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Battle Of The Sambre (1918)
The Second Battle of the Sambre (4 November 1918) (which included the Second Battle of Guise (french: 2ème Bataille de Guise) and the Battle of Thiérache (french: Bataille de Thiérache) was part of the final European Allied offensives of World War I. Background At the front, German resistance was falling away. Unprecedented numbers of prisoners were taken in the Battle of the Selle, and a new attack was quickly prepared. The French First Army and the British First, Third, and Fourth Armies were tasked with advancing from south of the Condé Canal along a front toward Maubeuge-Mons, threatening Namur. Together with the American forces breaking out of the forests of Argonne, this would, if successful, disrupt the German efforts to reform a shortened defensive line along the Meuse. At dawn on 4 November, 17 British divisions (including the 3rd and 4th Canadian Divisions of the Canadian Corps assigned to the British First Army) and 11 French divisions headed the attack. The T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Front (World War I)
The Western Front was one of the main theatres of war during the First World War. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The German advance was halted with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France, which changed little except during early 1917 and in 1918. Between 1915 and 1917 there were several offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. Entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties during attacks and counter-attacks and no significant advances were made. Among the most costly of these offensives were the Battle of Verdun, in 1916, with a combined 700,000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forest Of Argonne
The Forest of Argonne () is a long strip of mountainous and wild woodland in northeastern France, approximately east of Paris. The forest measures roughly long and wide filled with many small hills and deep valleys formed by water run-off from the Aire and Aisne rivers rarely exceeding more than in elevation. Following the First World War, the landscape of the forest was forever changed as trench warfare lead to parts of the forest being riddled with deep man-made trenches along with craters from explosives. The forest is bordered by the Meuse River on the west and rolling farmland and creeks to the east. The forest is largely oak, chestnut, and pine trees, and ferns cover much of the forest floor. Common animal life consists of wild boar, red deer, roe deer, hares, rabbits, foxes, and wildcat. History In 1792, Charles François Dumouriez outmaneuvered the invading forces of the Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, Duke of Brunswick in the forest before the Battle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously awarded by countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, most of which have established their own honours systems and no longer recommend British honours. It may be awarded to a person of any military rank in any service and to civilians under military command. No civilian has received the award since 1879. Since the first awards were presented by Queen Victoria in 1857, two-thirds of all awards have been personally presented by the British monarch. The investitures are usually held at Buckingham Palace. The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War. Since then, the medal has been awarded 1,358 times to 1,355 individual recipients. Only 15 medals, of which 11 to members of the Britis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dudley Graham Johnson
Major-General Dudley Graham Johnson, (13 February 1884 – 21 December 1975) was a British Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Military career Johnson served with the Wiltshire Regiment in the Second Boer War. He transferred to the South Wales Borderers upon graduating from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1903. He was 34 years old, and an acting lieutenant-colonel in the South Wales Borderers, British Army, commanding the 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment during the First World War when the following deed took place at the Sambre Canal, France for which he was awarded the VC. Between the wars he attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1923 to 1924 and held a number of instruction and staff posts before being appointed commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment in 1928. He commanded the 12th (Secunderbad) Inf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon and stood in contrast to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are "Dulce et Decorum est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", " Futility", " Spring Offensive" and " Strange Meeting". Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918, a week before the war's end, at the age of 25. Early life Owen was born on 18 March 1893 at Plas Wilmot, a house in Weston Lane, near Oswestry in Shropshire. He was the eldest of Thomas and (Harriett) Susan Owen (''née'' Shaw)'s four children; his siblings were Mary Millard, (William) Harold, and C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
32nd Division (United Kingdom)
The 32nd 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, made up of infantry 'Pals battalions' and artillery brigades 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. It saw action at the Battle of the Somme, the Pursuit to the Hindenburg Line, the Defence of Nieuport, the German spring offensive, and the Allied Hundred Days Offensive beginning at the Battle of Amiens. After the Armistice it marched into Germany as part of the Army of Occupation. Formation history The Division was one of those created for Kitchener's Fifth New Army ('K5') on 10 December 1914 and was originally numbered 38th until the six K4 divisions were converted into reserve units. It landed in France in Novem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of The British 1st Division During The World Wars
The 1st Division was an infantry division of the British Army that was formed and disestablished numerous times between 1809 and the present. It was raised by Lieutenant-General Arthur Wellesley for service in the Peninsular War (part of the Coalition Wars of the Napoleonic Wars). It was disestablished in 1814 but re-formed the following year for service in the War of the Seventh Coalition and fought at the Battle of Waterloo. It remained active in France until 1818, when it was disbanded. It was subsequently raised for service in the Crimean War, the Anglo-Zulu War, and the Second Boer War. In 1902, it was re-raised in the UK. This latter event saw the division raised as a permanent formation, rather than being formed on an ad hoc basis for any particular crisis. In 1914, the First World War broke out and the division fought on the Western Front throughout the entire period. In 1919, it was used to form the Western Division as part of the British Army of the Rhine occupation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IX Corps (United Kingdom)
IX Corps was a corps-sized formation of the British Army that existed during the World War I, First and the World War II, Second World Wars. First World War The IX Corps was originally formed in England in 1915 in readiness to make a new landing at Suvla during the Battle of Gallipoli. Headquarters was formed at the Tower of LondonBecke, pp. 185–91. Command of the corps was given to Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stopford. His handling of the corps during the Battle of Sari Bair, August Offensive warranted his replacement after only 9 days with Lieutenant-General Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, Julian Byng. During the Gallipoli campaign the corps comprised the following divisions: * 10th (Irish) Division * 11th (Northern) Division * 13th (Western) Division * 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division, 53rd (Welsh) Division * 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division, 54th (East Anglian) Division * 2nd Mounted Division * IX Corps Signals was provided by London District Signals, Roya ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
XIII Corps (United Kingdom)
XIII Corps was a corps-sized formation of the British Army that fought on the Western Front during the First World War and was reformed for service during the Second World War, serving in the Mediterranean and Middle East throughout its service. First World War XIII Corps was formed in France on 15 November 1915 under Lieutenant-General Walter Congreve to be part of Fourth Army. It was first seriously engaged during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. On the first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916, the corps held the southern flank of the British line. The corps objective was the village of Montauban. The two assault divisions — the 18th (Eastern) and 30th Division, both New Army formations — seized all their objectives. Second World War On 1 January 1941, while the Western Desert Force was fighting the Italian Tenth Army during Operation Compass, it was redesignated "XIII Corps". It then included British 7th Armoured Division, Australian 6th Infantry Division and 4th Indi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Expeditionary Force (World War I)
The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the six-divisions the British Army sent to the Western Front during the First World War. Planning for a British Expeditionary Force began with the 1906–1912 Haldane reforms of the British Army carried out by the Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following the Second Boer War (1899–1902). The term ''British Expeditionary Force'' is often used to refer only to the forces present in France prior to the end of the First Battle of Ypres on 22 November 1914. By the end of 1914—after the battles of Mons, Le Cateau, the Aisne and Ypres—the existent BEF had been almost exhausted, although it helped stop the German advance.Chandler (2003), p. 211 An alternative endpoint of the BEF was 26 December 1914, when it was divided into the First and Second Armies (a Third, Fourth and Fifth being created later in the war). "British Expeditionary Force" remained the official name of the British armies in France and Flanders thro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Tank Regiment
The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as the Tank Corps and the Royal Tank Corps, it is part of the Royal Armoured Corps. History First World War The formation of the Royal Tank Regiment followed the invention of the tank. Tanks were first used at the Battle of Flers–Courcelette in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme in the First World War. They were at first considered artillery, and crews received artillery pay. At that time the six tank companies were grouped as the Heavy Section of the Machine Gun Corps (MGC). In November 1916 the eight companies then in existence were each expanded to form battalions (still identified by the letters A to H) and designated the Heavy Branch MGC; another seven battalions, I to O, were formed by January 1918, when all the battalions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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