46th (North Midland) Division

For the equivalent formation in World War II, see 46th Infantry Division (United Kingdom).
46th (North Midland) Division
Active 1908 – June 1919
1922–1935
Country  United Kingdom
Branch Territorial Army
Type Infantry
Engagements

World War I

Battle of Loos
Battle of the Somme (1916)
Battle of Albert (1916)

The 46th (North Midland) Division was a 1st Line Territorial Force division of the British Army in World War I. At the outbreak of the war, the 46th Division was commanded by Major General Hon. E.J. Montagu-Stuart-Wortley. Originally called the 'North Midland Division', it was redesignated as the 46th Division in 1915.

Origins

When the Territorial Force was formed in 1908 as a result of the Haldane Reforms, the North Midland Division was created by combining two existing Volunteer Infantry Brigades, the Staffordshire Brigade and the North Midland Brigade. The Staffordshire Brigade was composed of battalions of the South Staffordshire Regiment and the Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment). The North Midland Brigade was split into two, one composed of battalions of the Lincolnshire and Leicestershire Regiments, the other comprising the four TF battalions of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment (later the Sherwood Foresters).[1] Artillery, engineer, medical and other support services for the division either came from the Volunteers of these counties, or were newly raised in the TF.

World War I

The division was sent to France in February 1915 and served on the Western Front for the duration of the First World War. During the Battle of Loos the Division was decimated in an attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 13 October 1915.

It was later involved in the Battle of the Somme (1916), where in the opening phase as part of VII Corps, the southern-most corps of the Third Army, the Division took part in the diversionary attack at Gommecourt on the first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916, which was a catastrophic failure resulting in heavy losses to its numbers, and the event of which dogged the Division afterwards with a poor reputation until 29 September 1918, when it re-established its name at the St. Quentin Canal where, utilising life-belts and collapsible boats, it crossed the formidable obstacle of the canal and used scaling ladders to surmount the steep gradient of the opposite bank and captured multiple fortified hostile machine gun posts covering that point.

Order of battle

Brig-Gen J.V. Campbell on Riqueval Bridge addresses men of 137th Brigade after breaking the German's Hindenburg Line defences on 29 September 1918
137th (Staffordshire) Brigade
138th (Lincoln and Leicester) Brigade
139th (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire) Brigade
Artillery 
Pioneers 

Memorials

Postwar

The Territorial Force was disbanded after the war. It was reformed as the Territorial Army in the 1920s as was the 46th Division. However, the 46th Division was disbanded in 1936, the headquarters being converted into 2nd Anti-Aircraft Division.[2] Most of the 46th Division's units were sent to other divisions, mainly the 49th (West Riding) and the 55th (West Lancashire) infantry divisions. A new 46th (West Riding and North Midland) Infantry Division was formed in October 1939 as a 2nd Line duplicate of 49th (West Riding) Division.[3] A 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division was also raised as a 2nd Line duplicate of the 55th (West Lancashire) Division, and contained many units that served with 46th (North Midland) Division.

Commanders

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Monthly Army List.
  2. ↑ 2 AA Division 1936–38 at British Military History
  3. ↑ Joslen, p. 75.

References

External links

Further reading