The 127th (Parachute) Field Ambulance was a Royal Army Medical Corps unit of the British airborne forces during the Second World War.

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.

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.

Impressed by the success of German airborne operations during the Battle of France, the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, directed the War Office to investigate the possibility of creating a corps of 5,000 parachute troops.

[3] The war establishment of a Parachute Field Ambulance was 177 all ranks,[4] made up of thirteen doctors in two surgical teams and four sections.

[6] To accommodate this, the field ambulance had the ability to treat all types of wounds, and provide post operative care for up to fourteen days.

[nb 1] They also had the transport required to evacuate casualties from the Regimental Aid Post (RAP) to the Main Dressing Station (MDS).

[8] Other medical staff were a sergeant sanitary assistant, a masseur, a dental orderly and five stretcher bearers, one of whom was trained as a shoemaker.

[8] The rest of the headquarters consisted of a Quartermaster, clerks, cooks, storemen, an Army Physical Training Corps instructor, a barber and a joiner from the Royal Engineers.

[12] It was normal to have at least two RASC drivers with two jeeps and a trailer attached to each section; the remaining men and vehicles stayed with the headquarters surgical teams.

Following the division's advance on 30 September 127 PFA had moved to Acquaviva taking over a school and converting it into a 100-bed hospital.

[24] The landing took place in the early hours of 15 August 1944; the commanding officer and three other ranks parachuted in with the brigade headquarters.

[27] The 2nd Parachute Brigade was warned for an operation in Greece, to replace the retreating German Army and ensure law and order was maintained until a government could be formed.

Plans were formed for a surgical team to travel by glider the next day to support the 4th Battalion's medical officer on the airfield.

[29] High winds caused a number of casualties; from the 1,900 men taking part three were killed and ninety-seven wounded.

The 127 PFA detachment with the 6th (Royal Welch) Parachute Battalion set up a dressing station to treat the wounded.

The 4th and 6th Battalions set out for Athens taking their 127 PFA detachments with them, leaving only the commanding-officer and twenty-five men at the dressing station.

It had been intended to withdraw the brigade but the situation deteriorated and they were sent back to Athens, where by 5 November 127 PFA had established a hospital in the Rouf barracks.

[35] They were based at Greenham Lodge in Newbury, Berkshire, until 26 October when, along with the rest of 2nd Parachute Brigade, they sailed from Liverpool to join the 6th Airborne Division in Palestine.

[37] By July 1946 the situation in the country had deteriorated to such an extent that the complete division was deployed to Tel Aviv, with the field ambulance units taking over the running of the city's hospitals.