Medics at Arnhem

Medics at Arnhem
With John Tregoning
Part of our Arnhem Week series
More Operation Market Garden and Arnhem content on WW2TV
More Airborne Forces content on WW2TV
Also part of our 80th Anniversary Series

When dropped into Arnhem, 1st Airborne Division had three integral field ambulance units. John Tregoning covers the composition, equipment, and fate of airborne medics and challenges faced in Arnhem.

Professor. John S. Tregoning is a scientist and researcher whose work focuses on how viruses and bacteria infect the lungs and how our immune system fights them. He is Professor of Vaccine Immunology at Imperial College London, where he runs a research group on infectious diseases. He spoke at We Have Ways Festival in 2024.

Other WW2TV shows about the RAMC at Arnhem
Red Berets and Red Crosses - British Airborne Medics in WW2
Remembering Stanley - The RAMC soldier killed at Arnhem who inspired a brand name

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[georgecooksey]

Excellent presentation and discussion. Thank you Paul and John.

[KevinJones-yhjb]

Another fascinating presentation, thank you John and Woody

[davidlavigne]

Doctor John Tregoning sure did his homework. Thanks to him, and WW2TV I now know the true story of the Medical side of things at Arnhem. Every soldier in combat that I've ever known has nothing but praise and respect for the Medics, Nurses, Specialists and the Doctors, especially those right up at the front. Those people from the Royal Medical Corps at Arnhem are beyond praise, as your guest so ably informed us. he was very moving as he described some of the individual acts of sacrifice and bravery.

[cameronsimpson-ldnk]

Super informative John and Paul. A subject that's not aways discussed. The Para Field Ambulance were indeed a special group of men.

[jimwalshspace]

Bloody brilliant presentation. Perfect !

[jamesdalyhistory]

This was fascinating and really filled in some gaps about my Grandads experiences - GSW, at the Schoonoord, then at 16 PFA according to the Red Cross.

[whitby]

It is valuable and important to know about these aspects, thank you for enlightening me.

[silentotto]

As to including a dentist in the drop... Perhaps he was included to deal with wounds to the jaw area rather than more traditional dentistry.

[buonafortuna]

Gripped me all the way through. Have to get John back. The slightly older guys suffering more parachute landing injuries, was obvious now you say it but I'd never thought before. Like you my views on MG swing between, might have worked to OMG could have been even worse. The story of the guy who swam the Rhine to go into captivity and treat the wounded gave me a lump in the throat.

[stuartbuxton]

Great presentation and informative and it was nice to see how airborne medicine differed from the Aeromedical medicine which I study.

[anonymoustosh]

Excellent informative presentation.
Great to have a presentation focusing on the medical side of things rather than the more usual combat focused presentations (but then as ex-RAMC myself I'm possibly a tiny bit biased)

[flparkermdpc]

With regards to the question : Does war stimulate advances in medicine and technology?, Or is that a myth? One area of medicine that benefitted a lot was the application of science to the practice of anesthesiology. It all started when an American academic surgeon asked a British surgeon why their wounded did so much better than mine. Well, for one thing, all the people administering anesthetics are boarded physicians in anesthesia practice, especially in the physiology of shock and trauma. . The American surgeon was blown away. The guy giving his anesthesia was just a corpsman given a syringe of pentothal. When you give pentothal to a wounded man who's in shock the blood pressure fell and often the patient stopped breathing and since assisted ventilation was unknown, to the Americans, the poor corpsman didn't know 😢 what to do. And neither did the surgeon!

[tamsinp]

You mentioned the 1976 TV movie (Arnhem: The Story of an Escape) being on Youtube; I've checked and only a 15-minute or so segment from partway through seems to be available.

[cullengal]

Where can you get all the pictures in the video? My great grandad was in 181, ramc
And I'm really interested in all this and finding out all things about what he would've had on his person

[davidk]

Great show Paul and John. Paul, are you getting Patreon messages?

[brianyee]

Great show…told Judy that it would have been cool to drop her into the action. Wasn’t well received.