36th (Ulster) Division

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36th (Ulster) Division
Canton of Baronet (E, I, GB, UK).svg
ActiveSeptember 1914 – January 1919
Country Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
BranchFlag of the British Army.svg  British Army
Type Infantry
Size Division
Engagements World War I
Battle of the Somme
Battle of Cambrai (1917)
Battle of Messines (1917)
Battle of Passchendaele
Battle of the Lys (1918)
Battle of Courtrai (1918)

The 36th (Ulster) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, part of Lord Kitchener's New Army, formed in September 1914. Originally called the Ulster Division, it was made up of mainly members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, who formed thirteen additional battalions for three existing regiments: the Royal Irish Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Rifles and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. The division served from October 1915 on Western Front as a formation of the British Army during the Great War.

Contents

The division's insignia was the Red Hand of Ulster.

History

Formation

Window in Derry Guildhall commemorating the three Irish divisions which served in the Great War Great War Memorial Windows, Guildhall, Derry.jpg
Window in Derry Guildhall commemorating the three Irish divisions which served in the Great War

The Ulster Volunteers were a unionist militia founded in 1912 to block Home Rule for Ireland. In 1913 they organised themselves into the Ulster Volunteer Force to give armed resistance to the prospective Third Home Rule Act (enacted in 1914). Many Ulster Protestants feared being governed by a Catholic-dominated parliament in Dublin and losing their local supremacy and strong links with Britain. [1] At the outbreak of the Great War, Sir Edward Carson, one of the unionist leaders, made an appeal to Ulster Volunteers to come forward for military service. [2] Kitchener had hoped for a brigade's worth of men, but instead received a division, equivalent to three brigades. [3] Major-General Oliver Nugent took command of the division in September 1915 and it moved to France in October 1915. [2]

Engagements

The Somme, 1916

The Ulster Division was one of the few divisions to make significant gains on the first day on the Somme. It attacked between the Ancre and Thiepval against a position known as the Schwaben Redoubt. According to military historian Martin Middlebrook:

The leading battalions [of the Ulster Division] had been ordered out from the wood just before 7.30am and laid down near the German trenches [...] At zero hour the British barrage lifted. Bugles blew the "Advance". Up sprang the Ulstermen and, without forming up in the waves adopted by other divisions, they rushed the German front line [...] By a combination of sensible tactics and Ulster dash, the prize that eluded so many, the capture of a long section of the German front line, had been accomplished. [4]

During the Battle of the Somme the Ulster Division was the only division of X Corps to have achieved its objectives on the opening day of the battle. This came at a heavy price, with the division suffering in two days of fighting 5,500 officers and enlisted men killed, wounded or missing. [5] War correspondent Philip Gibbs said of the Division, "Their attack was one of the finest displays of human courage in the world. [6]

Of nine Victoria Crosses given to British forces in the battle, four were awarded to Ulster Division soldiers. [6]

Actions of the 36th Division
Mural in East Belfast commemorating the various regiments of the division 36th (Ulster) Division mural, Willowfield, Belfast (2) - geograph.org.uk - 3731169.jpg
Mural in East Belfast commemorating the various regiments of the division

Thiepval – Somme

The Ulster Division's sector of the Somme lay astride the marshy valley of the River Ancre and the higher ground south of the river. Their task was to cross the ridge and take the German second line near Grandcourt. In their path lay not only the German front line, but just beyond it, the intermediate line within which was the Schwaben Redoubt. [7]

The first day of the Somme was the anniversary (in the Julian calendar) of the Battle of the Boyne, a fact remarked on by the leaders of the division. Stories have often been told that some men wore orange sashes into battle. [8] According to David Hume: "There was many who went over the top at the Somme who were Ulstermen, at least one, Sergeant Samuel Kelly of 9th Inniskillings wearing his Ulster Sash, while others wore orange ribbons". [9] Martin Middlebrook recounts a story that when some of his men wavered, one company commander from the West Belfasts, Major George Gaffikin, took off his orange sash, held it high for his men to see, and roared the traditional war-cry of the Battle of the Boyne: "Come on, boys! No surrender!" [10] However, historians Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, quoting Northern Irish historian Keith Jeffery, state that such stories are myths. [8]

On 1 July, following the preliminary bombardment, the Ulstermen quickly took the German front line, but intelligence was so poor that, with the rest of the division attacking under creep bombardment (artillery fired in front or over men; they advance as it moves) the Ulstermen would have come under attack from their own bombardment in the German first line. [7]

But they still advanced, moving to the crest so rapidly that the Germans had no time to come up from their dugouts (generally 30–40 feet below ground). In the Schwaben Redoubt, which was also taken, so successful was the advance that by 10:00 some had reached the German second line. But again they came under their own barrage, not due to finish until 10:10. However, this successful penetration had to be given up before nightfall, as it was unmatched by those at its flanks. The Ulstermen were exposed in a narrow salient, open to attack on three sides. They were running out of ammunition and supplies, and a full German counter-attack at 22:00 forced them to withdraw, giving up virtually all they gained. [7]

The division had suffered over 5,000 casualties and 2,069 deaths. [7] The Thiepval Memorial commemorates the 1916 Anglo-French offensive on the Somme and the men who died there, including those from the Ulster Division. It is the biggest British war memorial to the missing of the Western Front, both in physical size and in terms of the numbers it commemorates (more than 73,000). It was built in the late 1920s and early 1930s. [11]

Ulster Memorial Tower
Ulster Tower, Thiepval 035 - Ulster Tower, Thiepval, France.jpg
Ulster Tower, Thiepval

The Ulster Memorial Tower was unveiled by Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson in Thiepval, France, on 19 November 1921, in commemoration of the contributions of the 36th (Ulster) Division during World War I. [5] The tower marks the site of the Schwaben Redoubt, against which the Ulster Division advanced on the first day of the Somme. [5]

Lord Carson had intended to perform the unveiling himself but, due to illness, Field-Marshal Wilson took his place. The money was raised by public subscription in Northern Ireland in memory of the officers and men of the Ulster Division, and all Ulstermen who died in the great war. [12]

The tower itself is a replica of Helen's Tower at Clandeboye, County Down. It was at Helen's Tower that the men of the then newly formed Ulster Division drilled and trained on the outbreak of World War I. [5] For many of the men of the division, the distinctive sight of Helen's Tower rising above the surrounding countryside was one of their last abiding memories of home before their departure for England and, subsequently, the Western Front. [5]

Messines, 1917

Men of the Inniskillings posing with captured German equipment in the aftermath of the Battle of Messines The Battle of Messines, June 1917 Q5495.jpg
Men of the Inniskillings posing with captured German equipment in the aftermath of the Battle of Messines

The Ulster Division was deeply involved in the fighting around Spanbroekmolen on the first day of the Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917). Many of its men are buried in Spanbroekmolen British Cemetery and Lone Tree Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery on Messines Ridge. [13]

Victoria Cross recipients

In total, nine members of the Ulster Division were awarded the Victoria Cross: [14]

Commendations

Mural in East Belfast commemorating four of the division's VC recipients UVF Victoria Crosses.png
Mural in East Belfast commemorating four of the division's VC recipients

After the first day on the Somme, Captain Wilfred Spender of the Ulster Division's HQ staff was quoted in the press as saying:

I am not an Ulsterman, but yesterday as I followed their amazing attack I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world [...] My pen cannot describe adequately the hundreds of heroic acts that I witnessed [...] The Ulster Division has lost more than half the men who attacked, and in doing so has sacrificed itself for the Empire which has treated them none too well. The much derided Ulster Volunteer Force has won a name which equals any in History. Their devotion, which no doubt has helped the advance elsewhere, deserves the gratitude of the British Empire. It is due to the memory of these brave heroes that their beloved Province shall be fairly treated. [15]

After the war, King George V paid tribute to the 36th Division, saying:

In these days of rejoicing I recall the deeds of the 36th (Ulster) Division, which have more than fulfilled the high opinion formed by me on inspecting that force on the eve of its departure for the front. Throughout the long years of struggle, which have now so gloriously ended, the men of Ulster have proved how nobly they fight and die. [16]

Winston Churchill

The record of the Thirty-Sixth Division will ever be the pride of Ulster. At Thiepval in the battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916; at Wytschaete on 17 June 1917, in the storming of the Messines Ridge; on the Canal du Nord, in the attack on the Hindenburg Line of 20 November the same year; on 21 March 1918, near Fontaine-les-Clercs, defending their positions long after they were isolated and surrounded by the enemy; and later in the month at Andechy in the days of "backs to the wall", they acquired a reputation for conduct and devotion deathless in military history of the United Kingdom, and repeatedly signalised in the despatches of the Commander-in-Chief. [17]

John Buchan

North of Thiepval the Ulster Division broke through the enemy trenches, passed the crest of the ridge, and reached the point called The Crucifix, in rear of the first German position. For a little they held the strong Schwaben Redoubt, which we were not to enter again till after three months of battle, and some even got into the outskirts of Grandcourt. It was the anniversary day of the Battle of the Boyne, and that charge when the men shouted "Remember the Boyne," will be for ever a glorious page in the annals of Ulster. The splendid troops, drawn from those volunteers who had banded themselves together to defend their own freedom, now shed their blood like water for the liberty of the world. [18]

Order of battle

The following units served with the division: [2]

107th Brigade

Between 6 November 1915 and 7 February 1916 the brigade swapped with the 12th Brigade from the 4th Division.

108th Brigade

In August 1917 the 11th and 13th battalions of the Royal Irish Rifles amalgamated to form the 11/13th Battalion, which disbanded in February 1918.

109th Brigade

Battles

Commanders

Great War memorials

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Bardon, Jonathan (1992). A History of Ulster. Blackstaff Press. pp. 402, 405. ISBN   0-85640-498-5.
  2. 1 2 3 "36th (Ulster) Division". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  3. ↑ Middlebrook (1971), p. 11.
  4. ↑ Middlebrook (1971).
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "36th (Ulster) Division". The Somme Association. Archived from the original on 9 February 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  6. 1 2 Allen, Sam (1985). To Ulster's Credit. Killinchy: Sam Allen. p. 118.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "The 36th (Ulster) Division on 1 July 1916". Royal Irish. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  8. 1 2 Prior, Robin & Wilson, Trevor (2005). The Somme. New Haven: Yale University Press. p.  322. ISBN   978-0-30010-694-7.
  9. ↑ Hume, David (11 August 2006). "A View from Home: From No Man's Land Into History". Culture Northern Ireland. Archived from the original on 26 August 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  10. ↑ Middlebrook (1971), p. 175.
  11. ↑ "Thiepval Memorial". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  12. ↑ Hall, Michael (1989). Sacrifice on the Somme. Belfast: Farset Youth and Community Development. p. 31. ISBN   978-0-71390-194-8.
  13. ↑ Michael Duffy The Western Front Today – Lone Tree Cemetery FirstWorldWar.com 22 August 2009, accessed 31 August 2009
  14. ↑ "Men of Ulster remembered at the Somme". The Ministry of Defence . 2 July 2006. Archived from the original on 9 January 2008. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  15. ↑ "Ireland 1900–1925: Crisis, War and Revolution" (PDF). Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 2021. pp. 67–8. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  16. ↑ Colles, Ramsay (1920). The History of Ulster from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Vol. IV. London: Gresham Publishing Company. p. 260.
  17. ↑ Crawford, Fred H. (1947). Guns for Ulster. Graham and Heslip. p. 58.
  18. ↑ Buchan, John (1923). A History of the Great War. Vol. III. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 165.

Bibliography

Further reading

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