11th (Northern) Division

11th (Northern) Division
Active 21 August 1914 – 28 June 1919
Country  United Kingdom
Branch  British Army
Type Infantry
Size Division
Engagements

World War I

The 11th (Northern) Division, was an infantry division of the British Army during World War I, raised from men volunteering for Lord Kitchener's New Armies. The division fought in the Gallipoli Campaign and on the Western Front. The division's insignia was an ankh or ankhus.

History

The division came into existence on 21 August 1914 under Army Order No. 324, which authorised the formation of the first six new divisions of Kitchener's Army. The division was composed of early wartime volunteers and assembled at Belton Park near Grantham. By late spring 1915, the recruits were judged to be ready for active service, and the division was consequently ordered to reinforce the beleaguered garrison on Gallipoli. It sailed for the Mediterranean in June and July 1915 and formed part of the Suvla Bay landing force on 7 August. The 6th Yorkshire Battalion of the 32nd Brigade was the first Kitchener Army unit to be involved in a major offensive operation of the war. Their action at Lala Baba Hill, on 7 August 1915, during the Suvla Bay landings, was costly, the commanding officer – Lieutenant Colonel E H Chapman – was killed as were all but 3 of the officers but they enter the history books with the hill being renamed York hill for the duration of the Gallipoli Campaign.[1] The Division continued to serve at Gallipoli, suffering high casualties, until the evacuation of Suvla in December 1915. After a period of time in Egypt guarding the Suez Canal, the division was transferred to the Western Front and served there from the Battle of the Somme in 1916 until the end of the war. On 28 June 1919, the division was officially disbanded, having sustained more than 32,100 casualties during the war.[2]

Commanders

Order of Battle

The division comprised the following infantry brigades:

32nd Brigade 
33rd Brigade 
34th Brigade 
Pioneers 

Battles

See also

Footnotes

References

  • Aspinall-Oglander, C. F. (1932). Military Operations Gallipoli: May 1915 to the Evacuation. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. II (IWM & Battery Press 1992 ed.). London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-89839-175-X. 
  • Spring, F. G. (2008). The History of the 6th (Service) Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, 1914–1919. Boston: Poacher Books. ISBN 0-9559914-0-4. 

External links

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