User:Andrew Gray/20

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20th (Light) Division
ActiveSeptember 1914 - May 1919
CountryUnited Kingdom
BranchBritish Army
TypeInfantry
EngagementsBattle of Loos
Battle of Mont Sorrel
Battle of the Somme (1916)
o Battle of Guillemont
o Battle of Flers-Courcelette
o Battle of Morval
o Battle of Le Transloy
Battle of Messines
Third Battle of Ypres
Battle of Cambrai

The 20th (Light) Division was a First World War formation of the British Army which saw service on the Western Front from 1915 to 1918. It was part of the Second New Army, raised from volunteers recruited during the first months of the War; the title "Light" was derived from the fact that it was composed of battalions from traditional light infantry and rifle regiments.

Formation and home service[edit]

Following the declaration of war with Germany, a flood of new recruits flocked to Army recruiting offices. Many of these joined the Territorial Force, while others were recruited into what came to be known as the New Army, a force raised specifically for overseas service by Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War. "Kitchener's Army" reached its first target of 100,000 men, in six infantry divisions (the 9th to 14th), within a month; on 11 September, six more divisions were authorised, including the 20th. It began mustering that month, with a small staff of regular officers.[1]

As with the first-wave 14th (Light) Division, the 20th was originally composed entirely of battalions from light infantry and rifle regiments, from which it took its title; as a result, it did not have any specific regional affiliation, with battalions drawn from throughout England. It was composed of three four-battalion brigades, plus one attatched battalion of infantry, four artillery brigades, and engineer and support units.[2]

The brigades were the 59th, with the 10th and 11th battalions of the King's Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) and the 10th and 11th battalions of the Rifle Brigade; the 60th, with the 6th Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 6th King's (Shropshire Light Infantry), 12th KRRC and 12th Rifle Brigade; and the 61st, with the 11th Durham Light Infantry (DLI), 7th Prince Albert's (Somerset Light Infantry), 7th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, and 7th King's Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry). The supernumary attatched battalion, the only line unit, was the 12th King's (Liverpool Regiment).[3] In late 1914, a pioneer battalion was attatched to each division; as the 11th DLI was composed primarily of miners, it was given this role, and the 12th King's was transferred to replace it in 61st Brigade.[4]

The first commanding officer of the division was Major-General Edward Hamilton, a recently retired officer who had commanded a brigade in the Boer War.[5] Hamilton was quickly replaced by Major-General Richard Hutton Davies,[6] an army officer from New Zealand who had commanded a regular brigade during the Retreat from Mons and been invalided home due to exhaustion in mid-September.[7] While the division he took command of was well-manned, with a surplus of enthusiastic volunteers, they were untrained, badly equipped, and very much lacking in experienced leadership. It was not until November 1914 that the first uniforms of any kind were issued, and "real" khaki service dress did not reach the men until early 1915. The artillery was short of guns, with those it did recieve being obsolete and missing horse harnesses, and the infantry had to share a small number of rifles to train with. Most battalions had only a few experienced non-commissioned officers, who had returned from the reserves or retirement, to train their recruits.[8]

The division concentrated at Witley in early 1915, where it recieved new guns and uniforms, and by the time it moved to Salisbury Plain in April it was equipped and organised well enough to do so by a four-day road march. It trained on the Plain through the spring and early summer, with an intensive program of field exercises, and the support units were brought up to full strength in preparation for overseas service. After a final inspection by King George V at the end of June, the division was ordered to move to France on 20 July.[9]

Western Front[edit]

The division was attatched to III Corps shortly after its arrival in France, where it would support the regular 8th and 27th Divisions. It was considered, however, that it was not well-prepared for service on the Western Front; the training in England had focused on mobile and open warfare, rather than static trench warfare. Accordingly, the division was held in reserve while the men were retrained, with a focus on the use of grenades, machine-guns, and chemical warfare.[10]

During the first half of August, individual battalions were rotated through the front lines for short periods to gain experience of the trenches. The 59th Brigade then became the first formation to take control of a sector of the line, when it was attatched to 8th Division in order to replace the 19th Brigade. Later in the month, the division moved forward to take over a sector of the front line near Laventie, with the 8th Division on its left flank and the Indian Corps on its right.[11] Through late 1915, this sector would be "one of the quietest on the British front",[12] though there was a constant low level of sniping and shelling by both sides, together with a number of small-scale attacks.[13]

Loos and Winter 1915[edit]

At the Battle of Loos in late September, both the 8th Division, on the 20th Division's left, and the Meerut Division, on its right, were assigned subsidiary operations alongside the main attack on 25 September. The 20th Division was ordered to support the attacks, and hold itself in reserve to exploit any breakthrough. In the event, two battalions of 60th Brigade (the 12th Rifle Brigade and 6th KSLI) were sent forward to support the Indian attack on the right; after taking heavy casualties, they fell back to their starting line in the evening after taking around 400 casualties. Total casualties to the division were 19 officers and 542 men. One of the brigade medical officers, Lieutenant George Allan Maling, was awarded the Victoria Cross for working continually under heavy fire for 26 hours during the attack.[14]

The attack was not resumed, though a number of small operations were carried out over the following weeks to give the impression of imminent activity, including a faked attack on 13 October involving a heavy barrage and several hundred straw duummies.[15] Overall, however, the Laventie sector was "one of the quietest on the British front" through late 1915 and early 1916.[16] On 15/16 December two battalions of the 59th Brigade successfully raided the German lines, killing 39 men in exchange for 5 deaths and eleven wounded. Following this, preparations were made for a gas attack in late December; however, it was continually delayed until early January, and when finally launched an unfavourable wind caused the attack to be abandoned before the men had left their trenches.[17]

After five months in the Laventie sector, the division was relieved by the 8th Division on 9 January 1916 and moved back into III Corps reserve; after two weeks, they were ordered to move north to the Ypres Salient to join the newly formed XIV Corps in Second Army.[18] During their time at Laventie, they had taken around a thousand casualties.[19]

Ypres[edit]

The XIV Corps contained two regular divisions, the Guards and 6th Division, and was assigned to a sector north of the town of Ypres. The 20th Division held the far left position of the British lines, with the 6th Division on its right and the French XXXVI Corps on its left.[20] Conditions at Ypres were terrible by comparison to those at Laventie; the ground was marshy and muddy, meaning that trenches were hard to build at all, and where they existed could not be drained effectively, or built deep enough to provide good protection.[21] A shortage of communications trenches to the rear areas meant that all supplies had to be brought to the front lines exposed to enemy fire; these were overlooked by German posts on Pilckem Ridge, meaning that when damaged they could not be repaired during daylight hours. Heavy shellfire also continually destroyed telephone wires, meaning that signals between the front-line units and the headquarters were frequently interrupted.[22]

The first units moved into the line to take over from 14th (Light) Division on the night of 11 February, during which the Germans attacked heavily; the lead battalion, the 12th Rifle Brigade, lost around 100 men in the fighting and the subsequent counterattacks. A second attack the following day saw more heavy fighting, but the defensive line held, and a second brigade was successfully moved into the trenches.[23] The attacks were resumed on 19 February, when a dozen men from 12th KRRC were taken prisoner and two trenches were captured, with another abandoned as indefensible.[24]

In early March, the division acquired three brigade machine-gun companies, and formed three medium trench mortar batteries (X/20, Y/20, Z/20) in the divisional artillery. It also saw a change of command; Major-General Davies was relieved by Major-General William Douglas Smith.[25]

Formation[edit]

59th Brigade
60th Brigade
61st Brigade
Pioneers
  • 11th (Service) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry (from 61 Bde January 1915)

Battles[edit]

Memorial to the division close to Delville Wood in the Somme


Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Inglefield, pp. 1-3
  2. ^ Inglefield, pp. 2-3
  3. ^ Inglefield, pp. 2-3
  4. ^ Inglefield, p. 3
  5. ^ Hamilton is not mentioned in Inglefield, but is noted in the summary of this reprint edition. He is also noted as commanding the division in an article in the Woking News, 2 October 1914; see transcript here.
  6. ^ Inglefield, p. 3
  7. ^ Bourne, John. ""Lions led by Donkeys": Richard Hutton Davies". Centre for First World War Studies. Archived from the original on 24 January 2007. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  8. ^ Inglefield, pp. 4-5
  9. ^ Inglefield, pp. 5-6
  10. ^ Inglefield, pp. 7-9
  11. ^ Inglefield, pp. 9-10
  12. ^ Inglefield, p. 12
  13. ^ Inglefield, pp. 12-14
  14. ^ Inglefield, pp. 16-22
  15. ^ Inglefield, pp. 25-28
  16. ^ Inglefield, p. 12
  17. ^ Inglefield, pp 30-34
  18. ^ Inglefield, pp 35-36
  19. ^ Inglefield, p. 37
  20. ^ Inglefield, p. 37
  21. ^ Inglefield, pp. 37-38
  22. ^ Inglefield, pp. 37-38; 41-42
  23. ^ Inglefield, pp. 37-40
  24. ^ Inglefield, pp. 42-43
  25. ^ Inglefield, pp 43-44

References[edit]

External links[edit]


20 20 Category:Military units and formations established in 1914 Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1919 Category:1914 establishments in the United Kingdom

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