Up_the_Line_July_2012.pdf - The Western Front Association

TONIGHT’S TALK -
16th (Irish) Division
The British army’s 16th (Irish) Division was raised September 11, 1914, part
of the second wave of Field Marshal Kitchener’s volunteer “New Army”
divisions designed to augment Britain’s six professional divisions which
Kaiser Wilhelm II had described as a “Contemptible Little Army.”
Formed in southern Ireland under the command of Lieutenant-General
Sir Lawrence Parsons, himself an Irish Protestant, the division was the
embodiment of Nationalist and Catholic Ireland. Indeed, Parsons received
orders to clear the division’s 47th Brigade of its earlier recruits in order
to receive men from the paramilitary National Volunteers who were
encouraged to join this “Irish Brigade” by Nationalist MP John Redmond*.
The Flag 1914. Redmond presents a colour to the Volunteers.
In December 1915, the division moved to France, joining the British
Expeditionary Force (BEF), under the command of Irish Major General
William Hickie, and spent the duration of the First World War in action
on the Western Front. Following enormous losses at the Somme,
Passchendaele and Ypres, the Division required a substantial refit in
England between June and August 1918, which involved the introduction
of many non-Irish battalions. The division served as a formation of the
United Kingdom’s British Army during World War I.
History
The Division began forming as part of the K2 Army Group towards the
end of 1914 after Irish recruits in the early days of the war from England
and Belfast first filled the ranks of the 10th (Irish) Division before being
assigned to the 16th Division, formed around a core of National Volunteers.
Initial training began in Ireland at Fermoy, Munster; recruits also trained at
Buttevant. It moved to Aldershot
in England for more intensive
training in September 1915. After
thirteen weeks, the formation was
deployed to Etaples in France,
joining the BEF, from where it left
on December 18 for that part of the
front in the Loos salient, under the
command of Irish Major General
William Hickie. It spent the rest of
the war on the Western Front.
At Loos, in January and February
1916, the division was introducted
to trench warfare and suffered
greatly in the Battle of Hulluch, 27–
29 April, (during the Easter Rising in
Ireland). Personnel raided German
trenches all through May and June,
and in late July they were moved to
the Somme Valley where they were
intensively engaged in the Battle
of the Somme. The 16th division
played an important part in
capturing the towns of Guillemont
and Ginchy, although they suffered
massive casualties. During these
successful actions between 1
and 10 September casualties
Guillemont and Ginchy Memorial amounted to 224 officers and 4,090
men; despite these very heavy losses the division gained a reputation as
first-class shock troops. Out of a total of 10,845 men, it had lost 3,491 on
the Loos sector between January and the end of May 1916, including
heavy casualties from bombardment and a gas attack at Hulluch in April
Blletting of this order was fatal to the division’s character, for it had to be
made good by drafts from England.
In early 1917, the division took a major part in the Battle of Messines
alongside the 36th (Ulster) Division, adding to both their recognition and
reputation. Their major actions ended in the summer of 1917 at the Battle
of Passchendaele after coming under the command of General Hubert
Gough and the Fifth Army. In July 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres,
although both divisions were totally exhausted after 13 days of moving
weighty equipment under heavy shelling, Gough ordered the battalions
to advance through deep mud towards well fortified German positions
left untouched by totally inadequate artillery preparation. By mid August,
the 16th had suffered over 4,200 casualties, the 36th almost 3,600, or more
than 50% of their numbers. General Haig was very critical of Gough for
“playing the Irish card”.
The 16th Division held an exposed position from early 1918 at Ronssoy
where they suffered more heavy losses during the German Spring
Offensive in March and being practicaally wiped out in the retreat which
followed Operation Michael, when they helped to finally halt the German
attack prior to the Battle of Hamel. The decision was then made to break
up the division, the three surviving Service battalions were posted
to other formations. On 14 June the division returned to England for
“reconstitution”. The Conscription Crisis of 1918 in Ireland meant that fewer
Irish recruits could be raised so that the 16th Division which returned to
France on 27 July contained five English Battalions, two Scottish Battalions
and one Welsh Battalion. The only original Battalion left was the 5th Royal
Irish Fusiliers.
The dispersion of the Irish battalions throughout the BEF in 1918,
despite its practical considerations, appears to suggest that the Irish units
were increasingly distrusted by the military authorities.
Wikipedia
J E Redmond, Irish Parliamentary
leader, H of C 1900 to 1918
Copy, Word docs, pictures, jpegs, cuttings etc. by 31st August please to the Editor,
Terry Jackson, 4 Scaliot Close, New Mills, SK22 3BX.
Tel: 01663 740987
Email: jackson.terence1@sky.com
Chairman: Terry Jackson MA BA (Hons) MRICS
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*John Edward Redmond (1
September 1856 – 6 March 1918)
was an Irish nationalist politician,
barrister, MP in the House of
Commons of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland and
leader of the Irish Parliamentary
Party from 1900 to 1918. He was
a moderate, constitutional and
conciliatory politician who attained
the twin dominant objectives
of his political life, party unity
and finally in September 1914
achieving Irish Home Rule under
an Act which granted an interim
form of self-government to Ireland.
Unfortunately for Redmond,
implementation of the Act was
suspended by the intervention of
World War I, and ultimately made
untenable after the Conscription
Crisis of 1918.
1914-1918
REMEMBERING
Coalition Warfare by John Derry
Disaster at Hooge 1915 (Flamethrower Attack)
by Sean Godfrey
Futureshock: Stories from the devastated zone
by Rob Thompson
Somme Success by Mike Stedman
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