|
Birmingham Pals
The Birmingham Pals were the three infantry battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment of the British Army raised from men volunteering in the city of Birmingham in September 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin .... They consisted of men volunteering for Kitchener's New Armies and the battalions became, respectively, the 14th, 15th and 16th (Service) battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. A further battalion, 17th, was formed in June 1915 as a reserve battalion, and was reformed in September 1916. Badges The cap badge of the Birmingham Pals was that of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, with an additional scroll beneath the regimental title bearing the additional title 1st, 2nd or 3rd Birmingham Battalion. It is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine infantry. Although disused in modern times, heavy infantry also commonly made up the bulk of many historic armies. Infantry, cavalry, and artillery have traditionally made up the core of the combat arms professions of various armies, with the infantry almost always comprising the largest portion of these forces. Etymology and terminology In English, use of the term ''infantry'' began about the 1570s, describing soldiers who march and fight on foot. The word derives from Middle French ''infanterie'', from older Italian (also Spanish) ''infanteria'' (foot soldiers too inexperienced for cavalry), from Latin '' īnfāns'' (without speech, newborn, foolish), from which English also gets '' infant''. The individual-soldier term ''infantry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
13th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)
The 13th Infantry Brigade was a regular infantry brigade of the British Army that saw active service during both the First and the Second World Wars. First World War The 13th Brigade was temporarily under the command of 28th Division between 23 February and 7 April 1915, when it was replaced by 84th Brigade from that Division and moved to the regular 5th Division. It served on the Western Front for most of the war except for a brief period in Italy. Order or battle Component units included: * 2nd Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers * 2nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) ''(left January 1916)'' * 1st Battalion, Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) * 2nd Battalion, King's Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry) ''(left December 1915)'' * 1/9th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment ''(joined November 1914, left February 1915)'' * 14th (Service) Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment ''(joined December 1915, became Divisional Pioneers October 1918)'' * 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pals Battalions
The Pals battalions of World War I were specially constituted battalions of the British Army comprising men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbours and colleagues, rather than being arbitrarily allocated to battalions. Establishment At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, believed that overwhelming manpower was the key to winning the war, and set about looking for ways to encourage men of all classes to join. This concept stood in direct contrast to centuries of British military tradition, in which the British Army had always relied on professional, rather than conscript, soldiers, and had drawn its members from either the gentry (for officers) or the lower classes (for enlisted men). General Sir Henry Rawlinson suggested that men would be more inclined to enlist in the Army if they knew that they were going to serve alongside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
15th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)
The 15th Infantry Brigade, later 15 (North East) Brigade, was an infantry brigade of the British Army. It was part of the regular 5th Infantry Division during the First World War and Second World War, and was subsequently part of the 2nd Infantry Division in the north of the United Kingdom, with specific responsibility for the areas of North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber. History Formation The 15th Infantry Brigade was first formed in 1905 at Fermoy and up to the outbreak of the First World War continued to serve in Ireland. The Brigade, which at that time consisted of 1st Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, 1st Battalion, Dorset Regiment, 1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment and 2nd Battalion, Highland Light Infantry, was mobilized on 5 August 1914 and crossed to France as part the 5th Division with the British Expeditionary Force. First World War During the opening months of the War, the Brigade had its full share of fighting and saw action at Mons, Le Cateau, at the cros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
14th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)
The 14th Infantry Brigade was a British Army formation during both the First World War and the Second World War. History First World War In 1914 this brigade was part of the 5th Division and moved over to France. On 30 December 1915 the brigade was transferred to the 32nd Division. Order of battle Subordinate units included: *1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment - (''left January 1916 transferred to 95th Brigade'') *2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment - (''left September 1914'') *1st Battalion, East Surrey Regiment - (''left January 1916 transferred to 95th Brigade'') *1st Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry - (''left January 1916 transferred to 95th Brigade'') *2nd Battalion, Manchester Regiment - (''joined December 1915, left February 1918 transferred to 96th Brigade'') * 1st Battalion, Dorset Regiment (''joined 7 January 1916'') *1/5th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment - (''joined February 1915, left November 1915'') *1/9th (Highlanders) Battalion, Royal Scots - (''joine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italian Front (World War I)
The Italian front or Alpine front ( it, Fronte alpino, "Alpine front"; in german: Gebirgskrieg, "Mountain war") involved a series of battles at the border between Austria-Hungary and Italy, fought between 1915 and 1918 in the course of World War I. Following secret promises made by the Allies in the 1915 Treaty of London, Italy entered the war aiming to annex the Austrian Littoral, northern Dalmatia, and the territories of present-day Trentino and South Tyrol. Although Italy had hoped to gain the territories with a surprise offensive, the front soon bogged down into trench warfare, similar to that on the Western Front in France, but at high altitudes and with very cold winters. Fighting along the front displaced much of the local population, and several thousand civilians died from malnutrition and illness in Italian and Austro-Hungarian refugee-camps. The Allied victory at Vittorio Veneto, the disintegration of the Habsburg empire, and the Italian capture of Trento and Tri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
5th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)
The 5th Infantry Division was a regular army infantry division of the British Army. It was established by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington for service in the Peninsular War, as part of the Anglo-Portuguese Army, and was active for most of the period since, including the First World War and the Second World War and was disbanded soon after. The division was reformed in 1995 as an administrative division covering Wales and the English regions of West Midlands, East Midlands and East. Its headquarters were in Shrewsbury. It was disbanded on 1 April 2012. Peninsular War The 5th Division during the Peninsular War under the command of General James Leith was present at most of the major engagements including the Battle of Bussaco, the Battle of Sabugal, the Siege of Almeida, the Battle of Badajoz, the Battle of Salamanca, the Battle of Vitoria, the Siege of San Sebastian, the Battle of Nivelle and the Battle of the Nive. Peninsular War order of battle The order of battl ... [...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] |
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are exclusively infantry, while in others battalions are unit-level organizations. The word battalion came into the English language in the 16th century from the French language ( French: ''bataillon'' meaning "battle squadron"; Italian: ''battaglione'' meaning the same thing; derived from the Vulgar Latin word ''battalia'' meaning "battle" and from the Latin word ''bauttere'' meaning "to beat" or "to strike"). The first use of the word in English was in the 1580s. Description A battalion comprises two or more primary mission companies which are often of a common type (e.g., infantry, tank, or maintenance), although there are exceptions such as combined arms battalions in the U.S. Army. In addition to the primary mission companies, a battal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
95th Brigade (United Kingdom)
The 95th Brigade was an infantry brigade formation of the British Army, created during World War I. It was raised from men volunteering for Lord Kitchener's New Armies and assigned to the 32nd Division. The brigade, initially composed of three service battalions (the 14th, 15th and 16th, the Birmingham Pals) of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and one (the 12th, Bristol's Own) of the Gloucestershire Regiment, was sent to the Western Front in November 1915, where it was to serve for most of the war, and later briefly on the Italian Front in late 1917 before returning to the Western Front in April 1918. In December 1915, the brigade was transferred to the 5th Division, a Regular Army formation, and all three battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were exchanged for three Regular Army battalions, and was to remain with this composition for the rest of the war. Order of battle The 95th Brigade was composed as follows during the war: * 14th (Service) Battalion, Royal Warwick ... [...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] |
