The 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance was a Royal Army Medical Corps unit of the British airborne forces during the Second World War.

During Operation Ladbroke, part of the Allied invasion of Sicily, a shortage of gliders resulted in only six, instead of the required thirty, being allocate to the Field Ambulance.

The 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance was reformed after Arnhem, and were sent to Norway at the end of the war to assist in the repatriation of the German forces.

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.

[4] The 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance was the first Royal Army Medical Corps airborne unit formed on 14 November 1941.

[3] It was raised from a cadre of the 132nd Field Ambulance and originally based in Llandysul but in December moved to Hungerford, and in May 1942 to Carter Barracks in Bulford.

[11] The raid entailed the parachute company being landed near Bruneval, secure and dismantle a German radar station, then be evacuated by sea.

The 181st section were accommodated on HMS Prins Albert, and practised for the mission on Loch Fyne in Assault landing craft (ALC).

[15] On 9 July 1943, only 2,075 men of the 1st Airlanding Brigade along with seven jeeps, six anti-tank guns and ten mortars, boarded their gliders in Tunisia and took off at 18:00 bound for Sicily.

[16] En route they encountered strong winds, poor visibility and at times were subjected to anti-aircraft fire.

[17][18] The allocation of gliders does not correspond with the expected casualties for the mission of thirty per cent, suggested by the planners before they left Tunisia.

[19] The six gliders of the 181st, were loaded with two jeeps, a two stretcher trailer, two handcarts and three folding airborne bicycles and what medical stores they could take was in 25 pounds (11 kg) man portable packs.

[23] The surgical team set out for the location designated their Main Dressing Station (MDS), a small village around 3 miles (4.8 km) away, en route picking up some wounded from the landings.

[18] After Sicily the 1st Airlanding and 1st Parachute Brigade's casualties relegated them to the reserve for the initial landings in Operation Slapstick, the 1st Airborne Divisions part in the Allied invasion of Italy.

[26] The landings on 9 September 1943, were unopposed, not least because the Italian Government had on the same day surrendered and the Germans did not have the forces in place to defend all the coastline.

[26] The 1st Airlanding Brigade and the 181st did not come ashore at Taranto until 21 September and the next day took over the 200 bed Maritime Hospital, dealing with the divisions wounded for the next forty-eight hours, when they were relieved by an Indian unit.

The divisions three field ambulances carried enough medical stores for forty-eight hours, and all the gliders were equipped with two folding airborne stretchers and extra blankets.

[30] As the airlanding brigade was the first unit to arrive, the 181st would establish a Main Dressing Station (MDS) at Wolfheze to treat any casualties from the landings.

The reserve section was under control of division and was on standby to open an Air Casualty Evacuation Centre at Deelen airfield once that had been secured.

[31] On 17 September on the first day of the operation, the 1st Airlanding Brigade, arrived in the Netherlands between 13:15 and 14:00 a full thirty minutes before the parachute troops.

[39] That evening a counter-attack by the 4th Parachute Brigade liberated the Hotel Schoonhord and some of the remaining wounded were moved further inside the divisional perimeter.

The stretcher bearers of the 181st moved the remaining wounded into the building, in preparation for the divisions withdrawal south of the River Rhine that night.

[49] Using the few men that returned from the battle of Arnhem, the rear party of the seaborne tail and volunteers from other units, 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance was reformed on 1 March 1945, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel I.C.

[52] On 3 September 1945, the 181st left Oslo and on their arrival in England were quartered near Tidworth Camp, until 14 November 1945, 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance was disbanded.