English Soldiering

Many people don't define war as a nations achievement, so here are some examples of English fighting ability

• 4th Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment as part of the garrison at Kohima 1944 versus the Japanese in their U-go offensive into India. See the link but especially the documentary on the Yesterday channel on tv, of both Japanese and English veterans who were there relate their experiences of this brutal and enduring contest.
• 'Six VCs before breakfast' The 1st Lancashire Fusiliers battalion were awarded six Victoria Crosses when they stormed the beaches of Cape Helles during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 against the Ottoman Turks. It was mined and had extensive barbed wire placings and machine gun fire that was well hidden on the cliffs. The battalion lost over half their men. The battalion was reformed and with reinforcements were able to take the trenches on the cliffs and secure them.
• 'The Glorious Glosters' during the Battle of Imjin River in the Korean war against the Chinese in 1951 , the 1st Gloucestershire battalion made a heroic stand on hill 235 against overwhelming odds for four days. It became known as 'Gloster Hill'. A memorial was erected there with a memorial garden and park and a large Gloucestershire beret and actual life size soldiers. A rope bridge also was erected, known as The Gloucester Heroes Bridge.

👉2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment (proving peacetime troops can still do "real war" - and includes the battalion in India) 

The 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment landed at landed at Le Havre as part of the 14th Brigade in the 5th Division in August 1914.  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.

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.

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 (which means bringing fire from a group of rifle and automatic weapons to bear on specified targets).

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. 

👉English 46th Division [North Midland] Quentin Canal, 1918, during the 'last 100 days' of the first world war:

• The assault across the canal met all of its objectives, on schedule, at a cost of somewhat fewer than 800 casualties to the division. The great success of the day had come where many had least expected it. The 46th Division assault was considered to be one of the outstanding feats of arms of the war.

Bean [War historian Charles Bean] described the attack as an "extraordinarily difficult task" and "a wonderful achievement" in his official Australian war history. Monash [Jewish Australian General] wrote that it was "an astonishing success...[which] materially assisted me in the situation in which I was placed later on the same day" - Wikipedia

👉English 55th Division (West Lancashire)

After a rest and a period of retraining, the division took part in the Battle of Estaires in 1918, where it successfully fought the "First Defence of Givenchy" under the leadership of Major-General Hugh Jeudwine. This was to become the single most famous action that the Division fought.

"It was afterwards publicly stated by an officer of the German General Staff that the stand made by the Division on April 9 and the days which followed marked the final ruination of the supreme German effort of 1918" - Divisional history.

Givenchy was eventually selected as the location of a fine memorial to the Division. By the Armistice on 11 November, the division had reached the Tournai area, having advanced fifty miles in eighty days.

Lieutenant-General Thomas Snow (VII Corps) wrote that he:

 "...cannot allow the 55th Division to leave ... without expressing ... his satisfaction at the way they fought and worked during the recent operations. It is not at present quite clear what happened on the left of the Division, but, from the enquiries made ..., he knows that ... in spite of the heavy losses incurred, [the 30th] was a day which will always reflect credit on the 55th Division."

👉Three excellent battalions chosen to lead D-Day landings in WW II

"the 2nd Devon’s, 1st Hampshire’s and 1st Dorset’s…the three battalions won a reputation second to no other formation in Montgomery’s army. Their record in Sicily and Italy prompted Monty to choose them to lead the British landings on D-Day." - Taken from the book “Roy’s Boys” as part of the 8th Army in Sicily and Italy. You can find the excerpts on The Keep Military Museum online about these local regiments.

👉The 5th East Yorkshires

Nijmegen (part of Operation Market Garden) where they moved into the bridgehead over the Waal and come under command of the Guards Armoured Division.

"We crossed the bridge and took over from the Yanks... When we approached the bridge there were a lot of dead American paras laid out. Here we met the German storm-troopers, you know the death or glory boys... We dug in both sides and held the position for a number of days. Frogmen came up the river to blow the bridge but they were spotted in time and shot on the water. I was sat in a trench having a drink when a plane came over, I said "look the poor buggers on fire!" That was my first sight of a jet fighter." — Sgt Max Hearst, 5th East Yorkshires

 

👉1st Staffordshire Volunteer Battalion 

Sent to Egypt in 1895. From there the 1st Battalion took part in operations in the Second Sudanese War under Lord Kitchener. During the campaign, the 1st Battalion were based initially at Wadi Halfa but moved to Gemai to avoid a cholera outbreak. In September the battalion took part in the action against the Dervish Army at Hafir, which was decisive in ending the campaign. As a result, the North Staffordshire Regiment received the unique "Hafir" battle honour, given to no other British regiment.

👉In 1757 where the English 39th Dorset's played a large part in the victory at Plassey that opened the gateway to India. It was particularly the Dorset grenadiers in the lead.  There was an excellent brief summary of the Dorset's role in the battle from The Keep Military Museum but has since been removed during updating of their site.

• The 39th 'was given the proud motto 'Primus in Indis' (First in India) and the battle honour 'Plassey' for its colours.'

 

👉Rorkes Drift 1879

• Of the 122 soldiers of the 24th Regiment present at the Battle of Rorke's Drift, 49 are known to have been of English nationality, 32 were Welsh, 16 were Irish, 1 was a Scot, and 3 were born overseas. The nationalities of the remaining 21 are unknown.

Source: Norman Holme (1999) The Noble 24th p. 383

👉The English Northumbrian 50th Division was one of two British divisions chosen (the other being the English 3rd Infantry (Wiltshires) to land in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944, where it landed on Gold Beach. Four men of the division were awarded the Victoria Cross during the war, more than any other division of the British Army during the Second World War.

69th Brigade, as part of the 50th, was made up from my home county of Yorkshire regiments; 5th Battalion, East Yorkshire, and 6th & 7th Battalions, Green Howards. 

The 50th division served with distinction in North Africa, the Mediterranean and Middle East from mid-1941 to 1943. And this was the reason they were chosen to go in on D-Day.

Examples of Fighting spirit in 1944:

June 13-15, the division, along with the Panzer Lehr Division, had settled into an equally exhausting stalemate characterized by English attacks and German counterattacks from well prepared defensive positions. 

(The Lehr Division was formed in 1943 from personnel sourced from various groups, including the Wehrmacht. It was intended to serve as a model division, demonstrating the principles of combined arms operations.)

On June 16, the 50th Division advanced against stiff resistance toward Longraye, about halfway to its objective of securing a road to the south. By June 18, the division had finally captured Tilly with the help of the English 2nd Essex of the 56th Brigade. Alongside the English 6th Durham Light Infantry and tanks from the 24th Lancers (armoured cavalry regiment, equipped with American Sherman tanks, including the English Firefly tank, an adapted Sherman with a 17 pounder gun - both part of the British Army and recruited primarily from England), it was preceded by a rolling barrage, which was described as demonstrating “the perfect cooperation of artillery, tanks, and infantry” and "really showcased what could be achieved." 

The 50th Division arrived back in Britain at Liverpool Docks in early November:

“On the way home we was told to remove all our insignia as no one was to know we was coming, the first thing we saw when we entered Liverpool Docks was a big banner proclaiming 'Welcome Home 50th Division'.” - Sgt Max Hearst 5th East Yorkshire Regiment.

👉The 43rd Wessex Division (known as Wessex Wyverns) were nicknamed the "Yellow Devils" by the Germans during World War II (due to their fighting ability and a shoulder patch featuring a yellow emblem of a dragon associated with the ancient Saxon kings of Wessex, which the regiment adopted as "Fighting Yellow Devils.".) And when German prisoners reflected on the 43rd's use of armored tanks, they referred to them as "The English SS Panzer Division."

👉The English 49th Division (West Riding, Yorkshire) had a divisional badge of a polar bear, earning them the nickname "Polar Bears." is because the badge was chosen before they were supposed to be deployed to Norway 1940, yet only some of the division sent there, yet proved themselves, and so retained the badge because it reflected the division's ability to withstand extreme conditions and adversity, much like a polar bear thriving in the harsh Arctic. The Germans referred to them as the "Polar Bear Butchers," was due to their reputation for not taking prisoners of hated German snipers and Waffen-SS troops, executing them in contravention of the Geneva Convention.

On a side note, the commanding officer of the Polar Bears, Evelyn Barker, who had a stint with the division (during which they were sometimes called "Barker's Bears"), stated: "My fortune was to command the Polar Bears, whose achievements were made possible by its great efficiency at all levels, its high morale, and the marvelous teamwork..... It was a splendid fighting machine."