VI Corps | |
---|---|
![]() VI Corps formation badge. | |
Active | First World War 1940 |
Country | ![]() |
Branch | ![]() |
Type | Field corps |
Engagements | First World War: [1] |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Sir John Keir Sir Aylmer Haldane |
VI Corps was an army corps of the British Army in the First World War. It was first organised in June 1915 and fought throughout on the Western Front. It was briefly reformed during the Second World War to command forces based in Northern Ireland, but was reorganized as British Forces in Ireland (subsequently British Forces in Northern Ireland) one month later.
In 1876 a Mobilisation Scheme for the forces in Great Britain and Ireland, including eight army corps of the 'Active Army', was published. The '6th Corps' was headquartered at Chester, composed primarily of militia, and in 1880 comprised:
This scheme had been dropped by 1881. [2] The 1901 Army Estimates (introduced by St John Brodrick when Secretary of State for War) allowed for six army corps based on the six regional commands: 'Sixth Army Corps' was to be formed by Scottish Command with headquarters in Edinburgh. It was to comprise 3 regiments of Imperial Yeomanry, 26 artillery batteries (17 Regular, 6 Militia and 3 Volunteer) and 25 infantry battalions (2 Regular, 13 Militia and 10 Volunteers). Under Army Order No 38 of 1907 the corps titles disappeared. [3] [ citation needed ]
VI Corps was organised within Sir Herbert Plumer's Second Army of the British Expeditionary Force on 1 June 1915. It was placed under the command of Lt-Gen Sir John Lindesay Keir, promoted from command of 6th Division. Initially it comprised 4th Division from V Corps and 6th Division from III Corps, and it took over the left of the British line at Ypres. [4] [5]
VI Corps cooperated with the attack by its neighbour V Corps on Bellewaarde Ridge on 16 June 1915 with rifle and artillery fire, and in July and August 1915 it was engaged in trench fighting round Hooge Chateau. [6] The corps was first seriously engaged in the Second Battle of Bellewaarde, a subsidiary attack to assist First Army's attack at Loos on 18 September 1915. [1] [7]
Before dawn on 19 December 1915 VI Corps was the victim of the first German attack with phosgene gas. It had the 6th Division and 49th Division holding the line and 14th (Light) Division in reserve. The attack was made by the German XXVI Reserve Corps between the Roulers and Staden railways, NW of Ypres. The attack was designed to test new weapons (the gas released was an 80:20 mixture of chlorine and phosgene) and to inflict casualties. There was some shelling, but apart from sending out infantry and air patrols to gauge the effectiveness of the gas cloud, the Germans made no attempt to advance. VI Corps' anti-gas measures were reasonably effective, and a pre-arranged counter-barrage of shrapnel shells discouraged the enemy patrols. The British reserves stood to, but were not required. A total of 1069 gas casualties (120 fatal) were suffered, three-quarters by 49th Division. [8]
In early 1916 the expanding BEF was reorganised, and VI Corps became part of Sir Edmund Allenby's Third Army in the Arras sector, with which it remained until the Armistice. [9]
'Order of Battle of VI Corps March 1916 [9]
General Officer Commanding: Lieutenant-General Sir John Keir
Later in the year, VI Corps was taken over by Lt-Gen J.A.L. (later Sir Aylmer) Haldane, promoted from command of 3rd Division, who remained in command until the end of the war. [10]
In the Spring of 1917 VI Corps took part in Third Army's Arras Offensive. During the phase known as the First Battle of the Scarpe (9–14 April), 37th Division of VI Corps captured Monchy-le-Preux. During the Second Battle of the Scarpe (23–24 April), 15th (Scottish) Division captured Guemappe. [11]
Order of Battle of VI Corps April 1917 [11]
GOC: Lt-Gen Aylmer Haldane
For the Battle of Arleux (28–29 April) VI Corps only had 3rd and 12th (Eastern) Divisions in the line, but 56th (1/1st London) Division was added for the Third Battle of the Scarpe (3–4 May). 3rd and 12th Eastern) Divisions took Roeux (13–14 May), which brought it up to the Drocourt-Queant Switch Line (part of the Hindenburg Line defences) and completed VI Corps' participation in the offensive. [11]
VI Corps fought in the Battle of St Quentin (21–23 March), and the First Battle of Bapaume (24–25 March), the opening phases of the German 1918 Spring Offensive (Operation Michael), otherwise known as the 'First Battles of the Somme 1918'. [12]
Order of Battle of VI Corps March 1918 [12]
GOC: Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer Haldane
By the end of the month, VI Corps was back where it had been a year earlier, fighting a new Battle of Arras on 28 March. For this action Haldane had 2nd Canadian Division and 97th Brigade of 32nd Division under command, as well as Guards, 3rd and 31st Divisions. 32nd Division took part in the Battle of the Ancre on 5 April. [12]
During the Second Battles of the Somme in August 1918, VI Corps attacked at Albert (21–23 August). [13]
Order of Battle of VI Corps August 1918 [13]
GOC: Lt-Gen Aylmer Haldane
For the Second Battle of Bapaume (31 August – 3 September) and the subsequent Allied attacks during September 1918, VI Corps had Guards, 2nd, 3rd, and 62nd (2nd West Riding) Divisions under command. [13] [14] During the Final Advance in Picardy, VI Corps fought in the Battle of the Selle (17–25 October) and the Battle of the Sambre (4 November). [14] [15]
German resistance was now crumbling, and the Allied advance had become a pursuit. During the night of 8/9 November, the reserve of Guards Division, 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards, was pushed ahead through a black night with its machine guns on pack mules to seize the citadel of the old French frontier fortress of Maubeuge, which the Germans had captured after a siege in 1914. The main German defence line was now seven miles away. By 11 November when the Armistice came into effect, the 62nd and Guards Divisions were the advance guard of Third Army, but were doing no more than pushing forward infantry outposts and cyclist patrols against the dissolving German forces. [16] VI Corps was among Allied troops that advanced into the Rhineland after the Armistice. [17]
In June 1940, following the Allied defeat in the Second World War's Battle of France, the British Army proceeded to reorganise their forces throughout the UK. In mid-June VI Corps was formed to command all British troops based in Northern Ireland. On 12 July, the corps ceased to exist, and its headquarters was used to form British Troops in Ireland (by the end of the year, the command had been renamed British Troops in Northern Ireland or BTNI). This command supplemented the existing Northern Ireland District, which was made responsible for local defence while BTNI would launch counterattacks against any German invasion of the territory or would spearhead an advance into the Republic of Ireland if the Germans invaded. [18]
Commanders have been:
In July 1918, the sculptor John Tweed, who had failed to gain employment as an official war artist, was commissioned by General Jan Smuts to travel to France and prepare designs for a proposed South African War Memorial. Tweed knew Haldane, who had raised the money for Tweed's sculpture of Lt-Gen Sir John Moore at Shorncliffe, and Haldane offered the sculptor facilities with VI Corps HQ. Tweed spent the last five months of the war as a civilian member of the corps staff, and accompanied the troops into the Rhineland. Although one of Tweed's studies entitled Attack was exhibited, the ambitious architectural monument that he designed for South Africa was never executed. [22]
I Corps was an army corps in existence as an active formation in the British Army for most of the 80 years from its creation in the First World War until the end of the Cold War, longer than any other corps. It had a short-lived precursor during the Waterloo Campaign.
VIII Corps was a British Army corps formation that existed during the First and Second World Wars. In the latter, it took part in the Normandy Campaign in 1944, where it was involved in Operation Epsom and Operation Goodwood. It would later play a supporting role in Operation Market Garden and finish the war by advancing from the Rhine to the Baltic Sea.
IV Corps was a corps-sized formation of the British Army, formed in both the First World War and the Second World War. During the First World War the corps served on the Western Front throughout its existence. During the Second World War it served in Norway and Britain until it was transferred to India, which was threatened with attack after Japan entered the war.
The II Corps was an army corps of the British Army formed in both the First World War and the Second World War. There had also been a short-lived II Corps during the Waterloo Campaign.
III Corps was an army corps of the British Army formed in both the First World War and the Second World War.
The 31st Division was an infantry division of the British Army. It was raised in the Great War by volunteers from Kitchener's Army and formed in April 1915 as part of the K4 Army Group and taken over by the War Office on 10 August 1915. Comprising mainly infantry battalions from Yorkshire and Lancashire, the division was sent to Egypt in December 1915 before moving to France in March 1916 and spent the remainder of the First World War in action on the Western Front. The 31st Division was the quintessential New Army division, being made up entirely of Pals battalions.
VII Corps was an army corps of the British Army active in the First and Second World Wars. In the early part of the Second World War it was part of the defence forces of the United Kingdom, and later acted as a shadow formation for deception purposes.
The King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in the Childers Reforms of 1881, but with antecedents dating back to 1755. It served in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. In 1968, the four regiments of the Light Infantry Brigade amalgamated to form The Light Infantry, with the 1st KSLI being redesignated as the 3rd Battalion of the new regiment.
Field Marshal Sir Cyril John Deverell was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), the professional head of the British Army, from 1936 to 1937. Prior to his becoming CIGS, he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War and the First World War, during which he commanded at battalion, brigade and division level, and later advised the British government on the importance of maintaining the capability to mount an Expeditionary Force for operations on mainland Europe in the years leading up to the Second World War.
V Corps was an army corps of the British Army that saw service in both the First and the Second World Wars. It was first organised in February 1915 and fought through the First World War on the Western front. It was recreated in June 1940, during the Second World War and was substantially reorganised in 1942 for participation in Operation Torch. It fought through the Tunisia Campaign and later the Italian Campaign.
The Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars (QOOH) was a Yeomanry Cavalry regiment of the British Army's auxiliary forces, formed in 1798. It saw service in the Second Boer War with 40 and 59 Companies of the Imperial Yeomanry and was the first Yeomanry regiment to serve in Belgium and France during the Great War. After almost four years of Trench warfare on the Western Front, where cavalry had been superfluous, the QOOH led the advance during the Allies' victorious Hundred Days Offensive in 1918. In 1922, the QOOHt became part of the Royal Artillery and during World War II it served as anti-tank gunners at Singapore and in North West Europe. After a series of postwar mergers and changes of role, the regiment's lineage is maintained by 142 Vehicle Squadron, Royal Logistic Corps.
The South Irish Horse was a Special Reserve cavalry regiment of the British Army. Formed as an Imperial Yeomanry regiment in 1902 as the South of Ireland Imperial Yeomanry, it perpetuated a unit formed during the Second Boer War. It transferred to the Special Reserve (Cavalry) in 1908 and was renamed as the South Irish Horse. Having taken part in the fighting of World War I, it was disbanded after Irish Independence in 1922.
The 2nd Cavalry Division was a division of the regular British Army that saw service in the Peninsular War and in World War I, when it also known as Gough's Command, after its commanding general. It was part of the British Expeditionary Force that served in France in from 1914 to 1918. It was involved in most of the major actions where cavalry were used as a mounted mobile force, and also many where the troops were dismounted and effectively served as infantry.
Operation Michael was a major German military offensive during the First World War that began the German Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. It was launched from the Hindenburg Line, in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, France. Its goal was to break through the Allied (Entente) lines and advance in a north-westerly direction to seize the Channel Ports, which supplied the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and to drive the BEF into the sea. Two days later General Erich Ludendorff, the chief of the German General Staff, adjusted his plan and pushed for an offensive due west, along the whole of the British front north of the River Somme. This was designed to first separate the French and British Armies before continuing with the original concept of pushing the BEF into the sea. The offensive ended at Villers-Bretonneux, to the east of the Allied communications centre at Amiens, where the Allies managed to halt the German advance; the German Army had suffered many casualties and was unable to maintain supplies to the advancing troops.
The East Riding Royal Garrison Artillery (ERRGA) was a part-time unit of Britain's Royal Artillery based at Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It provided coastal defence artillery along the Humber Estuary from 1908 to 1956, manned siege batteries on the Western Front during World War I at the Somme and Ypres and played a role in the pursuit of the German army during the Hundred Days Offensive. It served as infantry in Allied-occupied Germany after World War II. Its successor units in the Territorial Army included anti-aircraft artillery and field engineers.
The North Scottish Royal Garrison Artillery and its successors were Scottish part-time coast defence units of the British Army from 1908 to 1961. Although the unit saw no active service, it supplied trained gunners to siege batteries engaged on the Western Front during World War I.
The 1st Dorsetshire Artillery Volunteers and its successors were part-time coast defence units of the British Army from 1859 to 1956. Although these units saw no action, they protected the Dorset Coast, including the naval base of Portland Harbour, in both World Wars and also supplied trained gunners to siege batteries engaged on the Western Front during World War I. The unit continued in the Territorial Army after World War II.
The 2nd Royal Lancashire Militia (The Duke of Lancaster's Own Rifles) was an auxiliary regiment raised in the county of Lancashire in North West England during the French Revolutionary War. It later became part of the King's (Liverpool Regiment). Although primarily intended for home defence, its battalions served in Ireland and saw active service during the Second Boer War. After conversion to the Special Reserve (SR) under the Haldane Reforms one of its battalions was among just a handful of SR units to see combat during World War I, fighting in many actions on the Western Front from early 1915 until the Armistice in 1918. After a shadowy postwar existence the unit was finally disbanded in 1953.
The Royal London Militia was an auxiliary regiment organised in the City of London during the French Revolutionary War from the former London Trained Bands. It later became part of the Royal Fusiliers. After conversion to the Special Reserve (SR) under the Haldane Reforms it was one of just a handful of SR units to see combat during World War I, fighting in many actions on the Western Front from 1916 until the Armistice in 1918. After a shadowy postwar existence the unit was finally disbanded in 1953.
The Sussex Royal Garrison Artillery and its successors were part-time coast defence units of the British Army from 1910 to 1932. Although the unit saw no active service, it supplied trained gunners to siege batteries engaged on the Western Front during World War I.