With the surgical teams completing 1.8 operations an hour, but if they were required to operate the following day had to be relieved after twelve hours. It was commanded by a Lieutenant-Colonel, with a Major second in command and a Regimental Sergeant Major as the senior non-commissioned rank. Medical staff included two specialist surgeons and a specialist anaesthetist, a pharmacist and a Royal Army Dental Corps (RADC) Dentist. To assist with operations there were six operating room assistants, a sergeant nursing orderly and six nursing orderlies. Other medical staff were a sergeant sanitary assistant, a masseur, a RADC orderly. These were assisted by five stretcher bearers, one of whom was trained as a shoemaker. The rest of the headquarters consisted of a Quartermaster, clerks, cooks, storemen, an Army Physical Training Corps instructor and a barber. The four sections each comprised an officer (Doctor) in command and a staff sergeant (nursing orderly) second in command. Three nursing orderlies, a clerk, a dutyman and thirteen stretcher bearers. The last component of the Field Ambulance was the Royal Army Service Corps detachment, commanded by a Captain, with a Company Sergeant Major as second in command. They had fifty men under them, including thirty-eight drivers, four motorcyclists and five vehicle mechanics. Operational history Normandy On 6 June 1944, the 6th Airborne Division, took part in Operation Tonga during the Normandy landings. The 5th Parachute Brigade landed on their own drop zone to the north-east of Ranville. The brigade had to capture two bridges crossing the Caen canal and the River Orne and hold them until relieved by forces advancing from the British Sword beach. At the same time they had to secure the landing zone for the division's glider borne forces arriving later that day. Under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Bruce Harvey, the 225th (Parachute) Field Ambulance, landing with the brigade were to establish their Main Dressing Station (MDS) at Le Bas de Ranville. Leaving England at 23:45 5 June, the aircraft carrying the field ambulance troops crossed the French coast at from 01:00 the unit started landing in Normandy. Unlike other units involved that night by 02:30 most of the unit had arrived at their rendezvous, which was under German mortar fire. Following at the rear of the 12th (Yorkshire) Parachute Battalion, they arrived at Le Bas de Ranville. The MDS was established in a Chateau called Chateau de Guernon-Ranville by 04:00 and