Hi Fiona - heres your battalion!
The Lancashire Fusiliers
18th (Service) Battalion (2nd South-East Lancashire)
Formed in Bury, 13 January 1915, by Lieut-Col. G.E.Wike and a Committee, as a Bantam Bn. 21 June 1915 : attached to 104th Brigade, 35th Division.
The 35th Division
The origianl Divisional symbol was a fighting cock
A New Army Division; a Bantam formation
Summary history of the division
Raised for the Fifth New Army, originally designated 42nd Division. The Brigades were numbered 125, 126 and 127. When the original Fourth New Army was broken up to replace casualties in the first three, Fifth became Fourth and this Division adopted the designation 35th. This was on 27 April 1915. Many of the battalions had been raised as bantam units.
After initial training without equipment or uniform, at billets close to home, the Division began to concentrate in Yorkshire with HQ at Masham, in June 1915. In Augus, the troops moved to Salisbury Plain. HQ moved initially to Marlborough but was moved to Chiseldon (14 September) and Cholderton (11 October 1915). In late 1915, orders werereceived to prepare to move to Egypt, but this was soon countermanded.
The Division moved to France in late January and early February 1916. It remained on the Western Front for teh remainder of the war, taking part in the following actions:
The Battle of Albert (first phase of the Battle of the Somme 1916)
In December 1916, the Divisional commander (Major-General Landon) reported that the Division was now suffering from low physical and morale standards. This was a result of replacing casualties not with fit 'bantams' but with undersized and weak men. Medical inspections were ordered, and 2784 men rejected from teh ranks of the Division. These men were largely posted to the Labour Corps. Their places were filled with men posted from disbanded yeomanry regiments; they had to be quickly trained in infantry methods and a Divisional depot was formed for the purpose.
The German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line
The Second Battle of Passchendaele (eighth phase of the Third Battle of Ypres)
The First Battle of Bapaume (second phase of the First Battles of the Somme 1918)
The Battle of Ypres 1918
The Battle of Courtrai
The Division also fought in the subsequent Action of Tieghem. On 9 November 1918, the advanced units of the Division had made a foothold on the far bank of the River Schelde near Berchem. They pushed forward, and had captured Grammont and reached the line of the River Dendre when the armitice halted the fighting at 11am on 11 November 1918.
The Division was withdrawn towards Ypres, and by 2 December 1918 was near St-Omer. Here it began to demobilise. In January 1919, the Division was celled upon to quell rioting in the camps at Calais.
The 35th Division ceased to exist by the end of April 1919, having suffered casualties (killed, wounded and missing) of 23,915 during the war.
These are the battles fought by the Lancashire Fusiliers - I'm still trying to find which one!!
Mack will probably pop up in a minute!!!!!
The Great War (30 battalions): Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914 '18, Armentières 1914, Ypres 1915 '17 '18, St. Julien, Bellewaarde, Somme 1916 '18, Albert 1916 '18, Bazentin, Delville Wood, Pozières, Ginchy, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Thiepval, Le Transloy, Ancre Heights, Ancre 1916 '18, Arras 1917 '18, Scarpe 1917 '18, Arleux, Messines 1917, Pilckem, Langemarck 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917 '18, St. Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Rosières, Lys, Estaires, Hazebrouck, Bailleul, Kemmel, Béthune, Scherpenberg, Amiens, Drocourt-Quéant, Hindenburg Line, Épéhy, Canal du Nord, St. Quentin Canal, Courtrai, Selle, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914-18, Doiran 1917, Macedonia 1915-18, Helles, Landing at Helles, Krithia, Suvla, Landing at Suvla, Scimitar Hill, Gallipoli 1915, Rumani, Egypt 1915-17
Annie
Mack ! - I knew it! - just as I was going to post!!
