176th (Highland) Field Ambulance - Pte R.B. Hamilton.

Discussion in 'RAMC' started by ThereAbouts, Oct 30, 2018.

  1. ThereAbouts

    ThereAbouts Member

    Posting for the general interest of others who may recognise personnel in the photos. I have been able to find out quite a lot from the 51 Highland Division web site and other sources and also have my Dad's (RBH) service records, any other info much appreciated.

    RBH.jpg 176 2.jpg 176 1.jpg

    Here is a quote from 154 Infantry Brigade:

    FINAL BRIGADE OPERATIONS
    154 BRIGADE ACCOUNT
    1ST MAY 1945 - 5TH MAY 1945

    No unforeseen events occurred during the night and the truce continued until the general cease-fire the following morning. The fighting activities of the Brigade in North-West Europe thus terminated almost exactly eleven months after the Brigade had landed in Normandy. During this period of eleven months fighting the Brigade had suffered 158 officer and 2231 other rank casualties, of which 38 officers and 419 other ranks had been killed. The latter figures, unfortunately, included many old and tried members of the Brigade who, before laying down their lives for their country in the course of the Brigade's long and arduous journey through Normandy, France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany, had, with the Brigade, taken part in the 8th Army's great and victorious battle which started at El Alamein on the night of 23rd October 1942; had fought through the western deserts of Egypt, Cyrenaica and Tripolitania; had helped to storm the Mareth Line and the Wadi Akarit; had swept through the rolling cultivated plains of Tunisia; had taken part in the great assault landing in Sicily, the first major combined operation of the 1939-45 War and the forerunner of the mightier assault to be carried out later in Normandy; and had fought through the hills, vineyards and olive groves of Sicily. These officers and men had shared to the full in the hard lot of the infantry soldier which, in all wars, is to fight on and on and on.

    It is appropriate, at this particular part of this narrative, to pay tribute to the splendid services rendered to the Brigade by its Field Ambulance, the 176th Highland Field Ambulance. But for the untiring, self-sacrificing and most efficient medical services provided for the Brigade at all times by this Field Ambulance, the proportion of casualties killed as against those who ultimately recovered would have been immensely higher.

    Read more: http://51hd.co.uk/accounts/final_op#ixzz5VN68BMuT
     
    Tricky Dicky likes this.
  2. ThereAbouts

    ThereAbouts Member

    I should add 154 Infantry Brigade consisted of:

    • 1st Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment)
    • 7th Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment)
    • 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

    and other support units.
     

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