The major units involved in the Dodecanese campaign, specifically Kos and Leros, are known. I am trying to find out whether 161 Fd Ambulance was involved. I do not need the detail of the papers that exist at Kew, it will suffice to know whether they were attached to 234 Infantry Brigade in Aug/Oct 1943. Max
I have checked the British Official History - Mediterranean and the Middle East- Volume 5, Buckley's Five Ventures, and Lind's Battle of the Wine Dark Sea. I found no reference to 161st Field Ambulance. That does not mean they were not there but most histories tend to stick to the "tooth" units such as armor, infantry, artillery and engineers. I would think that you would need to get a hold of the war diaries. I did find the following site on the web that mentions the war diaries of the 161st Field Ambulance. It has a contact. You might try getting in touch with the owner of the site. It is: Barker C R I did a search at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site for the cemetery at Leros and did not find any RAMC deaths among the 127 graves. That does not mean that the 161st Field Ambulance was not there.
I also checked with the regimental histories of the Durham Light Infantry, the Buffs, the King's Own Royal Regiment, the Royal Irish Fusiliers and the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment. None of these histories mentions 161st Field Ambulance or any medical unit.
http://www.elholocausto.net/pdf2/AfterTheBattle/090 - After the Battle - The Battle for Leros.pdf This is a PDF of the After The Battle dealing with Leros. If you go to page 18, it mentions 100 men from 161 Field Ambulance being on the island. So it looks like a detachment from the unit was on the island.
Dryan - Very kind of you to follow this up. Orwell - Thank you for finding the first reference to the unit - I shall pass on the info directly to the person whose relative went in the bag but whose records were confusing as to which island he was on when captured. Most grateful to you both. Max
Another reference here: War in the Aegean In Peter Smiths book War in the Aegean. (P 217) I have the book Churchill’s folly at home so will look in it and see it mentions the unit. If you google 161 Field Ambulance and Leros more than one hit comes up. There’s a new book out by Julie Peakman called Hitler,s Island War which also has a reference to the unit too. Don’t own it yet though !
Thanks very much Orwell for continuing to devil away at it! I have no idea why I didn't use Mr Google before, one or two things there that answered the question! To my absolute shame I have forgotten the name of the author of one of the seminal works on the campaign who I was able to contact after a similar post and who was gracious enough to help me out, although without finding 161 FA. If he is reading this and recalls our conversations I apologise profusely! Max
I've just found this thread through another search but I can shed some additional light on this topic. My father, Ron Hancock, was in 161 Field Ambulance and was captured on Kos. He then spent the rest of the war in Stalag IVB near Dresden