The 25 bedded unit kept working despite some nearby mortar fire while elements of a bigger hospital were bought in and a 200 bedded hospital was eventually built and staff moved over and suppimented,

The Hospital took over 3500 casualties through the front door of which more than 350 were major trauma cases and the hospital took around 70 paediatric trauma cases. Injuries included blunt trauma, gun shot wounds, shrapnel injuries and severe burns.

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