Country United Kingdom Type Infantry Size Division | Branch British Army Role Heavy infantry | |
 | ||
Active August 1915 – 29 April 1919
12 June 1945 – December 1946 | ||
The Guards Division was an infantry division of the British Army that was formed in the Great War in France in 1915 from battalions of the elite Guards regiments from the Regular Army. The division served on the Western Front for the duration of the First World War. The division's insignia was the "All Seeing Eye".
Contents
There was also a Guards Division in the Second World War which was formed on 12 June 1945 from the Guards Armoured Division which had undergone reorganisation.
Formation
In July 1915, during the First World War (1914–1918), His Majesty approve the formation of a Guards Division and in August 1915 the division was formed at Lumbres, near St Omer, France.
The 4th (Guards) Brigade was transferred complete from the 2nd Division and redesignated as the 1st Guards Brigade; the 2nd Guards Brigade was formed with two battalions from England and two more transferred from 1st (Guards) Brigade, 1st Division; and the 3rd Guards Brigade likewise with two more battalions from England and two transferred from 20th Brigade, of the 7th Division. Soon after formation, each brigade formed a machine gun (M.G.) company of 16 machine guns, and between March and May 1916 each brigade was also provided with a Trench Mortar (T.M.) Battery of eight 3" Stokes Mortars.
The division was provided with three artillery brigades – LXXIV, LXXV and LXXVI Brigades, RFA each of four batteries of four 18 pounder guns – from the 16th (Irish) Division and a howitzer brigade – LXI (Howitzer) Brigade, RFA of four batteries of four 4.5" howitzers – from the 11th (Northern) Division which remained in England when the division was posted to Gallipoli. 16th (Irish) Division also provided the Divisional Ammunition Column, two field companies of Royal Engineers and the signal company (Royal Engineer Signals Service). The third field company joined from 7th Division. The pioneers were the 4th Battalion, Coldstream Guards which joined from England on 18 August.
War service
In 1915, the Guards Division took part in the Battle of Loos (26 September – 8 October) and Hohenzollern Redoubt (18 – 19 October). In 1916, it fought in the later stages of the Battle of the Somme, in particular the Battle of Flers–Courcelette (15 – 16 and 20 – 22 September), the Battle of Morval (25 – 28 September), and the Capture of Lesboeufs (25 September). In 1917, it saw action in the Battle of Passchendaele (or the Third Battle of Ypres) including the Battle of Pilckem Ridge (31 August – 2 July), the Battle of Poelcappelle (9 October), and the First Battle of Passchendaele (12 October). It then took part in the Battle of Cambrai (24 November – 3 December).
In February 1918, British divisions on the Western Front were reduced from a 12-battalion to a 9-battalion basis (brigades from four to three battalions). As a result, the 4th Guards Brigade was formed on 8 February 1918 by taking a battalion from each of the brigades:
The 4th Guards Brigade was transferred to the 31st Division at noon on the same day. On 25 February, the pioneer battalion – 4th Battalion, Coldstream Guards – was reorganized from a four-company to a three-company basis.
1918 saw the return of the war of movement. It had to withstand the German Army's Spring Offensive in the First Battles of the Somme (1 – 25 March) then switched over to counter-attack in the Second Battles of the Somme (21 – 23 August), the Second Battle of Arras (26 August – 3 September), the Battles of the Hindenburg Line (12 September – 12 October), and in the Final Advance in Picardy including the battles of the Selle and of the Sambre. Its final action was the Capture of Maubeuge on 9 November. It ended the war with VI Corps in the British Third Army.
Post-war
At the Armistice of 11 November 1918, the division was in and around Maubeuge, and on 17 November it regained 4th Guards Brigade which was broken up and the battalions returned to their original brigades. The next day it began the march on Germany and crossed the frontier on 11 December. By 19 December it had reached the Cologne area. Units started returning to England on 20 February 1919 and the last had completed the move by 29 April.
Second World War
The Guards Division was reformed during the Second World War (1939–1945) on 12 June 1945 by the reorganization and redesignation of the Guards Armoured Division. The division retained all of its original units, but with some changes:
Major-General Sir Allan Adair remained in command of the reorganized division. The division was broken up in December 1946.
Notable members
2nd Lieutenant Jack Kipling, son of the famous author Rudyard Kipling, served with the Guards Division in France as a platoon commander in the 2nd Battalion, Irish Guards. He was aged just 18, his birthday being only a month before, and was killed in the 1915 Battle of Loos, yet exactly how he died still remains a mystery even nearly 100 years later.
Commanders
The division had the following General Officers Commanding (GOCs):