The 42nd

Egypt

The East Lancashire Division was the first TF Division to move overseas.

On outbreak of war, the units of the Division were recalled from summer camp and billeted near to its headquarters. The men were invited to volunteer for foreign service in early August and the Division then moved to camps for training.

The Division was warned on 5 September 1914 that it would be sent to Egypt, and four days later it began to embark at Southampton, the first transports sailing on 10 September. Disembarkation began at Alexandria on 25 September, and with the exception of the Manchester Brigade concentrated around Cairo, where acclimatisation and further training commenced. (The Manchester Brigade remained at Alexandria, sending one Battalion to Khartoum and half a Battalion to Cyprus, to garrison key military installations).

Initially, Britain set out only to defend the Suez Canal from the Turkish troops that were massed in Palestine, and it was for this purpose that the East Lancashire Division was moved to the theatre. Detachments from the Division began to move to the Canal Zone in October 1914.

The first clash occurred on 20 November 1914, when a patrol of the Bikanir Camel Corps met 200 Turk-controlled mounted Bedouin east of Kantara. By mid January, the Turks were ready to advance, having assembled a force of 2 Divisions with another in reserve, plus assorted camel and horse units. This was not big, considering the scale of their ambition to wrest Egypt from British control and score a strategic success by seizing the canal. The force took the central route, taking ten days to cross the Sinai, intending to capture Ismailia and therefore the critical drinking water supplies. British aircraft tracked their progress; on 28 January 1915 observers identified a large column of troops on the centre route. British and French ships entered the canal, and opened fire while infantry manned defensive positions. Patrols clashed on 2 February, but a sandstorm halted any further action until next day.

Various units of the East Lancashire Division were engaged in defending against the Turk attack on 3 February 1915. Once this first threat had subsided, they remained in the Canal Zone, until ordered to reinforce the beleagured garrison on Gallipoli.

Gallipoli

British and French forces landed on the Gallipoli peninsula, and French on the other side of the Dardanelles Straits, on 25 April 1915.

The East Lancashire Division began to embark at Alexandria on 1 May 1915. The first transports left next day, and the last on 6 May. 14,224 men of the Division landed at Cape Helles.

The Division was involved in three notable attempts to break out of the Helles bridgehead to capture the dominating heights around the village of Krithia. These attacks took place on 6-8 May (in which only the Lancashire Fusiliers Brigade of the Division took part), 4 June and 6-13 August. The last of these is known officially as the battle of Krithia Vineyard, which gives some impression of the relatively small areas being contested so violently. It was undertaken not only to try to capture ground but to divert Turk attention from a large British landing further up the coast at Suvla Bay – an enterprise which failed, and ultimately led to the decision to evacuate the hopeless position on Gallipoli.

By mid August the East Lancashire Division, through battle casualties and sickness, was down to little more than one third of its normal establishment. It received reinforcement in the shape of men of the Yeomanry, dismounted.

The Division, along with all other units in the Helles bridgehead, made a successful withdrawal from Gallipoli by 8 January 1916.

Egypt again

After a shot stay on Mudros, while sufficient shipping was made available and the army administration got on top of the flood of units coming to Egypt from Gallipoli, the Division returned to Alexandria.

Further work was undertaken on the Suez Canal defences throughout the spring and summer of 1916. In early August 1916, the Lancashire Fusiliers and Manchester Brigades made a very long march under blazing sun, towards Rumani where a short engagement took place in which the Turkish units were pushed back with heavy loss. The Brigades (of the by now retitled 42nd (East Lancashire) Division) had to wade and struggle through loose sand, and the physical effort was extreme. Many men collapsed.

Rumani was an important victory, because from there the British force pushed a railway and water line across the Sinai desert that would enable an assault with the intention of clearing Palestine. The East Lancs were involved as advance guards as the building moved forward as far as El Arish.

However, a decision had been taken to restructure the force in Palestine, and in consequence the Division was ordered for the first time to the Western Front. All units embarked at Alexandria by the end of February 1917.

France and Flanders

On arrival and after being re-equipped for trench warfare in very different conditions to those the men had become accustomed to, the Division entered the line at Epehy, as part of III Corps in Fourth Army. They remained in this area, soon moving to Havrincourt where they remained until 8 July. These positions faced the formidable German Hindenburg Line in front of Cambrai. Through the rest of July and August, the Division carried out rest and training, in the area of Albert (on the old Somme battlefield of 1916).

September 1917 saw a move north, to join the offensive at Ypres that had opened on 31 July. This is officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres, or more popularly, Passchendaele. Although the battle opened well it had soon become literally bogged down as Flanders endured the worst August weather for many years. September, however, was very warm and dry. During this time the British Second and Fifth Armies made a number of costly but successful ‘bite and hold’ advances. The 42nd Division relieved 15th (Scottish) Division in XIX Corps of Fifth Army on the overcast day of 28 August.

The Lancashire Fusiliers Brigade carried out an unsuccessful attack on 6 September, against strongly held German pillboxes at Iberian, Borry and Beck House Farms. The small amount of ground they captured was in fact given up next day.

The 4th Battalion, the East Lancashires made an attack on a strongpoint called Sans Souci on 15 September.

Later in the month, the Division moved to the Belgian coast at Nieuport. This was now a quiet sector, and it was an opportunity for the Division to reorganise and assimilate many new drafts. The Division remained in this area until November, when relieved by a French Division, and moved to Givenchy, near Bethune.

Givenchy was a notorious spot. Although the front line here had been static since late 1914, it had been constantly fought over, and was in particular a place where underground mine warfare had been undertaken by both sides. The lines were made of the lips of many craters of mines that had been blown in 1915 and 1916. The Division was mostly used in the construction of concrete defence works (which, incidentally, were used to great advantage by the 55th (2nd West Lancashire) Division in stemming the enemy attack here in April 1918.

Thereafter the Division was involved in most of the major actions on the Western Front:

The First Battle of Bapaume (second phase of the First Battles of the Somme 1918)

The First Battle of Arras, 1918 (fourth phase of the First Battles of the Somme 1918)

The Battle of Albert (first phase of the Second Battles of the Somme 1918)

The Battle of Bapaume (second phase of the Second Battles of the Somme 1918)

The Battle of the Canal du Nord (third phase of the Battles of the Hindenburg Line)

The Pursuit to the Selle

The Battle of the Selle

By 16th March 1919, the Division had been largely demobilised and was at cadre strength. It was reformed in the United Kingdom from April 1920.