Field Ambulances in India 1942 - 1945

Further to the above, it seems 257 LofC Sub Area were responsible for the Silchar area, west of Imphal. 452 LofC Area were probably further back along the lines of communications.
Lionboxer

 

Thankyou Lionboxer and Charpoy for your help in deciphering my father's war record.

if my father spent his time in India, in Gaya in RFT 33 and later RFT 29 and then finally in Mynamati , Bangladesh in HQ452, what do you think he would have been doing typically in the RAMC? Do you think these are locations that causalities would have been sent to from Burma? Or would he have just been waiting on standby as a reserve for the duration?

Many thanks

Bob

 

As stated above, HQ 452 LofC Sub-Area was at Chittagong. 32 ISS spent a lot of time at Agartala.
Casualties from the fighting in India and Burma would certainly have been evacuated to these areas, but also bear in mind that the armies in India were huge, and that much of the day-to-day business would have been as a result of disease, accidents, etc.

 

Hi All,

I'm trying to assist a family with Queen's Regiment connections in India/Burma during WW2. On the 3rd November 1943 he was admitted to 44th Field Ambulance, from whence he was sent to Deolali and repatriation. Previously, he had passed through Madras to Chittagong. My thoughts are that he was with 1st Queen's and probably in the Arakan combat zone.

Does this theory match up? Does anyone know where 44 Field Ambulance was in November 1943?

Many thanks as always for any help.

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

I've had a quick look this morning and yes the 44th Ind Fld Amb were in the Arakan in Nov 43. Late Oct and into Nov they were in/moved into Tumbru and Bawli with the 7th Indian Div. An element also advanced to Goppe Bazar later in Nov.
If you can confirm that 1st Queens were part of 7th Ind Div then you should have closed the loop!
Kind Regards,

Chris

 

Thank you Chris, that is immensely helpful information. 1 Queen's were the British infantry element in the 33rd Indian Infantry Brigade and part of 7th Indian Infantry Division.

Best wishes

Steve

 

Back again, and so soon! Can anyone tell me where the 70th Indian Field Ambulance were during the years 1942-45 please.

Any help much appreciated.

Steve

 

They were with 39 Ind Div at Poona in 06/43 and were subsequently re-organized as 6 Ind Beach Medical Unit, part of 46 Ind Beach Gp, by 04/45.

 

Thank you Charpoy Chindit,

That tallies with the family info re: Poona.

 

hello, is this thread still active? I am researching my father Capt M P Sarma. I have seen his name in list of officers in 1940,1941 etc. What I would like to know is whether field ambulance doctors operated on stomach wounds to find and remove the shrapnel embedded in the stomach and repair damaged portions

 

Welcome aboard. It is a 2016 post, so it may not get attention. I just looked at the most recent contributors, about half are no longer active and the others have been aboard in the last week so so. Unless they spot the thread or have flagged their interest so get an alert via email - the next few days will tell. If you get no response, a new thread will be best (add a reference to this thread).

 

Welcome to the forum. Do you know which unit your father served with? Individual field ambulances have war diaries which (sometimes) hold a comprehensive list of the wounds they treated.

It's difficult to generalise, particularly in the India/Burma theatre where poor communications greatly complicated the evacuation of casualties. A typical arrangement for treatment of a battle casualty in Burma was roughly as follows:

He would first be carried by regimental stretcher bearers to his unit's RAP (Regimental Aid Post) for immediate first aid treatment. If necessary, from here he passed into the care of whichever Field Ambulance was supporting his unit. A stretcher squad or ambulance car would convey him to the ADS (Advanced Dressing Station) of the Field Ambulance, which could provide urgent care to arrest bleeding, immobilise fractures or treat shock. He could then be relayed further back to its MDS (Main Dressing Station), which was equipped to assess and treat more serious injuries, and could provide resuscitation and stabilisation. Onward conveyance to the CCS (Casualty Clearing Section) might be required: the CCS was the first unit on the line of evacuation that offered full facilities for major surgical intervention and longer-term accommodation for serious cases. An MSU (Mobile Surgical Unit) would often be attached to the CCS to handle more severe surgical cases. From there the man might be evacuated to an established hospital for further treatment.

This structure often becomes very muddled, however. Despite the obvious risks of losing highly-skilled surgeons to enemy action, MSUs frequently operated well forward with a Field Ambulance MDS, or even ADS, to provide prompt surgical care for patients who could not survive the painfully slow process of evacuation through jungle, hills and rivers. It would therefore be quite possible for the sort of operation you describe to take place on a Field Ambulance position, albeit most likely performed by a surgeon attached from an MSU.

Some snippets from diaries. Here's 6 MSU working with 45 Indian Field Ambulance in January 1943:



This is a summary of operations performed by a single surgeon from 7 MSU from the diary of 6 British Field Ambulance, May 1943 (note penetrating abdominal wounds showing a very high mortality rate):



And this appendix from the diary of 154 Fd Amb gives an idea of the difficulties encountered in managing casualties in offensive jungle warfare:



For further reading I'd recommend volumes of The Army Medical Services by FAE Crew and Surgeon in the Jungle War by John A. Baty (who headed No. 7 Indian Mobile Surgical Unit) - all of these have been digitised and are available for free on the Internet Archive.

 

Hello Packrat, Thanks for your prompt reply. I have been travelling so failed to see and reply earlier. All I had was a couple of sentences my father wrote about his first experience of being under fire,
"There was hardly any fighting in Iraq. While there, a small army faction consisting of 3/11 Sikh Regiment, a battery of gunners, a wing of armoured cars and other odds and ends were ordered in to Syria which was under French occupation. One field ambulance company was attached to this small unit"

by researching convoys between Karachi and Basra by SS Rajula ( which he mentions), I worked out that he must have been involved in the "Battle of Deir ez-Zor", a feign from Mosul in North Iraq, while the main attach was from Eastern Iraq.

I am trying to understand what one Field Ambulance Company would comprise of. Since he was a Lt still as he was recruited in October 1940 fresh from Medical College, cutting short his one year as a House Surgeon I wonder whether he would have been under the Command of a Surgeon with a rank of Lt Col or Major.

I am unable to find much detail of above action.

 

Hi Subbarao, the campaigns in the Middle East are well outside my area of research so can't offer much help in that respect. This might be of general interest to you regarding the organisation of medical services, however, particularly Chapter 13 ('The Medical Services in the Field') starting on page 458:

The Army Medical Services: Administration Volume 1 (History of the Second World War United Kingdom Medical Series) : F A E Crew : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

You might also be able to find some clues in Volumes I & II of the series. Volume I Chapter 10 (page 546) covers operations in Syria, but may not fit in with your father's timeline. Deir ez Zor is specifically mentioned, with medical cover provided by 29 & 30 Indian Field Ambulances:

The Army Medical Services: Campaigns: Volume 1 France and Belgium, 1939-1940. Norway. Battle of Britain. Libya, 1940-1942. East Africa. Greece, 1941. Crete. Iraq. Syria. Persia. Madagascar. Malta (History of the Second World War UK Medical Series) : F A E Crew : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
The Army Medical Services: Campaigns: Volume 2 Hong Kong. Malaya. Iceland and the Faroes. Libya 1942-1943. North-West Africa (History of the Second World War United Kingdom Medical Series) : F A E Crew : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

This is going to be quite tricky to establish, as detachments of medical units frequently operated independently to support far-flung formations. In Burma I've seen elements of a field ambulance have staff attached from a Surgical Unit, a Transfusion Unit, a Motor Ambulance unit, Staging and Bearer sections and other disparate little groups, with the whole conglomeration working together for a while to provide medical cover for a particular area. The field ambulance company your father describes would likely have had such attachments, rather than operating alone as a self-contained unit.

If your father's account doesn't mention which unit he worked with, you ideally need his service records to clarify which Field Ambulance (or other unit) he belonged to. This would allow you to research the correct unit war diaries, which is where you will find more of the details you are looking for.

 

Hello, Pakcrat
Thanks for the detailed response.
I am reading the FAE Crew report. it is full of interesting details. Even though my father's specific field ambulance unit is not known I am getting a sense of it.
will post after I have read it.
A small help: how do I down load the report to be able to read it off line?

 

I have figured out how to download the FAE Crew report. Thanks.

 

I'm just kinda hoping this thread still has a few people paying attention . . . .

I've a Service Record for a distant relative who was serving as a Catering Corps cook att'd to 111 LAA/ATk Regt RA in 20th Indian Infantry Div in late January 1945. His records show he was X-listed to 76 M.D.S. for about a fortnight. I'm assuming M.D.S. to mean Main Dressing Station, but I am drawing a blank linking it to a specific Field Ambulance.

I'm also interested to know the meaning of the cryptic writing (arrowed/ underlined in red) in the 2 entries showing him X-listed and RTU'd
Can anyone here help me?