While on annual training, the division was ordered to mobilize on 4 August 1914, concentrating in the vicinity of Brentwood by 10 August. After moving to Chelmsford, Bury St Edmunds, and Norwich on 20 August, the division served on coast defence duty. Three battalions – the 4th battalion Suffolk Regiment, 1st Cambridgeshire, and 1st Hertfordshire – were sent to France between November 1914 and February 1915. They were replaced in April by the 8th Hampshires, 10th Londons, and 11th London. The battalions of the division were reorganized to include four companies in January 1915, and in May it concentrated near St Albans, preparing to be sent overseas. Its destination was revealed to be Gallipoli on 8 July. Leaving behind the divisional artillery and most of the train, the division departed St. Albans for Devonport and Liverpool between 20 and 30 July, boarding transports for Mudros, where it began arriving on 6 August.[3]
The 54th (East Anglian) Division landed at Suvla on 10 August in the Gallipoli Campaign, as a part of IX Corps under Lieutenant-General Stopford. By the end of 11 August, ten battalions and the divisional headquarters had landed.[3] As part of the evacuation of the Gallipoli peninsula the division was ordered to re-embark from Gallipoli on 26 November, and returned to Mudros between 3 and 8 December. On 9 December, it included 240 officers and 4,480 other ranks, including reinforcements. It began embarking for Egypt on 13 December, and arrived in Alexandria on 18 December. On the next day, it was concentrated at Sidi Bishr before moving to Mena Camp near Cairo.[5]
As a result of the Senussi uprising, the 161st Brigade was sent into the Western Desert on 28 December 1915. Between 11 and 15 February 1916, the divisional artillery, which had been sent to France in November 1915 and attached to the 33rd Division, rejoined the division at Mena.[6] The 161st Brigade returned to the division on 5 March, without the 4th Essex, which returned on 23 March. The division took over the southern section of the Suez Canal defences on 2 April,[5] as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under General Archibald Murray.[7]
Men of the Norfolk Regiment resting on the road to Beirut, late October 1918
The 162nd Brigade participated in the Fight at Ras el'Ain during the Battle of Tell 'Asur on 12 March 1918. The division fought in the attack at Berukin on 9 and 10 April/ In September 1918 the division took part in the Battle of Sharon between 19 and 23 September. After the end of the battle, the division concentrated at Hableh on 24 September and was ordered to move to Haifa three days later. It began advancing to Haifa on 28 September through Atlit, and finished concentrating there on 4 October, where it improved communications. The division was ordered to begin the advance to Beirut on 20 October, which was conducted by brigade group in daylong intervals. The advance began three days later, through Acre, Naqoura, Tyre, and Sidon. The division reached Beirut between 31 October and 5 November, as the war with the Ottoman Empire ended on 31 October.[5]
The division moved back by sea to El Qantara from 28 November, beginning with the 163rd Brigade, and then moved to Helmie, where it concentrated on 7 December without its artillery and train. The divisional artillery and train arrived via El Qantara by 14 December, except for the CCLXXII Brigade, which marched from Beirut to Tulkarm before entraining for Helmie on 9 December. The demobilization of the division began on 6 January 1919 with the disbandment of the three brigade trench mortar brigades. The division personnel filled the time with educational courses in January as they were gradually demobilized. By 22 May only six battalions remained, and on 29 May the 77th Brigade joined the division and was renumbered as the 161st Brigade. The CII Brigade joined and temporarily became the division artillery on 1 June. The Territorial units were reduced to cadre strength and the war-time units were disbanded, with the division ceasing to exist in Egypt on 30 September 1919.[5]
Between the wars
The division was disbanded after the Great War when the whole of the Territorial Force was disbanded. However, it was reformed in 1920 as the Territorial Army (TA) and the division was reconstituted with Eastern Command,[5] initially with a similar composition to before the First World War but, over the next few years, with a much different composition.
Buildup to the Second World War
Throughout the 1930s, tensions built between Germany and the United Kingdom as well as its allies.[9] During late 1937 and throughout 1938, German demands for the annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland led to an international crisis. In an attempt to avoid war, British Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain met the German ChancellorAdolf Hitler in September and brokered the Munich Agreement. The agreement averted immediate war and allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland.[10] Chamberlain had intended the agreement to lead to further peaceful resolution of issues, but relations between both countries soon deteriorated.[11] On 15 March 1939, Germany breached the terms of the agreement by invading and occupying the remnants of the Czech state.[12]
In response, on 29 March, the British Secretary of State for WarLeslie Hore-Belisha announced plans to increase the Territorial Army from 130,000 men to 340,000 and in so doing double the number of territorial divisions.[13] The plan of action was for the existing units to recruit over their allowed establishments (aided by an increase in pay for territorials, the removal of restrictions on promotion that had been a major hindrance to recruiting during the preceding years, the construction of better quality barracks, and an increase in supper-time rations) and then form Second Line divisions from small cadres that could be built upon.[13][14] As a result, the 54th was to provide cadres to form a Second Line duplicate unit, which would become the 18th Infantry Division following the start of the war.[15] In April, limited conscription was introduced. At that time 34,500 militiamen, all aged 20, were conscripted into the regular army, initially to be trained for six months before being deployed to the forming second line units.[16][17] Despite the intention for the army to grow in size, the programme was complicated by a lack of central guidance on the expansion and duplication process and issues regarding the lack of facilities, equipment and instructors.[13][18]
Second World War
Upon the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, the 54th Division, commanded by Major-GeneralJohn Priestman, a Regular Army officer, and serving under Eastern Command, was mobilised for full-time war service.[19] Comprising still the 161st, 162nd and 163rd Infantry Brigades and divisional troops, the division absorbed hundreds of conscripts and spent the first few months of the war, after guarding various designated 'vulnerable points', training for eventual overseas service.[20]
The division remained in the United Kingdom as a local defence formation, being downgraded to a Lower Establishment in January 1942. The division was disbanded and broken up on 14 December 1943. Its component units would take part in the Normandy Campaign as support units, with the HQ Royal Artillery becoming HQ 8th Army Group Royal Artillery and HQ Royal Engineers becoming HQ Royal Engineers for the 6th Airborne Division. The divisional HQ was redesignated HQ Lines of Communication (54th Division) for the 21st Army Group. The division was not reformed in the post-war Territorial Army in 1947 but the 161st and 162nd Infantry Brigades both survived until disbandment in the 1960s.[20]
Postwar
The formation became known as East Anglian District[21] when the Territorial Army was reformed on 1 January 1947.[22] In 1961 it became a district headquarters as 54th (East Anglian) Division/District,[23] and it was disbanded on the reduction of the TA into the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve on 1 April 1967, when many individual TA units lost their identities.[24] The district headquarters itself formed the core of the structure for the creation of Eastern District under HQ UK Land Forces in 1972.[25]
1/1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment (to France, November 1914)
2/1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment (joined February 1915 from 2nd East Anglian Division to replace 1/1st Cambridgeshires, returned to 2nd East Anglian Division in April of that year)[30]
1/10th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Hackney) (from April 1915)
1/11th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Finsbury Rifles) (from April 1915)
162nd Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Company (formed 26 April 1916, moved to 54th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps 19 April 1918)
162nd Trench Mortar Battery (formed by 5 May 1917)
54th (East Anglian) Divisional Ammunition Column (detachment accompanied division to Gallipoli, while the remainder were sent to France in November 1915, where they became the 55th (West Lancashire) Divisional Ammunition Column January 1916)
Divisional artillery after August 1916 reorganisation:
CCLXX Brigade, RFA
A, B, C (H) Batteries
CCLXXI Brigade, RFA
A, B, 440 (H) Batteries
CCLXXIII Brigade, RFA
A, B, C (H) Batteries
Trench Mortars (joined on 3 October 1917, left 2 March 1918)
X.54 Medium Trench Mortar Battery
Y.54 Medium Trench Mortar Battery
Z.54 Medium Trench Mortar Battery
Divisional Engineers
1/1st East Anglian Field Company, RE (joined 2nd Division in France on 5 January 1915)
/2nd East Anglian Field Company, RE (renumbered 484th Field Company on 1 February 1917)
2/1st East Anglian Field Company (formed after mobilisation; renumbered 485th Field Company on 1 February 1917), RE
The 12th (Eastern) Division was an infantry division raised by the British Army during the First World War from men volunteering for Kitchener's New Armies. The division saw service in the trenches of the Western Front from June 1915 to the end of the war.
The 18th (Eastern) Division was an infantry division of the British Army formed in September 1914 during the First World War as part of the K2 Army Group, part of Lord Kitchener's New Armies. From its creation the division trained in England until 25 May 1915 when it landed in France and spent the duration of the First World War in action on the Western Front, becoming one of the elite divisions of the British Army. During the Battle of the Somme in the latter half of 1916, the 18th Division was commanded by Major General Ivor Maxse.
The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. It was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 44th Regiment of Foot and the 56th Regiment of Foot.
The 163rd Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the British Army that saw active service during the First World War in Gallipoli and the Middle Eastern Theatre as part of the 54th Division. In the Second World War the brigade remained in the United Kingdom until it was disbanded in late 1943.
The Norfolk Yeomanry was a volunteer cavalry (Yeomanry) regiment of Britain's Territorial Army accepted onto the establishment of the British Army in 1794. After seeing action in the Second Boer War, it served dismounted at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front during the First World War. Between the wars it converted to the Royal Artillery (TA), and served as an anti-tank regiment in France, the Western Desert, Italy and North West Europe during the Second World War. After the war it served as a TA air defence unit and then as an Army Air Corps unit.
The Duke of York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army. Originally formed as a volunteer cavalry force in 1793, it fought in the Second Boer war as part of the Imperial Yeomanry. In the World War I the regiment fought at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front. The unit was subsequently converted into a Royal Artillery unit, serving in the anti-tank role North Africa, Italy and France during World War II. The lineage is maintained by No. 677 Squadron AAC.
The East Midland Brigade was an infantry brigade of the Territorial Force, part of the British Army, that was raised in 1908. As the name suggests, it commanded infantry battalions recruited in the East Midlands of England: Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. The brigade was an integral part of the East Anglian Division.
The 223rd Brigade was a Home Defence formation of the British Army in the First and the Second World Wars. It existed under several variations of the 223 Brigade title, and was eventually converted into an airborne formation.
The 225th Brigade was a Home Defence formation of the British Army in the First and the Second World Wars. It existed under several variations of the 225th Brigade title.
71st Division was a short-lived infantry division of the British Army during the First World War. It served in the Home Defence forces and never went overseas.
This is an order of battle listing the Allied and Ottoman forces involved in the Gallipoli campaign during 1915.
The Essex Royal Horse Artillery was a Territorial Force Royal Horse Artillery battery that was formed in Essex in 1908. It saw active service during the First World War in Egypt and Palestine from 1916 to 1918, initially as field artillery with 52nd (Lowland) Division before being converted back to horse artillery and serving with the 2nd Mounted / 5th Cavalry Division. A second line battery, 2/1st Essex RHA, served on the Western Front in 1917 and 1918 as part of an Army Field Artillery Brigade.
The Essex Brigade, later 161st Brigade and 161st Infantry Brigade, was a volunteer infantry formation of the British Army in existence from 1888 until 1941, and again from 1947. It served at Gallipoli and in Palestine during the First World War and returned to Egypt in the early part of the Second World War before transferring to the British Indian Army and redesignated 161st Indian Infantry Brigade. In peacetime and during the wars the brigade was an integral part of the 54th Infantry Division and contained mostly battalions of the Essex Regiment.
The 6th Battalion, Essex Regiment was a volunteer unit of Britain's Territorial Army. First formed in the docks of East London in 1860, it served as infantry at Gallipoli and in Palestine during the First World War. It later formed searchlight units of the Royal Artillery (RA), serving during the Blitz.
The Northamptonshire Battery, Royal Field Artillery was a unit of Britain's Territorial Force from 1908 to 1919. It served in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign during World War I. In World War II the battery fought in the Malayan Campaign and was captured at the Fall of Singapore.
The IV East Anglian Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery was a unit of Britain's Territorial Force (TF) from 1908 to 1919. It served in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign during World War I.
The 1st Essex Artillery Volunteers was a unit of Britain's part-time auxiliary forces raised in Essex in 1860 in response to an invasion scare. It served under various designations as field artillery in Palestine during World War I. During World War II its units served as mountain artillery in Italy and as jungle artillery and medium artillery in Burma. Postwar it became an airborne unit until it was merged with other units in the 1950s.
The 1st Norfolk Artillery Volunteers was a unit of Britain's Volunteer Force raised in the County of Norfolk in 1859 as a response to a French invasion threat. It became part of the Territorial Force in 1908 and served under various designations as field artillery in Palestine during World War I, and as heavy anti-aircraft artillery in North Africa and Italy during World War II. It disappeared in a merger in 1955.
The 1st Suffolk Artillery Volunteers was a unit of Britain's Volunteer Force and Territorial Army from 1860 until 1955. Raised at Lowestoft in Suffolk, it served under various designations, as field artillery in Palestine during World War I and as heavy anti-aircraft artillery defending the UK during World War II.
The Structure of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force over the course of the First World War is shown below.
References
Footnotes
↑ The divisional artillery did not accompany the division to Gallipoli. On 17 November 1915 it embarked for France, where it was attached to the 33rd Division, a 'Kitchener's Army' division whose artillery were still under training.[31][32] It rejoined 54th Division in Egypt in February 1916.
Becke, Major A. F. (1936). Order of Battle of Divisions Part 2A. The Territorial Force Mounted Divisions and the 1st-Line Territorial Force Divisions (42–56) (2007 Naval & Military Press reprinted.). London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. ISBN1-871167-12-4.
Maj A.F. Becke,History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 3b: New Army Divisions (30–41) and 63rd (R.N.) Division, London: HM Stationery Office, 1939/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2007, ISBN1-847347-41-X.
J.B.M. Frederick, Lineage Book of British Land Forces 1660–1978, Vol I, Wakefield: Microform Academic, 1984, ISBN 1-85117-007-3.
French, David (2001) [2000]. Raising Churchill's Army: The British Army and the War Against Germany 1919–1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-924630-4.
Joslen, H. F. (2003) [1960]. Orders of Battle: Second World War, 1939–1945. Uckfield, East Sussex: Naval and Military Press. ISBN978-1-84342-474-1.
Capt Walter Kemsley & Capt Michael R. Riesco, The Scottish Lion on Patrol: Being the History of the 15th Scottish Reconnaissance Regiment, 1943–46, Bristol: White Swan Press, 1950/Revised edn (Tim Chamberlin, ed), Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2011, ISBN 978-1-39901-874-6.
Maj J. Macartney-Filgate, History of the 33rd Divisional Artillery in the War 1914–1918, Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2005, ISBN978-1-843429-78-4.
Messenger, Charles (1994). For Love of Regiment 1915–1994. A History of British Infantry. Vol.2. London: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN978-0-85052-422-2.
Perry, Frederick William (1988). The Commonwealth Armies: Manpower and Organisation in Two World Wars. War, Armed Forces and Society. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN978-0-7190-2595-2.
Watson, Graham E.; Rinaldi, Richard A. (2018). The Corps of Royal Engineers: Organization and Units 1889–2018. Tiger Lily Books. ISBN978-171790180-4.
Westlake, Ray (1992). British Territorial Units 1914–18. Men-at-Arms Series. Vol.245. Osprey. ISBN978-1-85532-168-7.
Further reading
Atkinson, C. T. (1952). The Royal Hampshire Regiment 1914–1918 (2003 Naval & Military Press reprinted.). Glasgow: Robert Maclehose & Co. ISBN9781843426936.
Burrows, John W. (1923). Essex Units in the War, 1914-1919. Vol.5: Essex Territorial Infantry Brigade (4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Battalions). Southend-on-Sea: J.H. Burrows & sons. OCLC4045637.
Murphy, Charles Cecil Rowe (1928). The History of the Suffolk Regiment, 1914-1927 (2002 Naval & Military Press reprinted.). London: Hutchinson. ISBN1847341608.
Northamptonshire Regiment Regimental History Committee (1932). The Northamptonshire Regiment, 1914-1918 (2005 Naval & Military Press reprinted.). Aldershot: Gale & Polden. ISBN9781845742706.
Webster, F. A. M. (1930). The History of the Fifth Battalion the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment (T.A.). London: Frederick Warne & Co. OCLC17648450.
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