2nd Bn Royal Sussex, later 10th Bn Parachute Regt

[airborne medic]

Tenth,
I'll pm you....

[airborne medic]

Tenth and I have been pm'ing on various things including the 10ths RAP at Arnhem but thought the froum might like to share the 'official war establishment' for a parachute battalion - i.e. attached RAMC personnel:
Headquarters - 1 Medical Officer, 1 Sergeant and 1 Nursing Orderly (private)
HQ Company 1 Corporal and 3 NO's
Each Rifle Company 1 Corporal and 3 NO's

This makes a total of 1 Officer, 1 Sergeant, 4 Corporals and 13 NO's....total 19...
Presumably Support Company fended for itself!

[Thefightingtenth]

airborne medic: does this mean that the battalion RAP consisted of three RAMC attached personnel?

Were all the battalion medics RAMC attached rather than medically trained infantrymen as is often the case today?

[airborne medic]

That's what the establishment said...and I'm fairly confident in saying that the battalion medics were all RAMC rather than RMA's as you would recognise.
Can I suggest you look at page 84 of 'Red Berets and Red Crosses' as there is a table which shows that approx 580 RAMC personnel went on OMG and apart from the three field ambulances they were spread amongst 18 different units......

[Thefightingtenth]

If my maths are correct then roughly 1 in 19 men of the 1st Airborne Brigade were medics.

[Thefightingtenth]

Oops, I should have said '1st Airborne Division'.

[airborne medic]

That's right about 5%.....three field ambulances and then those attached to the units......

With regard to the relatively low numbers in a RAP, please remember that in theory the 9 infantry units in 1st AB were all supported by a section from one of the 3 FA's which gave them an extra 1 MO and about 19 men.....

[englandphil]

Originally Posted by Thefightingtenth

I stand corrected on Jasper Booty's role at Arnhem. I should have checked before posting.

airborne medic: without divulging too much public information I served in three different companies of 10 PARA at two different locations from the early 1980's to the mid 1990s. Can I ask why are you particularly interested in the location of the Tenth's RAP on the 19th September?

Tenth, have a look at my Arnhem album Images, there are a number taken from the 10th Para Battle Marker Cerimony, you might recongnise one or two faces.

Phil

[Philip,ABRG]

The middle guys arent any 10th Arnhem vets, and I wonder if any of the others are, most of the orginal members have to official Tenth tie

[englandphil]

Originally Posted by Philip,ABRG

The middle guys arent any 10th Arnhem vets, and I wonder if any of the others are, most of the orginal members have to official Tenth tie

Philip, the guys are from the Croydon Branch of the PRA, my understanding is that the 10th was know as the London Branch, and have there regimental colours in the Hartestein.

Given that 10th served recently he may know some of the faces of the people in the Photograph.

Phil