Die kommerzielle und kulturgeschichtliche Bedeutung der Arznei- und Genum̊ittel / von Eduard Schär.

  • Schär, Eduard.
Date:
1913
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Die kommerzielle und kulturgeschichtliche Bedeutung der Arznei- und Genum̊ittel / von Eduard Schär. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    many a soldier had to be made to regret the day that he sloped nonchalantly off the Dropping Zone, lighting a cigarette as he went ! Boredom had to be vigorously counteiacted at this stage, for it was the preliminary period of individual training, when the soldier learns his personal job, and it is difßcult to correlate bis work with mass parachute descents. Perhaps a word here on the course of training a division would not be out of place. The recruit normally comes to his division from his regimental depot, where he has been taught the rudiments of his craft. In the Öth Airborne Division it was, however, at this time necessary to train recruits from other arms of the Service in general R.A.M.C. work, right from the beginning, and to raise them to the Standard known in the Army as Nursing Orderly Class 3. Having done this, the individual work of a Parachute or Airlanding Field Ambulance, or of a R.A.M.C. Parachute Battalion medical orderly had to be learnt—such as the composition and carriage of his equipment, how it is packed, and by whom carried. When all this has been learnt, so that any individual job can be carried out by a number of different men, section training is begun. The Parachute Field Ambulance was, for example, at that time divisible into a headquarters, consisting of the Commanding Ofhcer, 2nd in Command, R.S.M., Quartermaster and staff, two surgical teams, and the office staff, and four sections. Each section trained separately, under this scheme, either to form a small self-contained dressing Station, with or without an attached surgical team, as the tactical Situation might demand ; or to split, and with one part to form one department of a main, or brigade, dressing Station, and with the other part to reinforce the stretcher bearers at the H.O. of the particular Parachute Battalion to which the section was attached. Each section had, under this scheme, its own affiliated battalion, whom they got to know, and with whom, when circumstances permitted, they dined and wined. The self-contained dressing Station, or A.D.S. as it was originally called, was also planned to go into action with one or two battalions, detached from their brigade, such as actually happened in the fighting in North Africa. The next stage of training takes place on a unit basis. The sections collaborate to form a M.D.S. (equivalent to the A.D.S. of the land Services). This consists of individual compartments, such as Reception, Resuscitation, Theatre, Minor Treat¬ ment, and Evacuation, welded into a composite whole, under the C.O. or 2nd i/c. At this stage, exercises are carried out, mainly on the ground, sometimes by air, on a scale equivalent to a battalion exercise. Finally, training on a brigade, and then on a divisional, level is begun. Now, the lessons learned in the little section exercises, and the larger unit exercises, are put to the difficult test that the intricate timing, co-operation, and attention to small details, which the movement and deployment of a large body of troops, especially by air, requires. No mention has been made of the Air Force side of the team ; but this, of course, requires as much preparation and training as does the Army component. It is in these big brigade and divisional exercises that it finally becomes apparent whether all the work that has gone before has been rightly directed ; and usually, also, there is by this time the sense of excitement and urgency of a coming Operation to spur on the backward 1 Düring the section training period, which occupied the end of 1943, and the first two months of 1944, life was, therefore, better for the troops than it had been during the laborious period of individual training, with its long hours of lectures, and packing and repacking of equipment. The wood began to become visible as a whole, and the individual trees merged into a pattern, which became more complete with the first full-dress brigade exercises in March, which were, in fact, detailed rehearsals for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. Finally, the Ist and 6th Air¬ borne Divisions took part in a massive Corps exercise in the early summer.
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