EVACUATION BY AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 106, 1 November 1943, Page 5

EVACUATION BY AIR

ALLIED SICK & WOUNDED

Rec. 11.20 a.m. RUGBY, Oct. 31, Several thousand sick and wounded —a high proportion of the total casualties—have been evacuated by air from the Italian mainland since the first landing. This continues the work which was initiated in the Western Desert, developed on the long road to Tunisia, and brought to the present pitch of organised in Sicily« Casualties are picked up from yari« ous points 4n Italy ana flown to Sicilyj from where the majority are flown ta North Africa. The service came inta operation within ; a. .week of the first landing. At first most of the work was done by air ambulances, but air trans* ports which have taken stores-, for* ward and would otherwise ...-return [empty are being used, and have'made possible the extensive scheme now in operation. No-matter where transports may land at forward aerodromes, aU available casualties are \yaitij)g xe'adji to be dispatched to .base. .;-;■ ; The gain in time by this meth6<Jj states the Air - Ministry news; service is almost incredible. In one .cas< casualties were removed in two h'ouri where land and "sea. transport woul< have taken at least.three days. Maijjj of the wounded undoubtedly owe theiij lives to .their removal from the lini by air.—B.O.W. ■> ..-- ;