1st Cavalry Division (United Kingdom)
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| 1st Cavalry Division | |
|---|---|
| Active | World War I World War II |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Branch | British Army |
| Type | Cavalry Yeomanry |
| Size | Division |
| Engagements | World War I Battle of Mons Action of Elouges Rearguard Action of Solesmes Battle of Le Cateau Rearguard Affair of Etreux Affair of Nery Rearguard Actions of Villers-Cotterets Battle of the Marne Battle of the Aisne Actions on the Aisne Heights First Battle of Ypres 1915 Second Battle of Ypres 1916 Battle of Flers Courcelette 1917 Battle of Arras Battle of Cambrai 1918 First Battle of the Somme 1918 Battle of Amiens 1918 Second Battle of the Somme 1918 Hindenburg Line 1918 Final Advance in Artois Final Advance in Picardy World War II Iraq Baghdad Syria Lebanon |
The 1st Cavalry Division was a British Army First World War and Second World War during the Second World War it was formed in 1939 from Yeomanry Regiments.
Contents |
[edit] World War I
The 1st Cavalry Division was one of the first Divisions to move to France in 1914 , they would remain on the Western Front throughout the war. It participated in most of the major actions where cavalry were used as a mounted mobile force, they would also be used as dismounted troops and effectively serve as infantry.[1] On November 11, 1918 , orders were received that the Division would lead the advance of Second Army into Germany, by December 6 , having passed through Namur , the Division secured the Rhine bridgehead at Cologne.[2]
[edit] World War One Formation
Commanding General - Major General H. de Lisle.
[edit] 1st Cavalry Brigade
- 2nd Dragoon Guards
- 5th Dragoon Guards
- 11th Hussars
- 1st Signal Troop..[3]
[edit] 2nd Cavalry Brigade
- 4th Dragoon Guards
- 9th Lancers
- 18th Hussars
- 2nd Signal Troop.[4]
[edit] Cavalry Divisional troops
- VII Brigade Royal Horse Artillery.
- 1st Field Squadron Royal Engineers.
- 1st Signal Squadron..[5]
[edit] History in World War Two
The only British cavalry division during the War, this formation was sent in January 1940 to the Middle East as a garrison and occupation force. In May 1941 the 4th Cavalry Brigade, together with a battalion of infantry from The Essex Regiment, a mechanised regiment from the Arab Legion and supporting artillery was reorganised as Habforce for operations in Iraq including the relief of the base at RAF Habbaniya and the occupation of Baghdad. Following this, in July 1941 it was involved in operations against the Vichy French in Syria, advancing from eastern Iraq near the Trans-Jordan border on Palmyra to secure the Haditha - Tripoli oil pipeline.
On 1 August 1941 the division was converted to the 10th Armoured Division.
[edit] Anglo-Iraqi War
The Anglo-Iraqi War was a conflict between the United Kingdom and the nationalist government of Iraq during World War II. The conflict lasted from 18 April to 30 May 1941. The British campaign to subdue Iraq was codenamed Operation Sabine. The conflict is also referred to as the Rashid Ali Rebellion. The campaign resulted in British re-occupation of Iraq and further fuelled nationalist resentment of the British-supported Iraqi monarchy.
[edit] German involvement
The Iraqi Air Force (IAF) was on paper better equipped than the local RAF strength. But by 10 May, bombing by aircraft from Habbaniya disabled the IAF as a fighting force.
However, the German Air Force (Luftwaffe now intervened. At the direction of General Hans Jeschonnek, the Luftwaffe sent Sonderkommando Junck under the command of Oberst Werner Junck to Iraq. Junck's unit flew 15 Heinkel 111s and 14 Messerschmitt 110s into Mosul via Vichy French airbases in Syria, arriving from 10 May to 12 May, then commenced regular aerial attacks on Habbaniya.[6]
On 18 May Kingcol (named after its commander, Brigadier James Joseph Kingstone), the flying column of Major-General John George Walters Clark's relieving Habforce (comprising British 4th Cavalry Brigade, a battalion of The Essex Regiment, the Arab Legion Mechanised Regiment, a field artillery battery and a troop of anti-tank guns), arrived at Habbaniya from the British Mandate of Palestine.
[edit] British counterattack
On 18 May 1941, Colonel Roberts, commanding a force of the Kings Own Royal Regiment, RAF Armoured Cars, RAF Iraq Levies and the Kingcol reinforcements, crossing the river and then other water obstacles created by the flooding using improvised cable-drawn ferries, moved on Fallujah. After nearly a whole day's fighting Fallujah was taken by the evening of 19 May. Kingcol then pressed on to Baghdad.[7] By the time of the Fallujah battle, British aircraft were operating unopposed against the Iraqi army. The British managed this despite the presence of twin engine fighters and medium bombers from the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) and by a squadron of biplane fighters from the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica). The German and Italian aircraft were painted in Iraqi markings (recalling the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War). [8]
[edit] Iraqi collapse
The British forces pressed on to Baghdad, where the government of Rashid Ali collapsed. Rashid Ali and his supporters fled to Persia and then on to Germany. On 31 May 1941, an armistice was signed[9] and the monarchy and a pro-British government was put back in place. British forces remained in Iraq until 1947 and the country remained effectively under British control. The British considered the occupation of Iraq necessary to ensure that access to its strategic oil resources be maintained. Iraq was subsequently used as a base for some of the troops used to attack Syria in the Syria-Lebanon campaign in June and July 1941 and also the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in August to September 1941. Forward defences against a possible German invasion from the north were created in 1942. After 1942, Iraq and Iran were used to transit war material to the Soviet Union.
While Rashid Ali and his supporters were in alliance with the Nazi regime in Germany, the war demonstrated that Iraq's independence was at best conditional on British approval of the government's actions.
Military occupation of Iraq continued for two years after the war was over, finally ending on 26 October 1947.
[edit] Battle of Palmyra
The Battle of Palmyra (1 July 1941) was part of the Allied invasion of Syria during the Syria-Lebanon campaign in World War II. The British mechanized cavalry and an Arab Legion desert patrol broke up a Vichy French mobile column northeast of the city of Palmyra. They captured 4 officers and 60 men provoking the surrender of the Vichy garrison at Palmyra. In 1941 the Vichy French had substantial forces in the region and had allowed their air bases to be used as staging posts by the Germans to send aircraft to take part in the Anglo-Iraqi War. They had also allowed the Germans to use the railway system to send arms and ammunition to Iraq.[10] On June 8, 1941 the Allies had launched two northerly attacks from Palestine and Trans-Jordan into Lebanon and Syria to prevent any further interference to Allied interests in the region. By late June Damascus had been taken and the Allied campaign commander, Henry Maitland Wilson was ready to launch two further thrusts, this time from western Iraq to complete the capture of Syria. An expanded Brigade group called Habforce had during the Anglo-Iraqi war advanced across the desert from Trans-Jordan to relieve the British garrison at RAF Habbaniya on the Euphrates River and had then assisted in the taking of Baghdad. This force was now pulled back to the remote part of Iraq near the Tran-Jordan and Syria borders and tasked with advancing northwest to defeat the Vichy French garrison at Palmyra and secure the oil pipeline from Haditha in Iraq to Tripoli on the Lebanon coast. Habforce was well suited to the task in the desert because of the inclusion in its strength of the battalion-sized Arab Legion Mechanised Regiment made up exclusively of desert-dwelling Bedouin soldiers.
Habforce split into three columns (two to make flanking maneuvers on each side of Palmyra), each one guided by a detachment from The Arab Legion, and set off on June 21. There was a skirmish with pill boxes on the pipeline a few miles east of Palmyra and so the element of surprise was lost. Habforce surrounded Palmyra, sending the Arab Legion troops out on wide-ranging desert patrols to protect Habforce's flanks and lines of communication. On June 28 they captured the French fort of Seba' Biyar (roughly 30 miles south-west of Palmyra), the small garrison surrendering without a shot fired, and the next day they occupied Sukhna, some 15 miles north-east of Palmyra, which was not occupied by French troops.[11]
On the morning of July 1 Sukhna was attacked by the Vichy 2nd Light Desert Company. The Arab Legion occupiers had been reinforced by a squadron from 4th Cavalry Brigade's Household Cavalry Regiment and after a sharp battle, the French retreated before an enthusiastic charge by Arab Legion troopers and ended up trapped in a box valley before surrendering.[11]
Whilst hardly the largest battle of the war, its effect was to cause the 3rd Light Desert Company which was garrisoning Palmyra to lose heart and they surrendered on the night of 2 July. This freed Habforce to move 40 miles west along the pipeline to Homs and threaten the communications of the Vichy forces fighting the Australian 7th Division on the Lebanon coast.[11]
[edit] Invasion of Iran
The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia was the invasion of Persia by British and Commonwealth forces and the Soviet Union, codenamed Operation Countenance, from August 25 to September 17, 1941. The purpose of the invasion was to secure Persian oil fields and ensure supply lines (see Persian Corridor) for the Soviets fighting against Germany on the Eastern Front.
[edit] Invasion
The invasion was rapid and conducted with ease. From the south the British Iraq Command (known as Iraqforce), renamed six days later to Persia and Iraq Command (Paiforce), under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Pellew Quinan, advanced. Paiforce was made up of the 8th and 10th Indian Infantry Divisions, 2nd Indian Armoured Brigade, 4th British Cavalry Brigade (later renamed 9th Armoured Brigade) and the 21st Indian Infantry Brigade. The Soviets came from the north with their 44th, 47th and 53rd Armies of the Transcaucasian Front under General Kozlov. Air force and naval units also participated in the battle. The Persian Army mobilised nine infantry divisions. Reza Shah appealed to American President Franklin Roosevelt under the Atlantic Charter:
[edit] Division Order of Battle
- Support Units
- 104th (Essex Yeomanry) Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery
- 1st Cavalry Division Signal Regiment
[edit] References
- Compton Mackenzie (1951). Eastern Epic. London: Chatto & Windus, 623 pages.
- Rothwell, Steve. Orders of Battle: Arab Legion. Retrieved on 2007-07-10.
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
- 1 Cavalry Division at Orders of Battle.com?
