The 28th Infantry Brigade was a British Army formation which served during the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, The

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

and Indonesian Confrontation.

History

28th Brigade

First World War

The 28th Brigade was part of 9th (Scottish) Division during the early stages of the First World War, from civilians volunteering for Lord Kitchener's

New Armies The New Armies (Traditional Chinese: 新軍, Simplified Chinese: 新军; Pinyin: Xīnjūn, Manchu: ''Ice cooha''), more fully called the Newly Created Army ( ''Xinjian Lujun''Also translated as "Newly Established Army" ()), was the modernised a ...

. It was initially composed of the 6th (Service) Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers, 9th (Service) Battalion,

Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) was a rifle regiment of the British Army, the only regiment of rifles amongst the Scottish regiments of infantry. It was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 26th Cameronian Reg ...

, and the 10th and 11th (Service) battalions of the Highland Light Infantry. The brigade trained, with the rest of the division, from August 1914 until May 1915 and arrived on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

and were to remain there until being disbanded in May 1916, being replaced in the division by

1st South African Brigade The South African 1st Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the army of the Union of South Africa during World Wars I and II. During World War I, the Brigade served as a British formation in Egypt and on the Western Front, most famou ...

. The brigade was, however, briefly reformed in September 1918, during the

Hundred Days Offensive The Hundred Days Offensive (8 August to 11 November 1918) was a series of massive Allies of World War I, Allied offensives that ended the First World War. Beginning with the Battle of Amiens (1918), Battle of Amiens (8–12 August) on the Wester ...

in the final stages of the war. The 28th Brigade was composed as follows during the war: * 6th (Service) Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers ''(left 6 May 1916)'' * 9th (Service) Battalion,

* 10th (Service) Battalion, Highland Light Infantry * 11th (Service) Battalion, Highland Light Infantry * 28th Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps ''(formed 3 January 1916)'' Upon being reformed in September 1918: * 2nd Battalion,

Royal Scots Fusiliers The Royal Scots Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1678 until 1959 when it was amalgamated with the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Mar ...

* 1st Battalion, Royal Newfoundland Regiment * 9th (Service) Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) * 28th Trench Mortar Battery

Second World War

Reformed in the Territorial Army in September 1939, the brigade was a 2nd Line Territorial Army formation and a duplicate of the 154 Infantry Brigade. Initially the 28th Brigade belonged to the 9th (Highland) Infantry Division from its creation in 1939 until August 1940. After the destruction of the

51st (Highland) Infantry Division The 51st (Highland) Division was an infantry division of the British Army that fought on the Western Front in France during the First World War from 1915 to 1918. The division was raised in 1908, upon the creation of the Territorial Force, as ...

during the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

in May–June 1940, the 9th Division was redesignated the 51st (Highland) Division and the 28th Brigade HQ was absorbed by the HQ 154th Infantry Brigade.Joslen The 28th Brigade came into being again when the

2nd Gibraltar Brigade The 2nd Gibraltar Brigade was a British Army garrison brigade during the Second World War. History After serving as part of the Garrison of Gibraltar from 24 April 1941 to 1 December 1943, it was redesignated as the 28th Infantry Brigade and as ...

was redesignated as the 28th Brigade at

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

on 1 December 1943. The brigade was initially composed entirely of Regular Army battalions, the 2nd King's and 2nd Somersets had been in Gibraltar many years before the war. It served with the 4th Infantry Division in the Italian Campaign and later were involved in the Civil War in Greece, remaining there for the rest of the war. The 28th Infantry Brigade was constituted as follows during the war: * 7th Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) * 10th Battalion,

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

* 11th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders From December 1943 the 28th Infantry Brigade was constituted as follows: * 2nd Battalion, King's Regiment (Liverpool) * 2nd Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry * 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders ''(from 5 December 1944)'' * 2/4th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment ''(from 24 March 1944)''

Post War

Mid 1949 Order of Battle * 1st Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers * 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment * 1st Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry

28 Commonwealth Brigade

The Brigade arrived in Hong Kong from the United Kingdom in 1949, to join the 40th Infantry Division. It arrived in April 1951 in Korea, took the title '28th Commonwealth Brigade' and joined the

1st Commonwealth Division The 1st Commonwealth Division was the military unit that commanded Commonwealth land forces in the Korean War. The division was a part of the multinational British Commonwealth Forces Korea, with infantry units of the British Army, Canadian Arm ...

, and served right through the Korean War, until leaving in 1954. It comprised two British and two Australian infantry battalions and

16th Field Regiment, Royal New Zealand Artillery 16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and . In English speech, ...

28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade Group

The Brigade was reformed on 16 September 1955 in

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

, formed from a combination of forces from Australia, New Zealand and Britain.28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade Provost Unit - Malaya, Borneo, and Singapore
accessed June 2008 The formation was now air-portable and named the

28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade Group The 28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade Group was a Commonwealth formation of the Far East Strategic Reserve, based in Malaysia from 1955 to 1971 of which elements participated in the Malayan Emergency, Indonesia Confrontation and the Vietnam Wa ...

. Its main elements were three infantry battalions from Australia, Britain and New Zealand and a British field artillery regiment with an Australian battery. The Brigade's operational role was as the 'Immediate Reaction Force' for the South East Asia Treaty Organisation. Originally stationed at Taiping, it was then stationed in a new purpose built camp at Terandak, near Malacca in Malaysia. On 31 October 1971 the Brigade ceased to exist. However, its demise was painless and involved a mere change of name and location.

28 ANZUK Infantry Brigade

On 1 November 1971 the Brigade became '28 ANZUK Infantry Brigade' and was located on the northern side of Singapore Island. The brigade consisted of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, 6 Royal Australian Regiment and 1 RNZIR together with supporting Artillery, Signals, Engineer and Logistic units. HQ ANZUK Force HQ was located in the old RN Naval based at what was

HMS Terror Nine ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Terror'': * was a 4-gun bomb vessel launched in 1696, and captured and burnt by the French in 1704. * was a 14-gun bomb vessel launched in 1741 and sold in 1754. * was an 8-gun bomb ketc ...

. After a short period as 28 (UK) Infantry Brigade was disbanded in 1974.

28 (UK) Infantry Brigade

After the demise of ANZUK Force in 1974, the remaining British units in Singapore regrouped as 28 (UK) Infantry Brigade, and with the withdrawal of the final British forces from Singapore, was finally disbanded in 1976.

Notes

References

External links

Order of Battle
{{DEFAULTSORT:28 Infantry Brigade Infantry brigades of the British Army in World War I Infantry brigades of the British Army in World War II Military units and formations of Scotland