4th Battalion, MG Guards

A Machine Gun Battalion was attached to each Infantry Division and was formed of four MG Companies.

Division attached to: Guards Division
Formed from the: 1st Guards Brigade Machine Gun Company
2nd Guards Brigade Machine Gun Company
3rd Guards Brigade Machine Gun Company
4th Guards Machine Gun Company

The 4th Bn, MG Guards was formed on the 01 March 1918. On 10 May 1918, by authority of Royal Warrant, the Guards Machine Gun Regiment was formed and the designation of the 4th Bn became the 4th Bn, Guards MG Regt.

As a unit of the Guards Division, it will have taken part in the following battles and engagements.

1918
FIRST BATTLES OF THE SOMME
21 to 23 March Battle of St. Quentin [VI. Corps, Third Army].
24 and 25 March First Battle of Bapaume [VI. Corps, Third Army].
28 March First Battle of Arras [VI. Corps, Third Army].
THE ADVANCE TO VICTORY
SECOND BATTLES OF THE SOMME
21 to 23 August Battle of Albert [VI. Corps, Third Army].
SECOND BATTLES OF ARRAS
26 to 30 August Battle of the Scarpe [VI. Corps, Third Army].
02 and 03 September Battle of the Drocourt-Queant Line [VI. Corps, Third Army].
BATTLES OF THE HINDERBURG LINE
12 September Battle of Havrincourt [VI. Corps, Third Army].
27 September Battle of the Canal du Nord [VI. Corps, Third Army].
08 and 09 October Battle of Cambrai [VI. Corps, Third Army].
09 to 12 October Pursuit to the Selle [VI. Corps, Third Army]
THE FINAL ADVANCE IN PICARDY
17 to 22 October Battle of the Selle [VI. Corps, Third Army].
04 November Battle of the Sambre [VI. Corps, Third Army].
09 November Occupation of Mauberge.
On the 11th November the Guards Division was in and around Mauberge. On the 17th November, the 4th Guards Brigade rejoined the Division. Ordered to the Rhine, the Guards Division began its march on the 18th November, and crossed the frontier into Germany on the 11th December. On the 14th December the 2nd Guards Brigade was sent on by train to Cologne and detrained there on the same day. Divisional H.Q. opened at Cologne on the 18th December, and the remainder of the Guards Division reached its final area on the 19th. Battalions began to return to England on the 20th February, 1919, and the moves of the last units of the division were completed by the 19th April, 1919.

This unit was disbanded on 30 April 1920, with personnel being transferred to various Guards Battalions.


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