34th Brigade Machine Gun Company

A Machine Gun Company was attached to each Infantry Brigade and their subsequent Division.

Brigade attached to:34th Brigade
Division attached to:11th (Northern) Division
Formed from the Machine Gun Sections of:8th Bn. Northumberland Fusiliers
9th Bn. Northumberland Fusiliers
5th Bn. Dorsetshire Regiment
11th Bn. Manchester Regiment

The 34th Bde. M.G. Coy. was formed in Egypt by 01 March 1916 from the Machine Gun Sections of the listed infantry battalions.

As a unit of the 11th (Northern) Division during this period, it will have taken part in the following battles and engagements.

1916

On the 12th January the Dardanelles Army was broken up, and on the 26th the 11th Division reached Alexandria, and completed concentration at Sidi Bishr by the 8th. On the 9th February the Division was posted to XV Corps, and on the 19th the 11th Division took over A Section, Suez Canal Defences, with divisional headquarters at el Ferdan. Until June the Division remained in the Suez Canal Defences. On the 17th the advanced party left to embark at Alexandria, on the 25th the Division handed over A Section, Suez Canal Defences, to the 42nd Division, and on the 30th the advanced party reached St. Pol. Embarkation at Alexandria was completed on the 3rd July, and on the 7th divisional headquarters arrived at Flers (S.S.W. of St. Pol). The concentration around Flers was completed on the 15th July; and by the 27th July the Division had taken over part of VI Corps front line (in Third Army). During the remainder of the Great War the 11th Division took part in the following operations on the Western Front:

BATTLES OF THE SOMME
14 SeptemberCapture of the Wonder Work (32nd Bde.) [II Corps, Reserve Army].
15 to 22 SeptemberBattle of Flers-Courcelette [II Corps, Reserve Army].
26 to 28 SeptemberBattle of Thiepval Ridge [II Corps, Reserve Army].
1917
11 to 19 JanuaryOperations on the Ancre [IV Corps, Fifth Army].
09 to 14 JuneBattle of Messines [IX Corps, Second Army].
BATTLES OF YPRES
16 to 18 AugustBattle of Langemarck [XVIII Corps, Fifth Army].
19; 22; and 27 AugustFighting around St. Julien [XVIII Corps, Fifth Army].
26 September to 03 OctoberBattle of Polygon Wood [XVIII Corps, Fifth Army].
04 OctoberBattle of Broodseinde [XVIII Corps, Fifth Army].
09 OctoberBattle of Poelcapelle [XVIII Corps, Fifth Army].

On 28 February 1918, it was amalgamated with the 32nd, 33rd, and 250th Machine Gun Companies to form No. 11 Battalion, Machine Gun Corps.


Sources

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