British Army Airborne Patch b 16 Parachute Workshop REME DZ

British Army Airborne Patch 16 Parachute Workshop REME DZ Patch 1950s felt strips brown paper back 62mm by 60mm two and seven sixteenth inches by two and three eighth inches.  

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History 1948-1977

16 Parachute Workshop REME was formed in November 1948 at Waggum Airfield Germany on the renaming of 2 Parachute Workshop REME when 2 Independent Parachute Brigade was re-designated 16 Independent Parachute Brigade Group under BAOR. The Brigade relocated to Waterloo Barracks Aldershot UK in October 1949. 

In 1951 the Workshop and the rest of 16 Independent Parachute Brigade Group was deployed to Cyprus and became involved in maintaining the security of the Suez Canal Zone between 1951-4. In 1956 it conducted anti-EOKA counter-terrorist operations in Cyprus and returned to Egypt to conduct the battalion parachute assault at El Gamil airfield and sea landings by the rest of the Brigade during the Suez Crisis.

Further intervention operations followed as the Brigade was employed as a quick reaction fire fighting force forming part of the UK strategic reserve with operations mainly in the Middle East including Jordan in 1958. 

In 1960 the Brigade was renamed 16 Parachute Brigade and operations continued in the Persian Gulf between 1961-7 and further afield in the Radfan Borneo Aden and British Guiana. In 1967 16 Parachute Workshop became part of 1 Parachute Logistics Regiment. The Brigade began focussing on the Northern Ireland troubles developing nearer home after 1969. In February 1972 the 16 Brigade Officers Mess was blown up in
Aldershot by the Provisional IRA killing the RC Padre and a number of civilian staff. In the early 1970s the Brigade became part of UK Joint Airborne Task Force UKJATFOR a NATO reinforcement contingency.

The 1975 Defence Review reduced the Armys parachute force to one parachute battalion group leading to the 16 Parachute Workshop disbanding on 31 March 1977 and 16 Parachute Brigade being reorganised and renamed 6 Field Force on 31 March 1977 under the Task Force Field Force concept developed in 1976. The concept was not a success and 6 Field Force reverted to Brigade status as 5 Infantry Brigade in 1982.   

This patch dates from the 1950s