133rd ( Parachute ) Field Ambulance The 133rd ( Parachute ) Field Ambulance was a Royal Army Medical Corps unit of the British airborne forces during the Second World War . The 133rd ( Parachute ) Field Ambulance was formed in Palestine in January 1943 , by the conversion of the 133rd Field Ambulance to parachute duties . It was then assigned to the 4th Parachute Brigade , part of the 1st Airborne Division . As part of the 1st Airborne Division it took part in Operation Slapstick , part of the Allied invasion of Italy . The unit returned to England at the end of 1943 , to prepare for their next mission . That was operation Market Garden in the Netherlands . During the following battle of Arnhem , the division was destroyed only 2 , 100 men returning from the 10 , 000 that had started the mission . Amongst the men who remained behind from the 133rd were those men not already captured during the battle , who choose to remain behind with the wounded , becoming prisoners of war . Reformed after the battle the 133rd took part in Operation Doomsday in Norway after the end of the Second World War . Background . Impressed by the success of German airborne operations , during the Battle of France , the British Prime Minister , Winston Churchill , directed the War Office to investigate the possibility of creating a corps of 5 , 000 parachute troops . In September 1941 the 1st Parachute Brigade began forming , comprising three parachute infantry battalions . In keeping with British Army practice at the same time as the infantry battalions were forming , airborne supporting arms were formed including Royal Army Medical Corps volunteers . Of the seven airborne field ambulance s formed during the Second World War , two were glider borne the 181st and the 195th . While the other five were parachute trained the 16th , 127th , 133rd , 224th and the 225th . Commanded by Lieutenant - Colonel W . C . Alford , the 133rd ( Parachute ) Field Ambulance was formed in Palestine in January 1943 , by the conversion of the 133rd Field Ambulance to parachute duties . The Field Ambulance was assigned to the 4th Parachute Brigade . All members of the Field Ambulance had to undergo a twelve - day parachute training course carried out at No . 4 Parachute Training School RAF , in Palestine . Initial parachute jumps were from a converted barrage balloon and finished with five parachute jumps from an aircraft . Anyone failing to complete a descent was returned to his old unit . Those men who successfully completed the parachute course , were presented with their parachute wings . The 4th Parachute Brigade left Palestine on 26 May 1943 , to join the 1st Airborne Division at Sousse in Tunisia . On arrival the men of the field ambulance were presented with their airborne forces maroon beret . The war establishment of a Parachute Field Ambulance , was 177 all ranks . Consisting of thirteen doctors in two surgical teams and four sections . The doctors could deal with 330 cases in a twenty - four hour period . Each surgical team could handle 1 . 8 operations an hour . However this was not sustainable and if they were required to operate the following day , the team had to be relieved after twelve hours . It was envisaged that during airborne operations , it would not be possible to evacuate casualties until the ground forces had linked up with them . To accommodate this the field ambulance had the ability to treat all types of wounds , and provide post operative care for up to fourteen days . They also had the transport required to evacuate casualties from the Regimental Aid Post ( RAP ) , to the Main Dressing Station ( MDS ) . An airborne field ambulance was commanded by a lieutenant - colonel , with a major as the second in command and a regimental sergeant major as the senior non commissioned rank . Headquarters staff included two specialist surgeons and a specialist anaesthetist , a pharmacist and an Army Dental Corps dentist . To assist in the operating theatre and with post operative care , there were six operating room assistants , a sergeant nursing orderly and six nursing orderlies . Other medical staff were a sergeant sanitary assistant , a masseur , a dental orderly and five stretcher bearers , one of whom was trained as a shoemaker . The rest of the headquarters consisted of a Quartermaster , clerks , cooks , storemen , an Army Physical Training Corps instructor , a barber and a joiner from the Royal Engineer s . There were four sub units of twenty men known as sections . Each section comprised an officer ( doctor ) and a staff sergeant ( nursing orderly ) , under their command were three nursing orderlies , a clerk , a dutyman and thirteen stretcher bearers . A section was normally attached to a parachute battalion to supplement their own medical officer and medics . The last component of the Field Ambulance was the Royal Army Service Corps detachment , commanded by a captain , with a company sergeant major as second in command . They had fifty men under them , an electrician , a clerk , thirty - eight drivers , four motorcyclists and five vehicle mechanics . It was normal to have at least two RASC drivers with two jeeps and a trailer attached to each section , the remaining men and vehicles stayed with the headquarters surgical teams . Airborne operations were in their infancy in the Second World War and the British Army medical services had to design and develop a range of special medical airborne equipment . These included the Don pack , the Sugar pack , the folding airborne stretcher , the folding trestle table , the folding suspension bar , the airborne operating table , the airborne inhaler and special containers for blood and plasma . Operations . Italy . The first combat operation the 133rd ( Parachute ) Field Ambulance was involved in was Operation Slapstick , a landing at the port of Taranto during the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943 . Slapstick was in part a deception operation , to divert German forces away from the main Allied landings at Salerno ( Operation Avalanche ) , which would be taking place on the same day and also an attempt to seize intact the ports of Taranto and Brindisi . The main advantage of Tranato was its large port . Positioned on the eastern side of the country , together with the expected capture of Naples in the west by the Americans , it would give the Allies two supply points , on opposite sides of the country . The main part of the 1st Airborne Division sailed from North Africa for Taranto on 8 September 1943 , landing on the 9 / 10 at Taranto unopposed . The 133rd after landing established their Main Dressing Station ( MDS ) with sixty beds at the Rendinella Hospital . The first casualties at the MDS were from the 156th Parachute Battalion following their capture of Mottola . By the 15 September the MDS was looking after sixty - seven wounded . In the first nine days of the operation the brigade had 101 casualties . By 22 September the 133rd had taken over , 320 beds in the Rondinella Hospital ( the size of a normal army general hospital ) and as such was taken over by No . 70 General Hospital when they landed . On 30 September the 133rd moved to Gioia del Colle establishing a 140 bed MDS in a school . soon after the 1st Airborne Division was withdrawn back to England . While in Italy the division ' s field ambulances had treated 1 , 728 wounded and performed 194 surgeries . Arnhem . The next mission the 133rd were involved with , was Operation Market Garden in September 1944 . In particular the airborne assault to capture bridges crossing the River Rhine at Arnhem in the Netherlands . There was a shortage of transport aircraft , with three airborne divisions being deployed . So the 4th Parachute Brigade were on the second of what was supposed to be three lifts over three days . Only ten officers and 119 other ranks would go by air , the rest of the unit would join them by land when the Allied advance reached Arnhem . The plan called for the 133rd to join the 16th ( Parachute ) Field Ambulance who had landed the previous day , at the St Elizabeth Hospital in Arnhem . On Monday 18 September 1944 the second day , 4th Parachute Brigade ' s lift of ninety - two C - 47s ( for the paratroops ) , forty - nine Horsa and nine Hamilcar gliders , were scheduled to arrive furthest away from Arnhem on Ginkel Heath drop zone ' Y ' , as early as possible on 18 September . Bad weather over England kept the second lift on the ground and the first troops did not arrive in the Netherlands until 15 : 00 . The delay gave the Germans time to approach the northern landing grounds and engage the defenders from the 7th King ' s Own Scottish Borderers . Landing under fire the 133rd were widely scattered and it was not until 20 : 30 that some non commissioned officer s and men reached Wolfheze . By dawn 19 September , the two surgical teams and the majority of the unit had reached Wolfheze . Lieutenant - Colonel Alford decided to open a MDS where they were to support the brigade ' s advance towards the high ground north of Arnhem . By 19 : 30 Alford and forty - one other men , including the two surgical teams moved into Oosterbeek to establish a MDS , linking up with the 181st ( Airlanding ) Field Ambulance and started moving the less serious wounded to Oosterbeek . A German attack on Wolfheze early on 20 September , captured those men still in the village either treating or trying to move the wounded . All that now remained of the 133rd was the commanding officer , the two surgeons , the dental officer ( who was also the anaesthetist ) and ten other ranks . On the 20 September the 133rd opened a new dressing station about from the division ' s main MDS at the Hotel Taffelberg , by that evening there were around 1 , 000 wounded being treated by the divisions medical staff . Over the following days the dressing station was subjected to artillery and mortar fire . Then on the 24 September a local armistice was agreed and the majority of the division ' s walking wounded in the hospital area were evacuated leaving around 300 men who were unable to be moved . By the next day the shelling around the hospital area made it safer for the wounded to remain at their regimental aid posts , rather than take the risk of moving them . By that evening the hospitals had been overrun by the Germans . But 2 , 100 of the 10 , 000 men of the 1st Airborne Division were evacuated south of the River Rhine that night . However almost all the division ' s medical staff twenty - five officers and 400 other ranks had been taken prisoner . Post war . The 133rd was reformed after Arnhem , and after he was released from custody at the end of the war Lieutenant - Colonel Alford was once more given command . The division never fought another battle in the war but was strong enough for Operation Doomsday the disarming and repatriation of the German forces occupying Norway . On 1 May 1945 the 133rd landed at Stavanger , then moved to Kristiansand taking over the St Joseph ' s hospital and other smaller hospitals at Evji Nlosen , Moi and Bergen . They were also made responsible for the medical care of 4 , 500 Russian prisoners of war in the area . The 133rd left Norway for England on 29 June and on 15 November was disbanded with the men not being demobbed sent to the division ' s other medical units .