Carrier Ambulances

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Dan Martel

...

I do know that every time a British Airborne Division deployed by parachute and glider in Northwest Europe (Normandy, Arnhem and the Rhine) they had a ground borne logistical tail which would meet up with them for the sustained operations which inevitably followed. Maybe the carrier ambulances were with that part?

To corroborate the terminology, when the Rhodesian Fire Force jumped from their limited number of serviceable DC-3s, the Commando Sergeant Major was on the road with empty troop carrying vehicles, empty cargo trucks, water, rations and other supplies to meet the ground force. The parachutes were recovered as part of the after contact drills, and someone had to deliver them to the packing sheds. By the 1970s helicopter casualty evacuation was a well-practised drill, so they would not necessarily have had an ambulance in the land tail. However, there were likely medics with the Sergeant Major to treat non-critical injuries. For big cross border raids, the medical system saddled up with a mobile field hospital to treat immediate and life threatening wounded, but those raids didn't happen often.