Lippy is the Father of two ladies I met at Kate ter Horst's house in Lower Oosterbeek during the 80th Anniversary this year - on the morning I was due to fly back to Blighty. https://amzn.to/3VgSu6z is the link to the book on Amazon. Lippy was a Surgeon who lobbed on D-Day (Market Garden) the British 1st Airborne as part of 16 Parachute Field Ambulance RAMC, commanded by Lt Col E Townsend. My paper-back dog-eared annotated, coffee-stained copy of Martin Middlebrook's 1994 book Arnhem 1944, reprinted a good many times (which is the equivalent of my 'Aide Memoire') ties much of the additional reading I've done into one 'doesn't-conveniently-fit-into-trouser-map-pocket' volume of reference. (Incidentally I bought my copy from the shop at the National Archives in Kew on 5th March 2020, ten days before we all went into Covid Lockdown 1. The receipt is still tucked in the frontispiece.) In Appendix 1 Middlebrook lists 16 Parachute Field Ambulance RAMC as being based at Culverthorpe. They flew to Arnhem in 6 x C-47 Dakota aircraft from Barkston Heath and Saltby; and 6 Horsa gliders from Keevil. + 135 men went in. + 6 were killed in action. + up to 129 missing*. As they were primarily all looking after the wounded at St Elisabeth's hospital, it is unlikely none were evacuated on the night 25th & 26th September. Lippy's story does tell the tale of a few of his colleagues who he crossed paths and endured escape efforts with. We join Lippy's story just a couple of days before the initial evacuation of the infantry across the Rhine on the fateful night of 25th/26th. He and his colleagues are at St Elisabeth's Hospital, which is on the western approach into Central Arnhem close to where Route LION (the river road) joins the middle Route TIGER (Utrechtseweg) at an area of high ground called 'Den Brink'. From memory the main building is a series of high-end apartments. Without spoiling the narrative, the account begins as a journal of the experience of the surgeons and staff of the Hospital which were now under the oversight and command of the German SS Divisional Doctor, Divisionsarzt Skalka. Harrowing and difficult conditions prevailed for all within the building, and the surrounding enemy forces had not particularly been behaving themselves, causing more casualties and deaths within the building. The Hospital becomes a haven for the wounded of all the Regimental Aid posts and Main Dressing Stations as the main Divisional body evacuates across the river, and the SS guard the hospital, but allow a core team of staff to stay behind with a small troop of German nuns and a skeleton team of local hospital staff who were primarily treating injured civilians.

Hello folks good morning. Hope you all had a poignant Remembrance weekend - enjoying seeing old faces and meeting new people in the remarkably small world that is the UK Service family. I had been at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday night for the Festival of Remembrance as a guest of the Royal British Legion (RBL) as my team at MFS Casting had been the Cast and Military Advisors for the RBL TV Ad campaign that you will probably seen in the last fortnight or so. I've attached the video of the campaign below and some of the shots from inside the venue. We were approached to Cast and provide military advice on the Campaign, which has been well received, and RBL report anecdotally only so far that their call-centres have seen an uptick in inbound calls citing the Campaign as the initiation of reaching for help. The theme being the mental health of those who serve - while we are equipped with kevlar 'lids', body-armour, eye and hearing protection, for land forces; flying suits and helmets for our Aircrew; anti-flash protection for our Sailors, our experiences accumulated as part of service life can take a psychological toll, and the RBL offer support to those who suffer within themselves as a result of the experiences they have endured. This is not limited to combat or peace-keeping operations, and experiences in training can be as dangerous and traumatic. Since cessation of hostilities in 1945 a further 7000+ British (I believe that includes overseas dependencies) service personnel have been killed in action, which is reasonable to assume that a far greater number still endure psychological pain from their experiences. Let us remember all at the going down of the sun, and in the morning - military, civilian, still suffering and those now gone. Until the next time.