27th Division (United Kingdom)

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27th Division
27th Division sign WW1.svg
Formation sign of the 27th Division, a strip of yellow cloth on the shoulder strap. [1]
ActiveOctober 1914 1919
CountryFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
BranchFlag of the British Army.svg  British Army
Type Infantry
Engagements World War I

The 27th Division was an infantry division of the British Army raised during the Great War.

Contents

History

Men of the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots, in the front line at Kemmel, January 1915. The 1st Battalion, Royal Scots in the Ypres Salient, 1915 Q50339.jpg
Men of the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots, in the front line at Kemmel, January 1915.

The 27th Division was formed in late 1914 by combining various Regular Army units that had been acting as garrisons about the British Empire.

The division, under Edward Bulfin, spent most of 1915 on the Western Front in France before moving to the Macedonian front, where it remained with the British Salonika Army for the duration of the war. In 1916 its commander, Major General Hurdis Ravenshaw, was captured by an Austrian submarine whilst sailing to England. In 1918 in Salonika the division took part in the Battle of Doiran.

It carried out occupation duties in the Caucasus in the post-war before being withdrawn from the region in 1919. [2]

Order of battle

The division was composed of the following units: [3] [4]

80th Infantry Brigade
81st Infantry Brigade

The following battalions also served with the brigade a time in 1915:

82nd Infantry Brigade

The following battalions also served with the brigade a time in 1915:

19th Infantry Brigade

The brigade joined the division in May 1915 from the 6th Division leaving for the 2nd Division in August.

Division Troops

Royal Artillery
Royal Engineers

Royal Army Medical Corps

Commanders

During its existence, 27th Division had the following commanders: [5]

See also

References

  1. Chappell p. 16
  2. On the withdrawal, see Richard G. Hovannisian, The Republic of Armenia, Vol. II: From Versailles to London, 1919-1920. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982, p. 109-39.
  3. Becke, pp. 97–103.
  4. "27th Division". The Long Long Trail. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  5. Becke 1935 , p. 97

Bibliography