AIRBORNE - 23 PARACHUTE FIELD AMBULANCE 23 PFA RAMC BULLION WIRE BLAZER BADGE

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AIRBORNE - 23 PARACHUTE FIELD AMBULANCE 23 PFA RAMC BULLION WIRE BLAZER BADGE New gold & silver bullion wire embroidered blazer badge to the 23 Parachute Field Ambulance / 23 PFA / 23 PARA of the British Army.This badge would be worn by ex RAMC / Army Medical Services who have served with an Airborne unit of the British Army - 5 Airborne Brigade or 16 Air Assault Brigade.The badge depicts a central maroon shield edged in gold, upon which is a silver and gold bullion snake and rod of the medical forces surmounted by the Quens Crown. In addition is a set of PARA wings to recognise the parachute role of this Field Ambulance. Below the shield is an additional scroll PARACHUTE FIELD AMBULANCE. The 127th (Parachute) Field Ambulance was a Royal Army Medical Corps unit of the British airborne forces during the Second World War. The 127th (Parachute) Field Ambulance (127 PFA) was originally a pre war Territorial Army unit converted to parachute duties, becoming the second parachute field ambulance in the British Army. As such it was assigned to the 2nd Parachute Brigade at the time part of the 1st Airborne Division . As part of the 1st Airborne Division it moved to North Africa in 1942, in preparation for the Allied invasion of Sicily . A lack of suitable transport negated their use it that campaign, but they did take the lead in Operation Slapstick , which was an amphibious landing at Taranto in Italy. Remaining in Italy with 2nd Parachute Brigade when the 1st Airborne Division returned to England, 127 PFA took part in the fighting of the Italian campaign . Their first offensive parachute jump was in the Allied landing in the south of France, Operation Dragoon . Later, it was planned for the brigade to be sent to the Far East to take part in operations against the Japanese Empire , however, they became involved in the Greek civil war during Operation Manna , and remained in Greece until 1945. Relieved by a larger force, 127 PFA returned to Italy where they remained until the end of the war. With the war over 127 PFA returned to England and, still part of the 2nd Parachute Brigade, they were assigned to the 6th Airborne Division . Their next assignment was in the British mandate of Palestine , following which 127 PFA became part of the British Army of the Rhine . In 1947, when the Territorial Army was reformed, 127 PFA was re-designated as the 23rd (Parachute) Field Ambulance because the number 127 was a reserve designation. In January 1947, 2nd Parachute Brigade returned to England, and was stationed in Aldershot . When the Territorial Army was reformed on 1 April 1947, 127 PFA was renumbered 23rd (Parachute) Field Ambulance (23 PFA) because the number 127 was a reserve designation. [39 ] Since then the British airborne force has been reduced to a single brigade group based on the 2nd Parachute Brigade, which was itself renumbered as the 16th. With them, 23 PFA has participated in a number of conflicts including the last battalion-sized parachute landing undertaken at Suez in 1956, where a section and a surgical team of 23 PFA jumped with the 3rd Parachute Battalion . Following the war it was part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, and then the British Army of the Rhine until 1964, when the Brigade Group was released to bolster the strategic reserve. It arrived in Borneo in October 1965 to take control of Mid West Sector, but by 1968 it was back in the United Kingdom as part of the 3rd Infantry Division . It did a tour in Northern Ireland during the early part of the Troubles . In the early 1980s the Field Force concept was dropped in favour of traditional Brigades, 5th Infantry Brigade was reformed at Aldershot in 1981 by the redesignation of 8th Field Force. The Brigade consisted of the former elements of the Parachute Contingency Force (PCF) from 6 Field Force (which became the 1st Infantry Brigade), at the time 2 PARA , together with a second Parachute Battalion from 8 Field Force ( 3 PARA ). [ edit ] Falklands War T... read more

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