page_title: 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance
section_title: Sicily
hierarchical_section_title: 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance / 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance / Sicily
caption_attribution_description: English: THE CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 1943. Planning and Preparations January - July 1943: A jeep is loaded onto an American WACO CG-4A glider.
context_page_description: The 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance was a Royal Army Medical Corps unit of the British airborne forces during the Second World War.
  The Field Ambulance was assigned to the 1st Airlanding Brigade, the glider borne element of the 1st Airborne Division. Some men of the unit took part in the first parachute raid on the French coast in 1942. The unit then moved to Tunisia for operations in the Mediterranean theatre.
  During Operation Ladbroke, part of the Allied invasion of Sicily, a shortage of gliders resulted in only six, instead of the required thirty, being allocate to the Field Ambulance. Of those six, only one reached land the others crashed into the sea. They were next deployed during the Allied invasion of Italy in Operation Slapstick. Soon afterwards the Field Ambulance returned to the United Kingdom, then in September 1944, they landed by glider in the Netherlands. In the battle of Arnhem the Field Ambulance remained behind with the wounded, and he majority of its men became prisoners of war.
  The 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance was reformed after Arnhem, and were sent to Norway at the end of the war to assist in the repatriation of the German forces.
context_section_description: On 5 March 1943, 181st were informed they would be moving overseas. After returning from embarkation leave on 15 May, the unit was sent to Tunisia for operations in the Mediterranean. On arrival they were billeted just outside Oran. But on 9 June moved to join the rest of 1st Airlanding Brigade at Froha. On 9 July 1943, only 2,075 men of the 1st Airlanding Brigade along with seven jeeps, six anti-tank guns and ten mortars, boarded their gliders in Tunisia and took off at 18:00 bound for Sicily. En route they encountered strong winds, poor visibility and at times were subjected to anti-aircraft fire. To avoid gunfire and searchlights, pilots of the towing aircraft climbed higher or took evasive action. In the confusion surrounding these manoeuvres, some gliders were released too early and sixty-five of them crashed into the sea, drowning around 252 men. The 181st required thirty-two Waco gliders for the mission, but with the overall shortage, they were only allocated six, and five of their gliders were amongst those that failed to reach Sicily and crashed into the sea.
  The allocation of gliders does not correspond with the expected casualties for the mission of thirty per cent, suggested by the planners before they left Tunisia. The six gliders of the 181st, were loaded with two jeeps, a two stretcher trailer, two handcarts and three folding airborne bicycles and what medical stores they could take was in 25 pounds (11 kg) man portable packs. With the No. 1 Surgical Team and No. 5 Section s divided between the gliders. Space was found on the infantry battalions gliders for some of 181st units; No. 1 Section went in with the 1st Battalion, Border Regiment, While No. 2 Section went with the 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment. The commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Warrack, the Regimental Sergeant Major and an orderly were able to go with brigade headquarters. In total only seventy-two from their establishment of 234 men were to go on the mission.
  The only 181st glider to reach Sicily was the one carrying the majority of No. 1 Surgical Team, a surgeon, nine men with a handcart loaded with Don and Sugar packs. The glider had landed on the South Staffords landing zone south of their objective the Ponte Grande Bridge. The South Staffords had suffered the same fate as the 181st and instead of a battalion less than a company on troops landed and secured the bridge. The surgical team set out for the location designated their Main Dressing Station (MDS), a small village around 3 miles (4.8 km) away, en route picking up some wounded from the landings. On arrival at the village the surgical team started work, while a group of mixed troops from the brigade formed a road block, capturing forty Italian troops. Later around 15:00 the MDS was attacked by the Italians in about company strength and the men from the 181st had to assist in its defence using captured Italian weapons. After the attack was fought off, the medics then had to treat the casualties from both sides. The next day Lieutenant-Colonel Warrack (who's glider had also landed in the sea) arrived at the MDS with transport from the landing beaches to evacuate the wounded, the surgical team had by then conducted twenty-six surgeries in twenty-four hours. On 13 July the 181st left Sicily for Tunisia. The 181st losses during Operation Ladbroke were one officer and sixteen men who were all drowned when their gliders had crashed into the sea.
caption: A jeep being loaded aboard a Waco glider in Tunisia before Operation Ladbroke.
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