Country United Kingdom Type Infantry | Branch British Army Size Division | |
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Active August 1908 – March 1919 Part of XVII Corps and later XVIII Corps | ||
The 51st (Highland) Division was an infantry division of the British Army that fought on the Western Front in France during the World War I from 1915 to 1918. The division was raised in 1908, upon the creation of the Territorial Force, as the Highland Division and later 51st (Highland) Division from 1915. The division's insignia was a stylised 'HD' inside a red circle. Early doubts about the division's performance earned it the nickname of "Harper's Duds" after the name of its commander, Major-General George Harper. The division was renamed the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division and fought during the Second World War as part of the Territorial Army after the Territorial Force was disbanded in 1920. The division was nicknamed the "Highway Decorators" in reference to the 'HD' insignia that adorned road signs along their axis of advance.
Contents
- First World War
- First World War battles
- Order of battle
- Second World War
- France 1940
- Reformation
- The Mediterranean and Middle East
- Battle of Normandy
- After Normandy
- Order of battle 19391940
- Order of battle 19401945
- Legacy
- Music
- Dance
- Victoria Cross recipients
- Commanders
- References
A related formation, the 51st (Scottish) Division, was reformed in the Territorial Army after the Second World War. Beckett 2008 says that Territorial Army units that were in suspended animation were formally reactivated on 1 January 1947, though no personnel were assigned until commanding officers and permanent staff had been appointed in March and April 1947. By December 1947, the formation amalgamated with 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division had become 51st/52nd Scottish Division, but, by March 1950, 52nd Division had been recreated as an independent formation. From December 1955, the division was placed on a lower establishment, for home defence purposes only. On 1 May 1961, the division was merged with Highland District to become 51st Highland Division/District.
First World War
The First World War doubts were the result of the way in which the division was initially plundered in late 1914 to early 1915, during a period of great strain on the Regular Army troops of the original British Expeditionary Force (BEF), serving on the Western Front. In August 1914, upon mobilization, the division's infantry element had comprised 12 battalions in 3 regimentally-named brigades: the Seaforth and Cameron Brigade, the Gordon Highlanders Brigade and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Brigade. A crisis on the Western Front in late 1914 saw increasing numbers of individual TF battalions being seconded to Regular Army formations on the Western Front. The first TF formation to be plundered in this way was the 1st London Division.
By early 1915, the Highland Division had lost six of its 12 pre-war Highland infantry battalions to Regular divisions. When TF divisions were finally ordered overseas as complete formations in their own right in early 1915, the Highland Division was only at half-strength and in no shape to be sent abroad at that time. Only by the last-minute addition of two Lowland battalions and the North Lancashire Brigade from the West Lancashire Division was the division, now numbered as the 51st (Highland) Division, considered numerically complete and was rushed to the Western Front in May 1915 to help stem the latest German onslaught during the Second Battle of Ypres. Obviously, the lack of familiarity amongst these newly introduced disparate units hampered division efficiency and the division could only fare moderately in the further actions at Festubert and Givenchy. Lieutenant General Sir Douglas Haig, then commanding the British First Army, and later to command the entire BEF, commented that the 51st was, at the time of Festubert, "practically untrained and very green in all field duties". Moved to the quiet Somme front in the late summer of 1915, the division, now under the command of Major General George Harper, had yet to satisfy the expectations of those expecting the familiar Highland flair– this was the period of Harper's Duds.
The situation was only resolved when, in January 1916, the Lancashire Brigade (by then renumbered the 154th (3rd Highland) Brigade and later became the 164th (North Lancashire) Brigade) left the division and their place was filled by original Highland battalions released by the regular divisions and by battalions of the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) not originally in the division. Given the chance to show their mettle in July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, they assaulted High Wood, which they attacked forcefully in the midst of a murderous field of fire without shelter. Though they failed to take the position, they had shown the fighting spirit expected of Highlanders. The division's reputation grew and they were chosen to capture the notorious fortress village of Beaumont-Hamel in November 1916, towards the end of the Somme offensive. The 51st were "Harper's Duds" no longer, now they were, according to the German nickname, "The Ladies From Hell".
By 1917, the 51st was considered a leading assault division and was handed more and more difficult tasks, throughout the year, from Arras in April/May to the combined tank-infantry assault at Cambrai in November.
By early 1918, the division, as with numerous others in the BEF at the time, was below-strength due to losses in 1917 and the tired survivors were given a quiet part of the front line to hold. Unfortunately, the Germans had by chance chosen that location as one of the focal points for their Kaiserschlacht, the last great German assault on the West in March 1918, intended to win the war before the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) could arrive in great numbers. The neighbouring Portuguese troops bore the brunt of the initial German assault and when they started to retire from their positions and ran across the 51st's positions, they were mistaken for Germans in the poor visual conditions and the 51st opened fire on them, causing casualties. The under-strength 51st was also pushed back, but eventually held as the German offensive ebbed and flowed. The remains of the division survived the Spring battles and received replacements in time for Haig's Allied offensives of August 1918 onward, which saw the war coming to an end on 11 November 1918.
During 1918, members of the division were painted by the war artist Frederick Farrell, in France.
First World War battles
Battles the division participated in the First World War included:
Order of battle
The composition of the 51st Division during World War I was as follows:
The original brigade comprised the following battalions until April 1915 when some of the battalions moved to the 152nd Brigade:
Between 18 April 1915 and January 1916, the brigade was replaced by the Territorial Force battalions of the 164th (North Lancashire) Brigade from the 55th (West Lancashire) Division.
After early 1916, the brigade contained the following battalions:
Artillery
After reorganisation in August 1916:
Engineers
Pioneers
Second World War
The 51st (Highland) Infantry Division was initially commanded by Major-General Victor Fortune and formed part of the British Expeditionary Force in France during the first few months of World War II. With the capture of two of its brigades in France the division effectively ceased to exist. The 9th (Highland) Infantry Division, the 2nd Line duplicate of the 51st, was renumbered as the 51st and subsequently served in the North African Campaign. From there it went to Sicily before returning to France as part of the invasion of Northern Europe.
France 1940
The division was mobilised on 24 August 1939, due to the worsening situation with Nazi Germany. After three years of training under Major-General Fortune's command, the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division departed from Southampton and disembarked at the French port of Le Havre in mid-January 1940. On 28 January it came under command of II Corps of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), under Lieutenant-General Michael Barker, which also included the 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions, both Regular Army formations.
Throughout February and March the 51st Division saw a major reorganisation in its composition, in line with the official policies of the BEF, and some units of the division were replaced by Regular Army formations which was, in theory, intended to strengthen the inexperienced Territorial divisions with experienced Regular units. As an example, the 23rd Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery, a Regular Army unit, arrived, replacing the 76th (Highland) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery which transferred to the 3rd Infantry Division.
On 22 April 1940 the 51st Division was detached from the rest of the BEF to come under command of the French Third Army. The division was stationed in front of the Ouvrage Hackenberg fortress of the Maginot Line and had thus escaped being encircled with the rest of the BEF during the Battle of France where it was forced to retreat to Dunkirk, where it was evacuated. It was then pulled back to a new line roughly along the River Somme, where it was attached to the French Tenth Army. For some time, it was forced to hold a line four times longer than that which would normally be expected of a division. The 51st was attacked very heavily over 5–6 June with the major attack initially falling on the 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders before the other battalions of the 154th Brigade were enveloped. The Argylls' losses were heavy, the worst day for casualties in their history. Being overwhelmed, 154th Brigade was forced to retire to the west. During this period, the 154th Brigade was detached to form "Arkforce" and was able to escape the German drive into central France and Normandy. However, the 152nd and 153rd Brigades were trapped, with the French 9th Corps under Lieutenant General Marcel Ihler, at Saint-Valery-en-Caux, and surrendered on 12 June, along with the division's commander. Major-General Fortune was one of the most senior British officers taken prisoner in World War II. He was knighted by King George VI after the war. From the British point of view, the defeat of the 51st (Highland) Division was the end of the Allied resistance during the battle of France.
More than 10,000 members of the 51st (Highland) Division were taken prisoner at St Valery. They were marched to Germany, via Belgium, following the route over which the Germans had advanced against them. Their destination was Stalag XX-A at Toruń, about 120 miles (190 km) north-west of Warsaw. Some were loaded into canal barges for part of their journey, but all eventually travelled by train in cattle wagons. There were some notable escapes, mostly in the early stages of the march. Of the 290 British Army POW escapers who had returned to Britain by the end of June 1941, 134 were members of the 51st (Highland) Division.
As other camps were brought into operation, a large proportion of the POWs were transferred – most to Stalag XX-B at Malbork and Stalag 344 at Lambinowice, but with small numbers in many other camps. Early in 1945, the Russian Army had advanced close to these camps, so the POWs were involved in the Long March. Those from Stalag XX-A marched around 450 miles (720 km) in the depths of winter to Stalag XIB/357 at Bad Fallingbostel on the Lüneburg Heath, north of Hanover.
On 12 June 2010, veterans of the 51st (Highland) Division attended a commemorative ceremony for the 70th Anniversary of the battle at Saint-Valéry-en-Caux.
In 1942 French General Charles de Gaulle, in a speech, claimed "I can tell you that the comradeship in arms experienced on the battlefield of Abbeville in May and June 1940 between the French armoured division which I had the honour to command and the valiant 51st Highland Division under General Fortune played its part in the decision which I took to continue fighting on the side of the Allies unto the end, no matter what the course of events."
Reformation
In August 1940, the 9th (Highland) Infantry Division, the 2nd Line TA duplicate of the old 51st Division, formed just before the war began, was converted into the new 51st Division, with the 26th and 27th Infantry Brigades redesignated as 152nd and 153rd Infantry Brigade, and the 28th Infantry Brigade being merged with the severely understrength 154th Infantry Brigade.
The new 51st Division's first general officer commanding (GOC) was Major-General Alan Cunningham, who, in October 1940, was sent to the Middle East. He was replaced by Major-General Neil Ritchie. Almost two years of home defence and training duties followed on the south coast of England and north-east coast of Scotland against a potential German invasion, which never arrived. In June 1941 Major-General Ritchie was sent to the Middle East and Major-General Douglas Wimberley, who had served with the original 51st Division in World War I and more recently commanded the 152nd Brigade, assumed command. With the arrival of Wimberley as GOC, strenuous training for future operations overseas began. By June 1942, the 51st Division was ordered to prepare for service overseas.
The Mediterranean and Middle-East
Arriving in North Africa in August 1942, the new 51st (Highland) Division experienced its first fighting at the Second Battle of El Alamein (October–November), sustaining some 2,000 casualties. It then played a major part in Operation Lightfoot, where it was in the centre of the Northern Push, between the 9th Australian Division and the 2nd New Zealand Division. It faced the German 21st Panzer Division and some Italian units. Initially unsuccessful during Lightfoot, the minefields it cleared were key in achieving a breakout during Operation Supercharge.
Subsequently, the 51st Division was involved in many battles of the Tunisian Campaign, including the battle of Wadi Akarit, in early April 1943, and took part in the frontal assault on strongpoints guarded by deep minefields, where it was on the far right of the line. The Commanding Officer (CO) of the 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Lieutenant Colonel Lorne MacLaine Campbell, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his leadership during the battle. The war in North Africa ended on 13 May 1943 with the surrender of almost 250,000 Axis soldiers as prisoners of war (POWs). Throughout the fighting in North Africa the division served under the command of the British Eighth Army, under General Bernard Montgomery.
Later the 51st Division had a rest to absorb replacements for the heavy losses, in both manpower and material, suffered in North Africa and began training in amphibious warfare. In July, the division took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, suffering comparatively light casualties in the short campaign, which lasted for 38 days. Towards the end of the campaign in early August, the division was withdrawn from combat and held in reserve for the Allied invasion of Italy. Although the 51st Division as a whole did not take part in the invasion, some of the division's artillery helped support Operation Baytown, the Eighth Army's crossing of the Strait of Messina in Sicily to the Italian "toe" at Reggio Calabria.
The division was then recalled from the Eighth Army and returned to the United Kingdom, on the wishes of the Army's old commander, General Montgomery, together with the veteran 7th Armoured and 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Divisions, to prepare for the opening of the Second Front in June 1944. Montgomery later commented on the 51st "Of the many fine divisions that served under me in the Second World War, none were finer than the Highland Division. It was the only infantry division in the armies of the British Empire that accompanied me during the whole of the long march from Alamein to Berlin."
When a group of recuperating wounded soldiers of the 51st returned from their North African hospital to rejoin the division in Sicily, they were instead split up and ordered to various units and formations, mainly the British 46th Infantry Division which had suffered heavy casualties during the Salerno landings, totally unrelated to the 51st Division or its component regiments. Some soldiers of the division regarded this as administrative high-handedness and refused to follow these orders, and the result was the Salerno Mutiny. The mutineers were distributed to various units regardless, while ringleaders were sentenced to death (the sentences were later commuted and finally quashed).
Battle of Normandy
Most of the 51st landed in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord on 7 June 1944, a day after D-Day, as part of British I Corps, under Lieutenant-General John Crocker. After spending a brief period supporting the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, it was sent across the River Orne, and spent two months supporting the 6th Airborne Division in its bridgehead. During this period it fought many difficult actions at places such as Breville (11–12 June) and Colombelles (11 July). The 51st (Highland) Division's performance in Normandy was, overall, considered disappointing, particularly by General Montgomery, now the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the Allied land forces in Normandy, who stated in a telegram to Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS, the professional head of the British Army), that the division "had failed every mission it was given". This led to the replacement of its GOC, Major-General Charles Bullen-Smith, with Major-General Tom Rennie, who had served with the division in France, North Africa and Sicily before being elevated to command of the British 3rd Infantry Division for the Normandy invasion.
On 1 August 1944 the division, along with the rest of British I Corps, became part of the newly activated Canadian First Army. The division fought alongside this army in Operation Totalize, before advancing to Lisieux. It then continued east over the River Seine and headed, on General Montgomery's orders for Saint-Valéry-en-Caux, the scene of the division's surrender in June 1940. The division's massed pipes and drums played in the streets of the town, and a parade included veterans of the 1940 campaign in France who were with the 51st Division in 1944. A similar event occurred at Dieppe when it was liberated by the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. Leaving Saint Valéry, the 51st Division was engaged in Operation Astonia, the battle for the French port of Le Havre, in September 1944.
After Normandy
After the successful capture of the town of Le Havre, the division went on to take part in the Battle of the Scheldt in October 1944, finally passing into reserve and garrisoning the Meuse River during the Battle of the Bulge, now as part of XXX Corps, under Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks. It was not involved in heavy fighting during the early stages of the battle and was deployed as a stopgap in case the Germans broke through.
In January 1945, the division, along with the rest of XXX Corps, helped to cut off the northern tip of the German salient, linking up with the U.S. 84th Infantry Division at Nisramont on 14 January. Following this, the division was involved in Operation Veritable, the clearing of the Rhineland. In late March the 51st took part in Operation Plunder, the crossing of the River Rhine, where the GOC, Major General Tom Rennie, was killed by enemy mortar fire. He was replaced by Major General Gordon Holmes Alexander MacMillan, a very highly experienced and competent commander who had previously been the GOC of the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division. The division advanced through Germany and ended the war in the Bremerhaven area of Northern Germany. During the North-West Europe campaign the 51st (Highland) Division had suffered a total of 19,524 battle casualties.
Order of battle 1939–1940
The original 51st Infantry Division was constituted as follows until captured 12 June 1940:
152nd Infantry Brigade (captured 12 June 1940)
153rd Infantry Brigade (captured 12 June 1940)
154th Infantry Brigade (escaped 15 June 1940)
Divisional Troops
Also attached were the following:
Order of battle 1940–1945
The reformed 51st Infantry Division was constituted as follows:
152nd Infantry Brigade (formerly 26th Infantry Brigade)
153rd Infantry Brigade (formerly 27th Infantry Brigade)
154th Infantry Brigade (formerly 28th Infantry Brigade)
Divisional Troops
Legacy
A specific memorial to the division exists at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial site on the Somme, by the sculptor George Henry Paulin. A further memorial in the form of a sculpture by Alan Herroit was unveiled in May 1995 on the North Inch in Perth, Scotland. As well as commemorating 50 years of peace in Europe, the sculpture depicts a Highlander being greeted by a young Dutch girl during the liberation of Holland by the 51st. A twin casting was unveiled in The Netherlands in 1994.
Music
Dance
The dance was published in the first post-World War II edition (Book Thirteen) of "The Scottish Country Dance Book".