The regiment was not fundamentally affected by the Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at Gibraltar Barracks in Bury St Edmunds from 1873, or by the Childers reforms of 1881 – as it already possessed two battalions, there was no need for it to amalgamate with another regiment.[17] Under the reforms the regiment became the Suffolk Regiment on 1 July 1881.[18] As the county regiment of Suffolk, it also gained the county's militia and rifle volunteer battalions, which were integrated into the regiment as numbered battalions. After these reforms, the regiment now included:[7][19]
[5th] 1st Suffolk Rifle Volunteers based in Woodbridge, renamed 1st Volunteer Battalion in 1888
[6th] 6th (West Suffolk) Suffolk Rifle Volunteers based in Sudbury, renamed 2nd Vol Btn in 1881
[7th] 1st (Cambridge, Essex and Huntingdonshire) Cambridgeshire Rifle Volunteers based in Cambridge, renamed 3rd (Cambridgeshire) Vol Btn in 1881
[8th] 3rd (Cambridge University) Cambridgeshire Rifle Volunteer Corps based in Cambridge, renamed 4th (Cambridge University) Vol Btn in 1881
The 1st Battalion served in the Second Boer War: it assaulted a hill near Colesberg in January 1900 and suffered many casualties including the commanding officer.[15]
By contrast between 1895 and 1914, the 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment was not involved in hostilities. It was stationed for the majority of the time in India. Garrison postings during this period include; Secunderabad (India) 1895, Rangoon and the Andaman Islands (Burma) 1896 to 1899, Quetta (North West Frontier) 1899 to 1902, Karachi and Hyderabad (Northern India, now Pakistan) 1902 to 1905, Madras (India) 1905 to 1907, Aden 1907, returning to England in 1908.[15]
During its service in India the 2nd Battalion became known as a "well officered battalion that compared favourably with the best battalion in the service having the nicest possible feeling amongst all ranks". The 2nd was also regarded as a good shooting battalion with high level of musketry skills.[21]
The spirit of independence and self-reliance exhibited by officers and non-commissioned officers led to the 2nd Battalion taking first place in the Quetta Division of the British Army of India, from a military effectiveness point of view, in a six-day test. This test saw the men under arms for over 12 hours a day conducting a wide selection of military manoeuvres, including bridge building, retreats under fire, forced marches and defending ground and fixed fortifications.[22]
In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve;[23] the regiment now had one Reserve and three Territorial battalions. In 1910 the regiment gained another Territorial unit, the 6th (Cyclist) Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment, after the breakup of the Essex and Suffolk Cyclist Battalion.[24][7]
The 2nd Battalion landed at landed at Le Havre as part of the 14th Brigade in the 5th Division in August 1914.[25] The value of the 2nd Battalion's 20 years of peacetime training was exemplified at the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August 1914, a mere 23 days since Britain had declared war on Germany. In this action the 2nd Battalion undertook a fierce rear-guard defence out-manned and out-gunned by superior numbers of enemy. The 2nd Battalion held their defensive position despite losing their commanding officer, Lt. Col. C.A.H. Brett DSO, at the commencement of the action and their second in command, Maj. E.C. Doughty, who was severely wounded after six hours of battle as he went forward to take ammunition to the hard-pressed battalion machine gunners.[26]
Almost totally decimated as a fighting unit after over eight hours of incessant fighting, the 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment was gradually outflanked but would still not surrender. This was despite the fact that the German Army, knowing the 2nd Battalion had no hope of survival, entreated them to surrender, even ordering the German buglers to sound the British Cease Fire and gesticulating for the men of the 2nd to lay down their arms. At length an overwhelming force rushed the 2nd Battalion from the rear, bringing down all resistance and the 2nd's defence of Le Cateau was at an end. Those remaining alive were taken captive by the Germans, spending the next four years as prisoners of war and not returning home until Christmas Day 1918.[27]
As an example of their valour and the level of training they had been subject to as a peacetime unit, it is noted that 720 men of 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment total roll call of some 1,000, many of whom had been with the battalion since the 1899 posting to Quetta, were killed, wounded or captured. This fight-to-the-last-man defence at Le Cateau was later recognised as a key factor in preventing the German occupation of Paris. The battalion, due to the casualties sustained, was transferred to GHQ Troops before, on 25 October, transferring to the 8th Brigade of the 3rd Division and, almost a year later, transferred to 76th Brigade of the same division, where they were to remain for the rest of the year.[28]
Men of the 7th (Service) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, in the ruins of the church in Tilloy, France, 18 October 1917.Miniature portrait of the 7th Battalion's Captain Vesey Davoren (1888-1989), in uniform, presented to him on January 15, 1916, by the artist John Morley.
The 7th (Service) Battalion landed at Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of the 35th Brigade in the 12th (Eastern) Division in May 1915 for action on the Western Front.[29][30] The 9th (Service) Battalion landed at Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of 71st Brigade in the 24th Division in August 1915 also for action on the Western Front:[31] The 11th (Service) Battalion (Cambridgeshire) landed at Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of the 101st Brigade in the 34th Division in January 1916 also for action on the Western Front.[32]
Inter-war period
The 1st battalion saw action in the campaign against the Moplahs in Malabar in 1922 while the 2nd battalion was deployed to Shanghai in 1927 before moving to India in 1929.[15]
The 2nd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment was serving in India at the outbreak of the Second World War, spending the early years of the war mainly deployed on internal security duties. In 1943 the battalion transferred to the 123rd Indian Infantry Brigade, part of the 5th Indian Infantry Division and served with them in the Burma Campaign. In 1944 the battalion was flown to Imphal to clear Japanese positions.[15]
Territorial Army
Surrendering troops of the Suffolk Regiment held at gunpoint by Japanese infantry in the battle of Singapore.
The 4th/5th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment was a Territorial Army unit and was split to help re-create the 5th Battalion, which had been disbanded in the 1920s, in 1939 due to the Territorial Army being doubled as another conflict had, by this time, seemed inevitable. Both battalions were assigned to the 54th Infantry Brigade, which included the 4th Royal Norfolk Regiment, assigned to the 18th Infantry Division, a 2nd Line duplicate of the 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division. Despite being a 2nd Line formation, the 18th Division contained many 1st Line units. The division spent the early years of the war in the defence of England and guarding against a possible German invasion after the bulk of the British Army was evacuated at Dunkirk. In late 1941 the 18th Division, the 4th and 5th Suffolks included, were originally to be sent to Egypt but instead were sent to Singapore to help strengthen the garrison there after Japan entered the war in December 1941. In early 1942, both the 4th and 5th battalions fought briefly in the defence of Singapore against the Japanese, with the 18th Division, before British Commonwealth forces on that island surrendered on 15 February 1942 under the orders of Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival. Men from the two battalions suffered great hardship as POWs and were forced to participate in the construction of the Burma Railway.[15]
Hostilities-only
Men of the 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment negotiate barbed wire obstacles during training on the beach at Sandbanks near Poole, 22 March 1941.The King inspects men of the Suffolk Regiment during a tour of Western Command, 23 October 1941.
The 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment was a war-formed unit raised in June 1940, shortly after Dunkirk, and, on 10 October, was assigned to the 210th Independent Infantry Brigade (Home) alongside other hostilities-only battalions. With the brigade, the battalion alternated between home defence duties and training to repel an expected invasion of the United Kingdom. In November 1941, with the threat of invasion reduced due to the oncoming winter, the battalion was converted to a regiment in the Royal Armoured Corps, becoming 142nd Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (142 RAC) and joined 25th Army Tank Brigade. They continued to wear their Suffolk Regiment cap badge on the black beret of the Royal Armoured Corps as did all infantry units converted this way.[34] Equipped with Churchill tanks the regiment landed at Algiers in 1943, fighting at the Battle of Medjez-el Bab in the Tunisia Campaign in April 1943. After the end of the fighting in North Africa the regiment remained there until April 1944 when, with the rest of the brigade, it landed at Naples, Italy, destined for service in the Italian campaign, where they fought in Operation Diadem, where the Allies finally broke out of the Gustav Line. 142 RAC was present when the Allies overcame the Hitler Line and the Gothic Line in late 1944. However, due to a shortage of manpower, the regiment was disbanded in January 1945 while in northern Italy.[35]
The 50th (Holding) Battalion was created in late May 1940, around the time of the Dunkirk evacuation, and was originally intended temporarily to 'hold' men who were medically unfit, awaiting orders, or, as this was at the time of Dunkirk, returning from overseas service. However, in October, the battalion was re-designated as the 8th Battalion. In addition, the 6th, 9th, 30th, 31st and 70th (Young Soldiers) Battalions were also formed, although none of these saw service overseas.[35]
↑ "Training Depots 1873–1881". Regiments.org. Archived from the original on 10 February 2006. Retrieved 16 October 2016. The depot was the 32nd Brigade Depot from 1873 to 1881, and the 12th Regimental District depot thereafter
↑ These were the 3rd Battalion (Special Reserve), with the 4th Battalion at Portman Road in Ipswich (since demolished), the 5th Battalion at Gibraltar Barracks in Bury St Edmunds and the 6th (Cyclist) Battalion at Woodbridge Road in Ipswich (since demolished) (all Territorial Force).
↑ War Diary - 7th Battalion Suffolk Regiment, 13 October 1915, reporting on action (machine-gun carnage) on the Hohenzollern Redoubt on October 11th: Officers Killed: Major Currey (Vere Fortrey), ("an unsurpassed linguist", killed commanding ‘B’ Company in the first attack upon the south side of the “Hair-pin”); Captain Cobbold (Charles Augustus), a pre-war director of the brewing magnates Ind, Coope and Co.; Captain Sorley (Charles Hamilton); Lt Gedge (Peter); Lt Wood (Geoffrey Dayrell), (played one 1st class cricket match, Oxford v MCC); 2/Lt Hartopp (Charles William Liddell); 2/Lt Lee (Richard); severely wounded: 2/Lt Smith (Donald Claude) died that day. Officers Wounded: Major Henty (George Herbert), (died 30 Nov. 1917), Lt Davoren (Vesey Alred) (only survivor).
↑ The 8th (Service) Battalion landed in France as part of the 53rd Brigade in the 18th (Eastern) Division in July 1915 also for action on the Western Front.
↑ SergeantArthur Frederick Saunders of the 9th Battalion, was awarded the Victoria Cross while serving with the battalion during the Battle of Loos, the largest British Army offensive of 1915. (London Gazette|issue=29527 |supp=y|pages=3409–3410|date=28 March 1916)
↑ The 12th (Service) Battalion (East Anglian) landed at Le Havre as part of the 121st Brigade in the 40th Division in June 1916 also for action on the Western Front.
Murphy, Lt. Col.C.C.R. The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914 to 1927.
Scarfe, Norman (2006). Assault Division: A History of the 3rd Division from the Invasion of Normandy to the Surrender of Germany. Stroud, Gloucestershire, Spellmount. ISBN1-86227-338-3.
Webb, Lt. Col. E.A.H. (1914). History of the 12th (The Suffolk) Regiment 1685 to 1913.
The 54th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army. The division was raised in 1908 following the creation of the Territorial Force (TF) as the East Anglian Division. During the First World War the division fought at Gallipoli and in the Middle East. The division was disbanded after the war but reformed in the Territorial Army in 1920. During the Second World War it was a home service division and did not see any combat service abroad and was disbanded in late 1943 but many of its component units went to see service in the Normandy Campaign and North-western Europe from June 1944 to May 1945.
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