122nd Brigade | |
---|---|
Active | 1915–1918 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Branch | British Army |
Type | Infantry |
Size | Brigade |
Engagements | First World War * Battle of Flers-Courcelette * Battle of the Lys and the Escaut |
The 122nd Brigade was a formation of the British Army during the First World War.
The 122nd Brigade was raised as part of the New Army also known as Kitchener's Army, and assigned to the 41st Division.
On 15 September 1916, troops of the 122nd Brigade, led by a Mark I tank, entered the eastern part of Flers on the Somme and took part in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. This was the first time tanks had been deployed on the Western Front. [1] [2] [3] The village of Flers itself was taken by the 122nd Brigade which had a total casualty roll of 1,200 out of 1,800 who went into action. [4]
The 122nd Brigade also fought in the Battle of the Lys and the Escaut. [5]
The 14th (Light) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, one of the Kitchener's Army divisions raised from volunteers by Lord Kitchener during the First World War. All of its infantry regiments were originally of the fast marching rifle or light infantry regiments, hence the title "Light". It fought on the Western Front for the duration of the First World War.
The division was disbanded by March 1919, and was not reformed in the Second World War.
The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as the Tank Corps and the Royal Tank Corps, it is part of the Royal Armoured Corps.
The 41st Division was an infantry division of the British Army, raised during the First World War as part of Lord Kitchener's New Armies. The division saw service on the Western Front and later on the Italian Front.
The Battle of Flers–Courcelette was fought during the Battle of the Somme in France, by the French Sixth Army and the British Fourth Army and Reserve Army, against the German 1st Army, during the First World War. The Anglo-French attack of 15 September began the third period of the Battle of the Somme but by its conclusion on 22 September, the strategic objective of a decisive victory had not been achieved. The infliction of many casualties on the German front divisions and the capture of the villages of Courcelette, Martinpuich and Flers had been a considerable tactical victory.
The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle Corps". In January 1803, they became an established regular regiment and were titled the 95th Regiment of Foot (Rifles). In 1816, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, they were again renamed, this time as the "Rifle Brigade".
Entrenching battalions were temporary units formed in the armies of the British Empire during the First World War. Entrenching Battalions were trained as infantry, but were primarily utilized for manual labour duties such as trench repair, wire laying, road making and assisting tunnellers, pioneers, engineers and signals. The Battalions were also used as pools of men from which drafts of replacements could be drawn by conventional infantry battalions.
The 141st Brigade was an infantry brigade of the Territorial Army, part of the British Army, that served in the First World War and remained in the United Kingdom throughout the Second World War.
The 142nd Brigade was an infantry brigade of the Territorial Army, part of the British Army, that served in the First and the Second World Wars, and remained in the United Kingdom throughout the latter.
41st Brigade was an infantry formation of the British Army during World War I. It was formed in August 1914 as part of the New Army, also known as Kitchener's Army, and was assigned to the 14th (Light) Division, serving on the Western Front. It was sometimes known as the 'Greenjacket Brigade' because it was composed of battalions of the King's Royal Rifle Corps and the Rifle Brigade, whose full dress uniforms were Rifle green.
The 123rd Brigade was an infantry formation of the British Army during World War I. It was raised as part of the New Armies. After the original 123rd Bde was renumbered, a new brigade was formed and served with the 41st Division from 1916 to 1919 on the Western Front, in Italy, and with the British Army of Occupation in Germany.
The Leeds Rifles was a unit of the 19th century Volunteer Force of the British Army that went on to serve under several different guises in the World Wars of the 20th century. In the First World War, both battalions served as infantry on the Western Front. They were later converted into an anti-aircraft and tank units, and fought in North Africa, Italy, and Burma during the Second World War.
73rd Division was a short-lived infantry division of the British Army during World War I. It served in Home Forces and never went overseas.
The 25th Battalion, CEF was a unit in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Great War. It was the second infantry battalion of ten to be raised in Nova Scotia during the war. The 25th served in Belgium and France as part of the 5th Canadian Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division from 16 September 1915 until the end of the war. Regimental headquarters were established at the Halifax Armouries, with recruitment offices in Sydney, Amherst, New Glasgow, Truro and Yarmouth. Of the 1000 Nova Scotians that started with the battalion, after the first year of fighting, 100 were left in the battalion, while 900 men were killed, taken prisoner, missing or injured.
The City of London Rifles (CLR) was a volunteer regiment of the British Army, originally raised as the 'Printers' Battalion'. It saw a great deal of action as an infantry regiment in World War I. During World War II it served in the air defence role, first as a searchlight regiment in the United Kingdom, and later as an anti-aircraft artillery regiment in North West Europe.
The Capture of Lesbœufs [25 September 1916] was a tactical incident in the Battle of the Somme. Lesbœufs was a village on the D 74 between Gueudecourt and Morval, about 30 mi (48 km) north-east of Amiens; Le Transloy lies to the north-west and Bapaume is to the north. French Territorials fought the II Bavarian Corps on the north bank of the Somme in late September 1914, after which the front line moved west past the village. Little military activity occurred round the village until the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, when German troops passed through the village in the first weeks of the battle. During the Battle of Flers–Courcelette (15–22 September), advances by the right flank corps of the British Fourth Army, brought the front line forward to the Gallwitz Riegel trenches west of Lesbœufs but exhaustion prevented the British from reaching their third objective, a line east of Morval, Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt.
The Capture of Eaucourt l'Abbaye was a tactical incident during the Battle of the Somme. Eaucourt is about 16 mi (26 km) south of Arras, at the junction of the D 929 and the D 10E roads. Eaucourt l'Abbaye (Eaucourt) is north-west of Martinpuich, south-east of Le Sars, south of the Butte de Warlencourt west of Gueudecourt and north-west of Flers. Eaucourt was a group of farm buildings in an enclosure built on the site of an Augustinian abbey, on a side road from Le Sars off the main Albert–Bapaume highway. Destremont Farm to the south-west of Le Sars and a derelict quarry south of Eaucourt had been fortified by the Germans.
The 1st Surrey Rifles was a volunteer unit of the British Army from 1859 until 1993. It saw considerable service on the Western Front, at Salonika and in Palestine during World War I. It served as a searchlight unit and as a light anti-aircraft regiment during World War II.
The 22nd Battalion, London Regiment was an auxiliary unit of the British Army. Formed in 1908 from Volunteer units in the Surrey suburbs of London that dated back to 1860, it was part of the London Regiment in the Territorial Force (TF). Its battalions served on the Western Front and in Palestine during World War I. When the London Regiment was abolished in 1937 the unit reverted to the Queen's Royal Regiment and during World War II its battalions fought in North Africa, Tunisia, Italy and North West Europe. It was amalgamated with other battalions into the Queen's Regiment in 1961.
The Sussex Royal Garrison Artillery and its successors were part-time coast defence units of the British Army from 1910 to 1932. Although the unit saw no active service, it supplied trained gunners to siege batteries engaged on the Western Front during World War I.
The 122nd Siege Battery was a heavy howitzer unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) raised during the First World War. It saw active service on the Western Front at the Somme and Arras, against the German spring offensive, and in the final Allied Hundred Days Offensive.