The 29th Division, known as the ''Incomparable Division'', was an

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 mar ...

division Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, formed in early 1915 by combining various

Regular Army A regular army is the official army of a state or country (the official armed forces), contrasting with irregular forces, such as volunteer irregular militias, private armies, mercenaries, etc. A regular army usually has the following: * a standin ...

units that had been acting as garrisons around the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

. Under the command of

Major-General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Aylmer Hunter-Weston Lieutenant General Sir Aylmer Gould Hunter-Weston (23 September 1864 – 18 March 1940) was a British Army officer who served in World War I at Gallipoli in 1915 and in the very early stages of the Somme Offensive in 1916. He was also a Scottis ...

, the division fought throughout the Gallipoli Campaign, including the original landing at Cape Helles. From 1916 to the end of the war the division fought on the Western Front in Belgium and France. According to the published divisional history (see reference below), 'The total casualties of the 29th Division amounted to something like 94,000. Gallipoli alone accounted for 34,000. This must be, if not a record, among the highest totals in any division … The number of Victoria Crosses won by members of this division was 27 (12 at Gallipoli). This constitutes a record'. A large commemorative Portland stone obelisk, built in 1921 to remember the Division's review by King George V before they were sent to Gallipoli, is located on a roundabout on the A45 just north of

Stretton-on-Dunsmore Stretton-on-Dunsmore is a village and civil parish in the English county of Warwickshire. Its population in the 2001 Census was recorded as 1,143, rising slightly to 1,159 at the 2011 Census. In the 19th century the population was 634. The vill ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

.Nicholson, Jean et al: ''The Obelisks of Warwickshire'', page 58. Brewin Books, 2013 A memorial to the 29th Division is located in

Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial The Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial is a memorial site in France dedicated to the commemoration of Dominion of Newfoundland forces members who were killed during World War I. The preserved battlefield park encompasses the grounds over wh ...

. Lieutenant-General

Beauvoir De Lisle General Sir Henry de Beauvoir De Lisle (27 July 1864 – 16 July 1955), known as Beauvoir De Lisle, was a British Army officer and sportsman. He served in both the Second Boer War and the First World War. Military career Born in Guernsey and edu ...

, wartime commander of the 29th British Division, unveiled the monument the morning of the official opening of the site on 7 June 1925.

Unit history

Gallipoli

The 29th Division served on the Gallipoli peninsula, a point in the strategic

Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

straits between the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

and the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...

(and thus the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

). The division was there for the duration of the ill-fated campaign. It made the first landings as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in April 1915. On the morning of 25 April 1915 the Battle of Gallipoli began when battalions from the division's 86th and 87th Brigades landed at five beaches around Cape Helles at the tip of the peninsula under the command of Major-General

. Three of the landings faced little or no opposition but were not exploited. The two main landings, at V and W Beaches on either side of the cape, met with fierce Turkish resistance and the landing battalions were decimated. The original objectives of the first day of the campaign had been the village of Krithia and the nearby hill of Achi Baba. The first concerted attempt to capture these was made by the division three days after the landings on 28 April. In this First Battle of Krithia an advance up the peninsula was made but the division was halted short of its objective and suffered around 3,000 casualties. The attack was resumed on 6 May with the launch of the Second Battle of Krithia. On this occasion the 88th Brigade attacked along Fig Tree Spur and, after two days of fighting without significant progress, it was relieved by the New Zealand Infantry Brigade. On 24 May Major-General

took over command of the division. On 4 June the 88th Brigade was once more required to make an advance along Fig Tree Spur in the Third Battle of Krithia. In the subsequent counter-attacks, Second Lieutenant G.R.D Moor of the 2nd Hampshires was awarded the Victoria Cross for shooting four of his own men who attempted to retreat. The division finally saw successful fighting at Helles during the Battle of Gully Ravine on 28 June when the 86th Brigade managed to advance along Gully Spur. As a prelude to the launch of the August Offensive, a "diversion" was carried out at Helles on 6 August to prevent the Turks withdrawing troops. In what became known as the

Battle of Krithia Vineyard The Battle of Krithia Vineyard (6–13 August 1915) was fought during the Gallipoli Campaign during the First World War. It was originally intended as a minor British action at Helles on the Gallipoli peninsula to divert attention from the immin ...

, the 88th Brigade made another costly and futile attack along the exposed Krithia Spur. At Suvla, the

Battle of Scimitar Hill The Battle of Scimitar Hill ( Turkish: Yusufçuk Tepe Muharebesi, literally: ''Battle of the Dragonfly Hill'') was the last offensive mounted by the British at Suvla during the Battle of Gallipoli in World War I. It was also the largest single-d ...

on 21 August was the final push of the failed August Offensive. The 29th Division had been moved from Helles to Suvla to participate. The 87th Brigade was briefly able to capture the summit of the hill but was soon forced to retreat. The division was evacuated from Gallipoli on 2 January 1916 and moved to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

before being sent to France in March.

Somme

Passing through the Mediterranean port of Marseilles the 29th Division arrived in the rear of the Somme battle front from 15 to 29 March 1916. From this time the division was put into the British Front in the area north of the Ancre River, near to the German-held village of Beaumont Hamel. For the following three months the battalions in the division spent their time doing tours of trenches and training behind the lines to prepare for the large British offensive against the German position planned for the end of June. Following a 7-day artillery bombardment of the German front and rear areas, the battalions of the 29th Division were in position in their Assembly Trenches in the early hours of Saturday 1 July. At 07:20 hours the huge Hawthorn mine was blown on the left of the division's position. The leading battalions in the attack left the British front line trench at 07:30 hours. The British casualties were severe, with many men never reaching the German front line. The men of the Newfoundland Regiment moved forward at about 09:00 hours to follow on behind the leading battalion in the advance of 88th Brigade. Many of them were shot down trying to clamber overground to cover the few yards from where they were in the rear of the British front line to start their advance down the hill.

Order of Battle

The following units served with the division:

86th Brigade

* 2nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers * 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers * 1st Battalion,

Royal Munster Fusiliers The Royal Munster Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1922. It traced its origins to the East India Company's Bengal European Regiment raised in 1652, which later became the 101st Regiment of Foot (Royal Beng ...

(''left April 1916'') * 1st Battalion,

Royal Dublin Fusiliers The Royal Dublin Fusiliers was an Irish infantry Regiment of the British Army created in 1881, one of eight Irish regiments raised and garrisoned in Ireland, with its home depot in Naas. The Regiment was created by the amalgamation of two Brit ...

(''left October 1917, rejoined April 1918'') * 2/3rd (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (''joined August 1915, left January 1916'') * 16th (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Public Schools) (''joined April 1916, disbanded February 1918'') * 1st Battalion,

Royal Guernsey Light Infantry The Royal Guernsey Light Infantry was an infantry regiment of the British Army that was formed from the Royal Guernsey Militia in 1916 to serve in World War I. They fought as part of the British 29th Division. Of the 2,280 men, most of whom came ...

(''joined October 1917, left April 1918'') * 86th Machine Gun Company (''formed 26 February 1916, moved to 29th Battalion Machine Gun Corps (M.G.C.) on 15 Feb 1918'') * 86th Trench Mortar Battery (''formed 21 April 1916'')

87th Brigade

* 2nd Battalion,

South Wales Borderers The South Wales Borderers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for 280 years. It came into existence in England in 1689, as Sir Edward Dering's Regiment of Foot, and afterwards had a variety of names and headquarters. I ...

* 1st Battalion,

King's Own Scottish Borderers The King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSBs) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Scottish Division. On 28 March 2006 the regiment was amalgamated with the Royal Scots, the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Margaret's O ...

* 1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (''left February 1918'') * 1st Battalion,

Border Regiment The Border Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, which was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot and the 55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot. After service i ...

* 87th Machine Gun Company (''formed 16 February 1916, moved to 29th Battalion M.G.C. on 15 Feb 1918'') * 87th Trench Mortar Battery (''formed 28 April 1916'')

88th Brigade

* 4th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment * 2nd Battalion,

Hampshire Regiment The Hampshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot and the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. The regim ...

* 1st Battalion,

Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

(''left February 1918'') * 1/5th (Queen's Edinburgh Rifles) Battalion,

Royal Scots The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment), once known as the Royal Regiment of Foot, was the oldest and most senior infantry regiment of the line of the British Army, having been raised in 1633 during the reign of Charles I of Scotland. The regime ...

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry ...

(T.F.) (''joined March left July 1915'') * 2/1st (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (T.F.) (''joined August 1915, left January 1916'') * 1st Battalion, Royal Newfoundland Regiment (''joined 20 September 1915, left May 1918'') * 2nd Battalion,

Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) The Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 100th (Prince of Wales's Royal Canadian) Regiment of Foot and the 109th Regiment of Foot ...

(''joined April 1918'') * 88th Machine Gun Company (''formed 21 February 1916, moved to 29th Battalion M.G.C. on 15 Feb 1918'') * 88th Trench Mortar Battery (''formed 16 April 1916'')

Divisional Troops

* 1/2nd (T.F.) Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment (Pioneers) (''joined May 1916'') * 29th Divisional Train Army Service Corps (A.S.C.) ** 246th, 247th, 248th and 249th (T.F.) Companies, A.S.C. (''joined from the 43rd (Wessex) Division, transferred to 53rd (Welsh) Division in March 1916'') ** 225th, 226th, 227th and 228th Companies, A.S.C. (''joined 24 March 1916'') * 18th Mobile Veterinary Section Army Veterinary Corps * 226th Divisional Employment Company (''joined on 25 May 1917'') * Divisional Mounted Troops ** C Sqn, the Surrey Yeomanry (''left 11 May 1916'') ** No. 1 Section, 10th Squadron, Royal Naval Armoured Car Detachment (''attached between 5 May 20 June 1915'')

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

XV Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery XV Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery was a brigade of the Royal Horse Artillery formed during World War I. It served with 29th Division in the Gallipoli Campaign and on the Western Front. It was disbanded after the war. History Duplicate numb ...

** B Battery, RHA ** L Battery, RHA ** Y Battery, RHA (''left for 1st Cavalry Division on 27 November 1916'') ** 369th Battery, RFA (''joined 31 March, left 20 May 1916'' ** 460th ( Howitzer) Battery, R.F.A (''joined 12 September 1916'') ** 1/1st Warwickshire Battery, RHA (T.F.) (''joined 27 November 1916'') ** XV RHA Brigade Ammunition Column * XVIII Brigade Royal Field Artillery (R.F.A.) * CXLVII Brigade R.F.A. (''left January 1917'') * IV Highland (Mountain) Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery (''left July 1915'') * CXXXII Brigade R.F.A. (''joined 2 March 1916 broken up 4 February 1918'') * 29th Divisional Ammunition Column R.F.A. (''remained in Salonika, replaced by 53rd (Welsh) Division's column in France'')

Royal Engineers

* 2nd Lowland Field Company (''left February 1916'') * 510th Field Company (''renamed from 2nd London Field Company'') * 455th Field Company (''renamed from 1st West Riding Field Company'') * 497th Field Company (''joined February 1916, renamed from 3rd Kent Field Company'') * 1st London Divisional Signal Company

Royal Army Medical Corps

* 87th (1st West Lancashire) Field Ambulance * 88th (1st East Anglian) Field Ambulance * 89th (1st Highland) Field Ambulance * 16th Sanitary Section (''left April 1917'')

Battles

* Battle of Gallipoli ** Landing at Cape Helles ** First Battle of Krithia ** Second Battle of Krithia ** Third Battle of Krithia ** Battle of Gully Ravine **

Battle of Sari Bair The Battle of Sari Bair ( tr, Sarı Bayır Harekâtı), also known as the August Offensive (), represented the final attempt made by the British in August 1915 to seize control of the Gallipoli peninsula from the Ottoman Empire during the Firs ...

***

Battle of the Somme (1916) The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place betw ...

* Third Battle of Ypres * Battle of Cambrai

Commanders

* Major-General Frederick Shaw (18 January − 10 March 1915) * Major-General

(10 March – 24 May 1915) * Major-General

Henry de Beauvoir de Lisle General (United Kingdom), General Sir Henry de Beauvoir De Lisle (27 July 1864 – 16 July 1955), known as Beauvoir De Lisle, was a British British Army, Army officer and sportsman. He served in both the Second Boer War and the World War I, First ...

(24 May – 15 August 1915) :*''Temporary'': Major-General William Marshall (15 August – 24 August 1915) * Major-General Henry de Beauvoir de Lisle (24 August 1915 – 12 March 1918) :*''Acting'': Brigadier-General R. M. Johnson (12 March – 19 March 1918) * Major-General Douglas Edward Cayley (19 March – 10 August 1918) :*''Acting'': Brigadier-General H. H. S. Knox (10 August – 25 August 1918) * Major-General Douglas Edward Cayley (25 August 1918 – March 1919)

The Diamond Troupe

The Diamond Troupe was the Concert Party of the 29th Division. The Diamond Troupe was one of a small number of concert parties to achieve considerable notoriety, both on the battlefield and at home. The members of the troupe were: Front row (from left to right): Pte. Eric John Dean, Lt. Col. E. Trevor Wright, Pte. Lawrence Nicol. Middle row: Pte. Hubert Holmes (cellist), Corp. Frank Pollard, L. Cp. Robert James Stannard, Pte. William Threlfall, Pte. Arthur Sykes, Pte. H. Palmer (violinist). Back row: Pte. Neville Giordano, Pte. Jock McKinley, Pte. Alexander Hill, Pte. George Hangle, Pte. J. Morris.

Notes

References

External links

The British Army in the Great War: The 29th Division

Royal Engineers and the Gallipoli Expedition (1915–16) {{DEFAULTSORT:29 Infantry Division Infantry divisions of the British Army in World War I Military units and formations established in 1915 1915 establishments in the United Kingdom Military units and formations disestablished in 1919 1919 disestablishments in the United Kingdom