page_title: Chateau de Guernon-Ranville
section_title: Field Hospital During the Normandy Landings in 1944
hierarchical_section_title: Chateau de Guernon-Ranville / Field Hospital During the Normandy Landings in 1944
caption_attribution_description: English: Cet agrandissement a été réalisé à partir d'une photo aérienne prise le 30 mai 1944 par les troupes alliées en vue du débarquement. Il montre le Bas de Ranville et spécifiquement le Château de Guernon-Ranville.
context_page_description: The château de Guernon-Ranville is located in Le Bas de Ranville in the village of Ranville, in the Calvados region Calvados of Lower Normandy in France.
  This private 18th century domain carries the name of the family who were for a long period of time the proprietors of the château. The Château de Guernon-Ranville was once the home of a 19th-century minister, later the holiday resort of art patrons at the beginning of the 20th century and, eventually a field hospital during the allied landings in Normandy in 1944. The château now offers upscale self-catering holiday homes.
context_section_description: During the Second World War, the château which had belonged since 1933 to the honorary President of the « Cour d'Appel » of Paris, Monsieur Jozon, was requisitioned by the German Army in order to house members of the Organisation Todt.
  During the night of the 5th to the 6th of June 1944, three officers who were part of this organization, apparently asleep in their rooms, were made prisoners by the allied troops.  The château and its outbuildings were immediately transformed into a field hospital known as « Main Dressing Station » under the command of the 225th Parachute Field Ambulance.  This medical intervention unit, composed of ten officers and somewhere around 100 men was under the 5th brigade of the 6th Airborne Division.  It was operated under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Bruce Harvey who had amongst others, already formed a medical outpost at the Café Gondrée located next to the Pegasus Bridge.
  On the roof of the château, a large cloth was spread, bearing the emblem of the Red Cross to indicate the presence of medical services. This effort, however, stopped neither mortar fire nor enemy bombing, the result damaging most notably a part of the outbuildings serving as a canteen to the unit.
  Nearly 400 wounded were treated in the first days, the most seriously wounded evacuated by sea to England.  The two surgery teams, poorly equipped as they were, also performed more than 43 delicate operations.
caption: Aerial picture of 1944 showing 'le Bas de Ranville' and in particular the Chateau de Guernon-Ranville in the center and its park on the rear
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