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The 36th (Ulster) Division in 1914-1918

The history of 36th (Ulster) Division

In September 1914, the Ulster Division was formed from the Ulster Volunteer Force which raised thirteen battalions for the three Irish regiments based in Ulster: the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Fusiliers and the Royal Irish Rifles. A unique situation existed. This summary is from Ray Westlake’s “Kitchener’s Army”:

Divisional symbolsIt took several weeks after war was declared that permission to form an Ulster Division was granted. The Ulster Volunteer Force, a Protestant organisation created by Sir Edward Carson as a force to counter the threat of the Home Rule Bill, was already in existence and its members were as eager as any to join the war. However, due to the political situation in Ireland, things were held up. Many volunteers refused to wait and either crossed to England or Scotland to enlist, or joined the 10th or 16th Divisions already being formed by the War Office in Ireland.

With over 80,000 members, it was clear that the UVF was in a position to make an important contribution to the recruitment of the New Armies. Lord Kitchener met with Sir Edward Carson in London who, although eager to help was concerned at how the situation in Ireland might turn while his force was away at war. The Government were not able to give any guarantees that might put Sir Edward’s mind at rest. However, he later agreed to raise a Division, without any conditions, and within days had placed an order for 10,000 uniforms with a London firm of outfitters.”

The UVF was not only organised, but trained to some extent as a military force, and had been armed. It was therefore considerably more advanced as a formed body of men than the similar formations of the New Armies now being created elsewhere.

These battalions were clothed and administered by their raisers in the same way as the locally raised New Army battalions in Great Britain, although the UVF was at a high state of readiness in August 1914 as a result of heightened tensions in connection with the Home Rule debate that had occurred earlier in the year".

1914
August: Formed in Ireland as the Ulster Division, with Brigades numbered 1,2 and 3. On 28 August 1914, the Division and its Brigades adopted the titles shown on this page.

1915
July: the Division moved to Seaford on the Sussex coast of England. Lord Kitchener inspected the Division there on 27 July 1915, and later remarked to Carson “your Division of Ulstermen is the finest I have yet seen”. Another inspection took place, by King George V, on 30 September
3-6 October: the Division moved to France, although the artillery remained in England until November.

The Ulster Division initially concentrated in the area around Flesselles, some ten miles north of Arras. Gradually, men were sent in groups for familiarisation with trench warfare conditions, and were attached to the regular army 4th Division for the purpose in the (at this time) quiet are north of the River Ancre near Albert.

On 21 October the Division was moved away from the fighting area towards Abbeville, where it spent most of the winter of 1915-16 continuing training. One of the Brigades was attached to 4th Division for several weeks at this time and the artillery finally rejoined.

1916
The whole Division finally took over a complete section of the front line on 7 February, between the River Ancre and the Mailly-Maillet to Serre road. Division HQ was at Acheux. In the first week of March, the Division extended its front, the 109th Brigade taking over the sector south of the Ancre, known by the name of Thiepval Wood.

The Division remained in the Wesrern Friont in France and Flanders throughout the rest of the war and took part in the following engagements

The Battle of Albert* in which the Division attacked at the Schwaben Redoubt near Thiepval.

Somme


The Division was relieved on 2 July, having suffered 5104 casualties of who approximately 2069 died.
* the battle marked * is a phase of the Battles of the Somme 1916

1917
The Battle of Messines, in which the Division captured Wytschaete
The Battle of Langemarck**
** the battles marked ** are phases of the Third Battles of Ypres 1917
The Cambrai Operations, including the capture of Bourlon Wood

1918
The Division was substantially reorganised in February 1918.
The Battle of St Quentin+

St Quentin

The Actions at the Somme Crossings+
The Battle of Rosieres+
+ the battles marked + are phases of the First Battles of the Somme 1918
The Battle of Messines++
The Battle of Bailleul++
The First Battle of Kemmel Ridge++
++ the battles marked ++ are phases of the Battles of the Lys

The Battle of Ypres^
The Battle of Courtrai^
The action of Ooteghem^
^ the battles marked ^ are phases of the Final Advance in Flanders

On 11 November the Division was at Mouscron, north east of Tourcoing. It remained there throughout the period of demobilisation. It ceased to exist on 29 June 1919.

The Great War cost 36th (Ulster) Division 32186 men killed, wounded or missing.

The order of battle of the 36th (Ulster) Division

107th Brigade  
This brigade was attached to 4th Division for instructional purposes between 5 November 1915 and 3 February 1916
8th Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles (East Belfast) renamed as 8/9th from August 1917 and disbanded 7 February 1918
9th Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles (West Belfast) merged into 9th Bn from August 1917
10th Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles (South Belfast) disbanded 20 February 1918
15th Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles (North Belfast)
107th Machine Gun Company joined 18 December 1915, moved to 36th Bn MGC 1 March 1918
107th Trench Mortar Battery joined 1 April 1916
1st Bn, the Royal Irish Fusiliers joined August 1917, left for 108th Bde February 1918
1st Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles joined February 1918
2nd Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles joined February 1918
   
108th Brigade  
11th Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles (South Antrim) renamed as 11/13th from 13 November 1917 and disbanded 18 February 1918
12th Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles (Central Antrim)
13th Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles (County Down) merged into 11th Bn on 13 November 1917
9th Bn, the Royal Irish Fusiliers (County Armagh)
108th Machine Gun Company joined 26 January 1916, moved to 36th Bn MGC 1 March 1918
108th Trench Mortar Battery joined 1 April 1916
7th Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles joined October 1917, merged into 2nd Bn November 1917
2nd Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles joined November 1917, left February 1918
1st Bn, the Royal Irish Fusiliers joined from 107th Bde February 1918
   
109th Brigade  
9th Bn, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (County Tyrone)
10th Bn, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Derry) disbanded January 1918
11th Bn, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Donegal and Fermanagh) disbanded February 1918
14th Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles (Young Citizens) disbanded February 1918
109th Machine Gun Company joined 23 January 1916, moved to 36th Bn MGC 1 March 1918
109th Trench Mortar Battery joined 1 April 1916
1st Bn, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers joined February 1918
2nd Bn, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers joined February 1918
   
12th Brigade  
This brigade was attached from 4th Division in exchange for 107th Brigade between 4 November 1915 and 3 February 1916
   
Divisional Troops  
16th Bn, the Royal Irish Rifles (County Down Pioneers) Divisional Pioneer Battalion
1st Bn, the Royal Irish Fusiliers joined August 1917, left for 107th Bde same month
266th Machine Gun Company joined 17 January 1918, moved to 36th Bn MGC 1 March 1918
36th Battalion MGC formed 1 March 1918
   
Divisional Mounted Troops  
Service Sqn, the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons left June 1916
36th Divisional Cyclist Company, Army Cyclist Corps broken up 31 May 1916
   
Divisional Artillery  
The original artillery of 36th (Ulster) Division, shown below, did not accompany the Division to France in November 1915, but rejoined it there in December. The artillery of the 56th (1st London) Division moved to France with 36th (Ulster) Division and remained under command until 12 December 1915.
CLIII Brigade, RFA  
CLIV (Howitzer) Brigade, RFA broken up late September 1916
CLXXII Brigade, RFA broken up 31 January 1917
CLXXIII Brigade, RFA  
36 Heavy Battery RGA raised with that Division but broken up while still at home
36th Divisional Ammunition Column RFA  
V.36 Heavy Trench Mortar Battery, RFA joined 20 June 1916; disbanded 11 February 1918
X.36, Y.36 and Z.36 Medium Mortar Batteries, RFA formed 1 June 1916; on 11 February 1918, Z broken up and batteries reorganised to have 6 x 6-inch weapons each
   
Royal Engineers  
121st Field Company  
122nd Field Company  
150th Field Company  
36th Divisional Signals Company  
   
Royal Army Medical Corps  
108th Field Ambulance  
109th Field Ambulance  
1110th Field Ambulance  
76th Sanitary Section left April 1917
   
Other Divisional Troops  
36th Divisional Train ASC 251, 252, 253 and 254 Companies.
48th Mobile Veterinary Section AVC  
233rd Divisional Employment Company joined 21 July 1917
35th Divisional Motor Ambulance Workshop disbanded April 1916

.memorial

This page is dedicated to the memory of 36th (Ulster) Division men like

Private 16434 Samuel Neill of the Royal Irish Fusiliers landed in France on 4 October 1915, serving with the original contingent of the 9th (Service) Battalion, which was also known as the Armagh, Monaghan and Cavan Volunteers. A resident of Tamnaghvelton, Tandragee, he was a 1912 signatory of the Ulster Covenant. Samuel was wounded during the war and transferred to the Labour Corps.




The Battle of the Somme started in July 1st 1916. It lasted until November 1916. For many people, the Battle of the Somme was the battle that symbolised the horrors of warfare in World War One; this one battle had a marked effect on overall casualty figures and seemed to epitomise the futility of trench warfare. 

 

For many years those who led the British campaign have received a lot of criticism for the way the Battle of the Somme was fought – especially Douglas Haig. This criticism was based on the appalling casualty figures suffered by the British and the French. By the end of the battle, the British Army had suffered 420,000 casualties including nearly 60,000 on the first day alone. The French lost 200,000 men and the Germans nearly 500,000.

 

Ironically, going over the top at the Somme was the first taste of battle many of these men had, as many were part of "Kitchener’s Volunteer Army" persuaded to volunteer by posters showing Lord Kitchener himself summoning these men to arms to show their patriotism.

 

Why was the battle fought?

 

For a number of months the French had been taking severe losses at Verdun – to the east of Paris. To relieve the French, the Allied High Command decided to attack the Germans to the north of Verdun therefore requiring the Germans to move some of their men away from the Verdun battlefield thus relieving the French. After the war, Sir William Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, explained what this strategy was:

 

Remembering the dissatisfaction by ministers at the end of 1915, because the operations had not come up to their expectations, the General Staff took the precaution to make quite clear beforehand the nature of success which the Somme campaign might yield. The necessity of relieving pressure on the French Army at Verdun remains, and is more urgent than ever. This is, therefore, the first objective to be obtained by the combined British and French offensive. The second objective is to inflict as heavy losses as possible upon the German armies.

 

 

Ironically, the head of the French Army, General Foch, believed that the attack in the Somme would achieve little - this view was shared by some leading British commanders such as General Henry Rawlinson. However, orders from the army's political masters in London and Paris ensured that the battle would take place. 

 

Just how backward military thinking was then is shown by the fact that the British put a regiment of cavalry on standby when the attack started to exploit the hole that would be created by a devastating infantry attack. British military faith was still being placed on cavalry attacks in 1916 when the nature of war in the previous two years would have clearly indicated that cavalry was no longer viable. This shows how conservative military thinking was during this war.

 

The battle at the Somme started with a weeklong artillery bombardment of the German lines. 1,738,000 shells were fired at the Germans. The logic behind this was so that the artillery guns would destroy the German trenches and barbed wire placed in front of the trenches. The use of artillery was heavily supported by Field Marshall Haig:

 

The enemy's position to be attacked was of a very considerable character, situated on high, undulating tract of ground. (They had) deep trenches....bomb proof shelters......wire entanglements forty yards broad often as thick as a man's finger. Defences of this nature could only be attacked with the prospect of success after careful artillery preparation

 

In fact, the Germans had deep dugouts for their men and all they had to do when the bombardment started was to move these men into the relative safety of the deep dugouts. When the bombardment stopped, the Germans would have known that this would have been the signal for an infantry advance. They moved from the safety of their dugouts and manned their machine guns to face the British and French.

 

The British soldiers advanced across a 25-mile front. 

 

By the end of the battle, in November 1916, the British had lost 420,000, the French lost nearly 200,000 men and the Germans 500,000. The Allied forces had advanced along a thirty-mile strip that was seven miles deep at its maximum.

 

Lord Kitchener was a supporter of the theory of attrition - that eventually you would grind down your enemy and they would have to yield. He saw the military success of the battle as all-important. However, it did have dire political and social consequences in Britain. Many spoke of the "lost generation". Many people found it difficult to justify the near 88,000 Allied men lost for every one mile gained in the advance.

 

However, during the battle, media information on the battle was less than accurate. This was written by John Irvine of the "Daily Express" on July 3rd 1916 - though his report would have been scutinised by the British military and government and he could only have used what information the military gave him.

 

"A perceptible slackening of our fire soon after seven was the first indication given to us that our gallant soldiers were about to leap from their trenches and advance against the enemy. Non-combatants, of course, were not permitted to witness this spectacle, but I am informed that the vigour and eagerness of the first assault were worthy of the best tradition of the British Army. We had not to wait long for news, and it was wholly satisfactory and encouraging. The message received at ten o'clock ran something like this: "On a front of twenty miles north and south of the Somme, we and our French allies have advanced and taken the German first line of trenches. We are attacking vigourously Fricourt, la Boiselle and Mametz. German prisoners are surrendering freely, and a good many already fallen into our hands."

 

 

"The Daily Chronicle" published a similar report on the battle on July 3rd:

 

At about 7.30 o'clock this morning a vigourous attack was launched by the British Army. The front extends over some 20 miles north of the Somme. The assault was preceded by a terrific bombardment, lasting about an hour and a half. It is too early to as yet give anything but the barest particulars, as the fighting is developing in intensity, but the British troops have already occupied the German front line. Many prisoners have already fallen into our hands, and as far as can be ascertained our casualties have not been heavy.

 

 

However, those who fought there knew what really happened - if they survived:

 

The next morning (July 2nd) we gunners surveyed the dreadful scene in front of us......it became clear that the Germans always had a commanding view of No Man's Land. (The British) attack had been brutally repulsed. Hundreds of dead were strung out like wreckage washed up to a high water-mark. Quite as many died on the enemy wire as on the ground, like fish caught in the net. They hung there in grotesque postures. Some looked as if they were praying; they had died on their knees and the wire had prevented their fall. Machine gun fire had done its terrible work. 

George Coppard, machine gunner at the Battle of the Somme.

 

In the course of the battle, 51 Victoria Crosses were won by British soldiers. 31 were won by NCO's and 20 by officers. Of these 51 medals, 17 were awarded posthumously - 10 to NCO's and 7 to officers.

remember the fallen

Words of Remembrance

The following was written by Pericles well over two thousand years ago, long before the first ANZAC Day, but only a stone’s throw from Gallipoli:

Each has won a glorious grave - not that sepulchre of earth wherein they lie, but the living tomb of everlasting remembrance wherein their glory is enshrined. For the whole earth is the sepulchre of heroes. Monuments may rise and tablets be set up to them in their own land, but on far-off shores there is an abiding memorial that no pen or chisel has traced; it is graven not on stone or brass, but on the living hearts of humanity.
Take these men for your example. Like them, remember that prosperity can be only for the free, that freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.

Engraved forever at ANZAC Cove (see image below) are these words from Kemal Ataturk, the Commander of the Turkish 19th Division during the Gallipoli Campaign and the first President of the Turkish Republic from 1924-1938:

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives. You are now living in the soil of a friendly country therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

Ataturk Ari Burnu
(Above) The Ataturk Memorial at Ari Burnu on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
(Image from Tom Curran’s book Across the Bar)

 


At the going down of the sun...

I crouched in a shallow trench on that hell of exposed beaches... steeply rising foothills bare of cover... a landscape pockmarked with war’s inevitable litter... piles of stores... equipment... ammunition... and the weird contortions of death sculptured in Australian flesh... I saw the going down of the sun on that first ANZAC Day... the chaotic maelstrom of Australia’s blooding.

I fought in the frozen mud of the Somme... in a blazing destroyer exploding on the North Sea... I fought on the perimeter at Tobruk... crashed in the flaming wreckage of a fighter in New Guinea... lived with the damned in the place cursed with the name Changi.

I was your mate... the kid across the street... the med. student at graduation... the mechanic in the corner garage... the baker who brought you bread... the gardener who cut your lawn... the clerk who sent your phone bill.

I was an Army private... a Naval commander... an Air Force bombardier.  no man knows me... no name marks my tomb, for I am every Australian serviceman... I am the Unknown Soldier.

I died for a cause I held just in the service of my land... that you and yours may say in freedom... I am proud to be an Australian.

This 60 cm x 90 cm framed message, a poignant tribute to the Australian serviceman, hangs in the offices of the Queensland State Headquarters of the RSL.


The Ode

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

The Ode comes from For the Fallen, a poem by the English poet and writer Laurence Binyon and was published in London in The Winnowing Fan: Poems of the Great War in 1914. This verse, which became the Ode for the Returned and Services League, has been used in association with commemoration services in Australia since 1921.


The Ode: is it ‘condemn’ or ‘contemn’?

Every year, after ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs receives many letters asking about The Ode.

The issue raised by most letters is whether the last word of the second line should be ‘condemn’ or ‘contemn’. Contemn means to ‘despise or treat with disregard’, so both words fit the context.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

DVA’s Commemorations Branch has been researching the poem and its background. The lines comprise the fourth stanza of the poem For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon, and were written in the bleak early days of World War 1. By mid-September 1914, less than seven weeks after the outbreak of war, the British Expeditionary Force in France had already suffered severe casualties. During this time, long lists of the dead and wounded appeared in British newspapers. It was against this background that Binyon, then the Assistant Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, wrote For the Fallen. This poem was first published in The Times on 21 September 1914.

The Times shows ‘condemn’. Some people have suggested that the use of ‘condemn’ in The Times was a typographical error. If it were, one would have expected then that the word would be correctly shown in The Winnowing Fan, published only a few months later and for which Binyon would have had galley proofs on which to mark amendments. Binyon was a highly educated man and very precise in his language and use of words. There is no doubt that had he intended ‘contemn’, then it would have been used.

There have been variations in punctuation within the poem across the years and a change in the spelling from ‘stanch’ to ‘staunch’. Dr John Hatcher, who published in 1995 an exhaustive biography of Binyon, does not even refer to any possible doubt over condemn/contemn, despite devoting a solid chapter to For the Fallen.

The British Society of Authors, who are executors of the Binyon estate, says the word is definitely ‘condemn’, while the British Museum, where Binyon worked, says its memorial stone also shows ‘condemn’. Both expressed surprise when told there had been some debate about the matter in Australia. Interestingly, the text used in 1916 by Sir Edward Elgar to set the poem to music has eight stanzas; the eighth being inserted between what now is regarded as the third and fourth stanzas.

The condemn/contemn issue seems to be a distinctly Australian phenomenon. Inquiries with the British, Canadian, and American Legions reveal that none has heard of the debate. Despite an exhaustive search by Commemorations Branch through Binyon’s published anthologies, no copy of the poem using ‘contemn’ was found. The two-volume set Collected Poems, regarded as the definitive version of Binyon’s poems, uses ‘condemn’. Although inquiries are continuing, there now seems little prospect of finding anything to support even a little the ‘contemn’ claim.

In Australia, the Returned and Services League, in its League handbook, shows ‘condemn’, while a representative of the Australian War Memorial said it always uses ‘condemn’ in its ceremonies. So how did the confusion start? No-one knows, but certainly the question has been debated for many years. Surely now it’s time to put the matter to rest.

Information courtesy of Department of Veterans' Affairs

absent friends

Absent Friends

The time has come to say goodnight,for every road must end,
to the ones who care and thier always there, our very special friends,
Lets say goodnight to those we love, and maybe shed a tear,
but before we close lets think of those, we love who cant be here.

Let's raise a glass to absent friends,
For every road must end,
You'll always be there in our hearts,
Our special absent friends.

And when it's time for us to go,
And our long journey ends,
We'll never be alone you see,
We'll be with absent friends.

So, Let's raise a glass to absent friends,
For every road must end,
You'll always be there in our hearts,
Our special absent friends.

So, Let's raise a glass to absent friends,
For every road must end,
You'll always be there in our hearts,
Our special absent friends.

So, Let's raise a glass to absent friends,
For every road must end,
You'll always be there in our hearts,
Our special absent friends.

Our special absent friends.

Our special absent friends.

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