34th Division (United Kingdom)

34th Division
Formation patch of the 34th Division.
ActiveApril 1915 – 1919
Country United Kingdom
Branch British Army
TypeInfantry
SizeDivision
EngagementsFirst World War

The 34th Division was an infantry division of the British Army that was raised in 1914, during the First World War. The division was raised from volunteers for Lord Kitchener's New Armies, originally made up of infantry battalions raised by public subscription or private patronage. The division was taken over by the War Office in September 1915. It served in France and Belgium in the trenches of the Western Front for the duration of the war.

Unit history

Troops of the 1st/5th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, crossing the River Lys at Halluin in captured German pontoons, 18 October 1918.

The 34th Division was one of the six created for the Fourth New Army on 10 December 1914. The division was originally made up of Pals battalions, and two brigades of the Northumberland Fusiliers; the Tyneside Scottish and Tyneside Irish. Major-General Edward Ingouville-Williams, an experienced commander who had led an infantry brigade in action with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the early months of the war, took command of the division in June 1915.

The division landed in France in January 1916.

Members of the 34th Battalion, MGC, 1918.

The division's first major action was the attack at La Boisselle on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, which began on 1 July. The division suffered heavy casualties and many of the original Pals became casualties.

The division, now under Major General Lothian Nicholson after Ingouville-Williams was killed on the Somme, went on to suffer further losses at the Battle of the Lys in April 1918. It participated in the Second Battle of the Marne.

Immediately after arrival in France, in the first half of June 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces' 78th Division (less its artillery) detrained at Marquise and moves to the Lumbres Training Area where it was affiliated with the 34th Division.

Order of Battle

The following units served with the division:

101st Brigade

After reorganisation in July 1918:

102nd (Tyneside Scottish) Brigade

After reorganisation in July 1918:

103rd (Tyneside Irish) Brigade

After reorganisation in July 1918:

On the First day on the Somme, the division had the largest number of casualties of the British divisions, the 102nd Brigade had 2,324 casualties and the 103rd Brigade incurred 1,968 losses. From 6 July – 22 August, the brigades were swapped with the 111th and 112th brigades of the 37th Division, which was holding the line on a quiet sector at Vimy Ridge.

Divisional Troops

Thirteen other infantry battalions joined the Division for short periods during its reorganisation in mid 1918, all had left by July 1918)

Royal Artillery

The Divisional artillery was placed under temporary command of 5th Division while the infantry was being reorganised in mid 1918.

Royal Engineers

Royal Army Medical Corps

Commanders

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Chappell 1986, pp. 28, 46.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "34th Division". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  3. ↑ "Major-General Edward Charles Ingouville-Williams, C.B., D.S.O." Worcester Regiment. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  4. ↑ "Tyneside Irish Brigade". St Mary's Cathedral. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  5. ↑ "The Role of the 34th British Division in the Battle of the Marne". Deuxième Bataille de la Marne (mai-août 1918). Retrieved 17 January 2025.
  6. ↑ CMH 1988, p. 311.
  7. ↑ Shakespear 1921, p. 52.

References