Category: Projects
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Away from the Western Front : 9th – 16th November 1917
After the 3rd Battle of Gaza After the fighting and an all too brief time to recuperate the Finsbury Rifles were directed to support the Royal Engineers – providing labour for the construction of prisoner of war camps. While this work was often resented by the men of the…
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Away from the Western Front : 6th – 8th November 1917
The Third Battle of Gaza (2) It was no secret that casualties in fighting were highest in the rifle companies of the army . The 54th (East Anglian) Division had had to rebuild itself twice – after the Gallipoli Campaign and more recently after the disasters of the first…
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Away from the Western Front : 31st October – 5th November 1917
The Third Battle of Gaza (1) The 3rd battle for Gaza lasted for over a week. This time the bombardment from the Royal Navy and the Royal Artillery was calculated correctly and began ahead of the actual attack. As the 54th Division moved up along the coastal strip to the west, they came under heavy fire…
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Away from the Western Front : 17th – 30th October 1917.
Training intensified in the lead up to Gaza. In October those skills learned and practised in platoons and companies during the summer, were developed at battalion and brigade level. The message for the soldiers of the EEF whether they were peacetime territorials or wartime conscripts was that bravery and courage alone…
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Away from the Western Front: 30th September – 16th October 1917.
The Allenby Effect After the failures to take Gaza in March-April 1917, it was clear that the Egyptian Expeditionary Force needed a fresh approach and a new command structure. General Sir Archibald Murray was posted back to the UK to be head of the army in Aldershot while General Sir Edmund Allenby took over as…
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Away from the Western Front: 12th – 29th September, 1917.
Reciprocal shelling, night patrols and anti-gas training The Small Box Respirator was the most advanced and successful anti-gas equipment used by the British and Dominion forces during the First World War. Introduced in 1916, it became standard issue during 1917. The respirator consisted of a face mask with glass eye-pieces connected to a metal ‘small box’ filter (containing …
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Away from the Western Front 1st – 11th September 1917
The Indian Army and the EEF Some 1.8 million soldiers from the Indian Army were sent overseas during World War One. 200,000 served in Egypt and Palestine, over 95,000 in combatant roles. The main role of the Indian Army in peacetime had been to defend its North- West Frontier. Its commissioned officers were all British while other…
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Away from the Western Front : 25th August – 31th August, 1917.
Back into the Front Line In order to allow soldiers to cope with the stress of trench life and fighting, British army practice was to rotate divisions between the front and rear lines for rest periods. However, although the troops were away from direct shelling or carrying out trench raids, these ‘rest’ periods often…
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Away from the Western Front : 12th – 24th August, 1917.
Major-General S W Hare and the 54th Divisional Training Camp Major-General Steuart Hare, the regular army officer commanding the 54th Division, believed strongly that Territorial soldiers could reach the same standard as those in the regular army. This was not a widespread view – the pre-war prejudice against the ‘Saturday night soldiers’ or the ‘town…
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Away from the Western Front : 30th July – 11th August, 1917.
Reinforcing the Redoubts and Reinforcing the Battalion By summer 1917, the drafts of men sent out to join the 54th Division were no longer drawn automatically from the training battalions of the Finsbury Rifles and the other battalions in the division. Conscripts rather than volunteers were replacing men who…
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