214th Brigade (United Kingdom)

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214th Brigade
214th Special Brigade
Active1 November 1916 – 17 March 1919
CountryFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
BranchFlag of the British Army.svg  British Army
Type Infantry
RoleHome Defence
Training
Size Brigade
Part of 71st Division
67th Division
Service World War I
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Brig-Gen L.E.A Price-Davies, VC

The 214th Brigade was an infantry formation of the British Army during World War I. It was raised as a second line brigade of the Territorial Force and initially assigned to the 71st Division for coast defence. Later it was reorganised as an all-arms brigade group for service in North Russia, but this was cancelled and it was reassigned to the 67th Division, a training and home defence formation, until the end of the war.

Contents

Origin

In November 1916 the War Office decided to organise new Home Service divisions composed of 2nd Line and Home Service units of the Territorial Force (TF). 71st Division was one of these, formed in southern England. One of its brigades, the 214th, was created by simply redesignating 190th (2nd Durham Light Infantry) Brigade from the disbanded 63rd (2nd Northumbrian) Division. This comprised three 2nd Line battalions of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) based at Catterick Camp and it assumed its new identity at Andover, Hampshire on 29 November 1916. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

In the first week of March 1917 the division moved to Essex as part of Southern Army (Home Forces), where it was responsible for coastal defence from Mersea Island to Walton-on-the-Naze, where it stayed for the remainder of the year with 214th Bde at Colchester. During 1917 some of the 2nd Line TF units of the division were replaced by 'Graduated Battalions' of the Training Reserve (TR), in which 18–19-year-old recruits were progressively taken through the stages of training. In October these were numbered as battalions of county regiments. [1] [2] [3] [7] [8]

214th Special Brigade

In October 1917, 214th Bde was redesignated 214th Special Brigade and filled with men of A1 medical category for overseas service. It also had a field artillery brigade, cyclist battalions, a field engineer company and machine gun companies attached to it. This brigade group was intended to go to Murmansk as part of the North Russia Intervention, but this never happened and most of the A1 men were drafted as reinforcements to the Western Front in March 1918 after the German Spring Offensive. [2] [9]

71st Division in turn was broken up on 12 February 1918 and 214th Special Bde joined 67th Division. This had formerly been the 2nd Home Counties Division (TF), but had lost its regional and territorial distinctiveness. The divisional HQ moved to East Anglia, with 214th Bde remaining at Colchester. [1] [3] [9] [10] [11]

After fit men had been 'combed out' for the Western Front in March 1918, 67th Division was mostly composed of training battalions but 2/7th Bn DLI was still formally a 2nd Line TF battalion, and a year after initially being selected to form part of the Allied expedition to North Russia it finally went there as a garrison battalion. It entrained at Colchester for Glasgow on 5 October 1918, embarking the following day and disembarking at Arkhangelsk on 24 October. It served there until demobilised at the end of August 1919. [1] [9] [10] [11] [4] [12] [13]

Disbandment

After the Armistice with Germany in November 1918, the brigade was thoroughly reorganised again, with different Graduated Battalions and also Special Reserve (SR) battalions. However, demobilisation began in early 1919, and by 17 March the whole of 67th Division had been disbanded. [9] [10]

Order of battle

From first formation

The composition of 214th Brigade was as follows: [1] [2] [3]

Special brigade

The brigade had the following composition when it was reorganised as a brigade group for potential service in North Russia: [9] [10]

December 1918 reorganisation

The brigade had the following composition after the December 1918 reorganisation: [9] [10] [11]

Commanders

The following officers commanded 214th Bde during its existence: [1] [9]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 101–5.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 71 Division at Long, Long Trail.
  3. 1 2 3 4 71 Division at Regimental Warpath.
  4. 1 2 Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 49–54.
  5. ↑ 63 Division at Long, Long Trail.
  6. ↑ "63 Division at Regimental Warpath". Archived from the original on 18 November 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
  7. ↑ Becke, Pt 2b, Appendix 2.
  8. ↑ Training Reserve at Long, Long Trail.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 75–82.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 67 Division at Long, Long Trail.
  11. 1 2 3 67 Division at Regimental Warpath.
  12. ↑ Dunn, pp. 196–200.
  13. ↑ Overseas Garrisons at Regimental Warpath.
  14. ↑ XLIX Bde RFA at Long, Long Trail.
  15. ↑ 14th Divisional Artillery at Long, Long Trail.
  16. ↑ Becke, Pt 3a, pp. 45–52.
  17. ↑ Warwickshire Yeomanry at Long, Long Trail.
  18. ↑ Hertfordshire Yeomanry at Long, Long Trail.
  19. ↑ Morling, pp. 36–7.

Bibliography

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