Bonjour !
J'ai trouvé des infos supplémentaires :
*Pour la 3ème DI GB : un témoignage d'un membre du RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) qui explique l'organisation du Service médical, et son rôle lors du débarquement sur Sword.
"
The RAMC
The Royal Army Medical Corps, formed in 1898, corresponds, I imagine to the organisation in the U.S.A. film M.A.S.H.
In WW2 an Infantry Division consisted of three Brigades, each with three Battalions. Each Brigade was served by one Field Ambulance which in addition to dealing with casualties from actual Battalions (e.g., KSLI) also cared for auxiliary units—Engineers, Service Corps, Signallers, etc. In war and peace the RAMC was responsible for the health and hygiene of these units.
I was a member of the 223 Field Ambulance (Fd Amb) responsible to the l85 Brigade of the 3rd (British) Infantry Division, one of the assaulting Divisions on June 6th. A Field Ambulance consisted of three companies A, B, and Hq.
The line of evacuation of casualties was as follows. Men wounded as their infantry platoon advanced were picked up Regimental Stretcher-bearers —infantry-men (not RAMC) within the regiment. They could do little for the casualty except stop bleeding and put on a field dressing, then get him back to the Regimental Aid Post (RAP) staffed by a Medical Officer, (supplied by the Fd Amb) and a few more proficient RSBs, where he would receive an assessment of his chances of survival. (In some cases the MO had to play God and decide who would be evacuated - who not.) From here men of either A or B Coy of the Fd Amb would take him by stretcher-carrying Jeep back to the Advanced Dressing Station (ADS) where there were all RAMC personnel and RASC Ambulance drivers. Here he would receive fuller treatment, inoculations, transfusions, application of splints, renewal of dressings from MOs and Nursing Orderlies, First Class. (I was one of the latter and worked in the Treatment Centre throughout the NW Europe campaign.) From here he would be evacuated as soon as he was fit enough to go to the Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) which might be two or three (or 20 or 30) miles back depending on the military situation. Here were surgeons and refined equipment which did all possible for him until he could go on to the base hospital—or back to fight again.
At many times these stages could telescope into each other, as on D-Day when the CCS was on the beach and the fighting only a few miles inland so that the ADS could be by-passed.
I did not go out into the field but treated soldiers who were brought into the ADS—unless they were wounded at the ADS itself!
I think the RAMC was held in respect by the army as a whole. We were given lectures in esprit de corps even at the Training Depot and told that in WW1 only one man won the VC twice - Captain Noel Chavasse, RAMC. Because of our non-combatant status we were subjected to banter by fighting men who claimed that our title stood for in reverse Can' t Manage A Rifle. Or with reference to the claim that we looted watches and money from our wounded it was Rob All My Comrades! But no one really believed this and they were glad to fall into our hands. I think most of us felt a special pride in our work and were depressed when men died on our hands.
D-Day
Either A or B Coy of the 8th Fd Amb would have landed with the 8th Brigade of the 3rd Division at 7.30 a.m. on D-Day. 185 Brigade was the follow-up Brigade
and we landed with the KSLI, Warwicks and Norfolks at about 10.15 a.m.
I think the traffic jam built up after we left Sword Beach, for the Staffs with whom we shared the LCT for the voyage over, disembarked before us and they were off the beach before we were. A large part of the 3rd Division landed at La Breche de Hermanville but we landed at Lion-sur-Mer, at least half a mile to the right but our rendezvous, like most of our Brigade was in Hermanville village. I do not recall seeing the Staffs tanks after landing.
Our route from the Lion-sur-Mer beach took us through the town which was badly damaged by shell-fire and bombing. As we dived for the nearest shell-hole in the sand on the beach I saw nothing of floating bodies or burning ships. In fact, the first dead I saw was as we made our way through the rubble of the streets; three men with their Div signs immaculate as mine, one unmarked, one in a crouching position, and one dissolved from the waist down. A piece of him, like a pound of steak, lay at my feet. A little further on earth shelling and mortaring increased and we lay in a shallow gutter seeking what shelter we could when door opened across the street and a girl in nurse's uniform came out, mounted her bicycle and rode calmly away. Shamefaced, we got up and did not stop again until, taking the road round the back of the church we left the town. It was not completely taken until evening. We found the road free of traffic (it might have been a better way for the armour to have come but each side the meadow had the skull and crossbones sign with "ACHTUNG! MINEN!”
We found a soldier lying on the verge in a bad way and, though ordered to leave all wounded to beach medical services and press inland, we took him with us. At the outskirts of Hermanville village we were met by one of our officers and told to dig in as Hermanville was not yet clear. We did so in the back garden of a house and while there one of our RASC (Service Corps) drivers brought in the first German soldier I had seen, a little, under-sized, frightened specimen with a large sausage hanging from his belt. We waited there until gone midday when we were told to go into the village. A knot of villagers with their typical blue overalls and berets watched us in silence. We called out, “Vive la France!” but they made no response. I suppose they were doubtful of our permanence; it could be another Dieppe?
We turned right and went up the village street, past the WW1 memorial and turned into the grounds of a chateau and halted in a short avenue just beyond. In our briefing in UK and again on board the LCT, we had been told we would set up our ADS in “Poland” code-name for Caen, and we knew this was still some miles inlaid. It seemed that there was a definite hold-up but we did not worry unduly—as we might have done had we known the reason. We sat in the sun or under the trees all afternoon of D-Day, forbidden to set up the ADS because every moment we expected to move into Caen and set up there.
Thousands of men were being wounded within a few miles of us and all our training and skill were not being used; we chafed at this more as time passed. A and B Coy were more "fortunate” as they were up with their infantry and draining their casualties direct to the beach, bypassing us. As speed is usually important this was the best choice. Even so, many were taken to 21 and 22 FDS (Field Dressing Stations), half a mile behind us to spread the numbers involved.
At about 4 p.m. orders were received from the ADMS (Assistant Director of Medical Services) in overall charge of 3rd Div. Medical facilities, for us to set up our ADS proper and prepare for casualties, and we were glad to do so. We utilised two large pits, dug by the enemy a day or two before, as our Treatment Centre and set out our equipment. Whilst we were doing this there was a burst of small arms fire from the direction of the village church about 100 yards away. A sniper had taken a pot-shot from the tower and this was returned by English soldiers nearby. A field gun was levelled at the tower and a shell put through which presumably killed him.
You will have read all the many reasons for the delay in advancing—they have been written and debated for decades and some are valid, some not. Two factors seem obvious to me. 1) To expect one Brigade (the 185th) to capture a city the size of Caen was asking too much. 2) Had the impossible been achieved and the 185 gone into Caen they would have been slaughtered that night by the 21st Panzers and next day any survivors would have been eliminated by them and the 12th SS Panzers. "
http://www.warchronicle.com/british_3rd_div/soldierstories_wwii/wisewell_letter.htm
Ainsi, le 223 Field Ambulance débarqua à 10h15. Des brancardiers, qui n'appartenaient pas au RAMC, étaient déjà sur le terrain.
*Pour la 4th ID US, le 4th Medical Battalion qui lui est attaché arriva apparemment à H+200.
*Pour le 116th RCT de la 29th ID US, le 104th Med Bn arriva à H+150.
Je n'ai encore rien trouvé pour 1st Med Bn de la 1st ID US.
Ces infos sont assez lacunaires. J'espère ne pas m'être trop emmêlé les pinceaux... :wink:
Amicalement
Dernière édition par Jawa le 15 Nov 2003, 13:28, édité 1 fois.
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