7th Cavalry Machine Gun Squadron

A Cavalry Machine Gun Squadron was attached to each Cavalry Brigade. It was formed from the Machine Gun Sections of a Cavalry Regiment.

Brigade attached to: 7th Cavalry Brigade
Division attached to: 3rd Cavalry Division
Formed from the: Machine Gun Section of 1st Life Guards
Machine Gun Section of 2nd Life Guards
Machine Gun Section of 1st Leicestershire Yeomanry

The 7th Cavalry MG Sqdn, MGC was formed on 29 February 1916.

It then broke up on the 14 April 1918 and the men were returned to the Regiments of the Household Cavalry – the 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards, and Royal Horse Guards. It was replaced by the 8th Cav MG Sqdn. on 11 March 1918. The 8th was renumber the 7th on 04 May 1918.

As a unit of the 7th Cavalry Brigade, 3rd Cavalry Division, it will have taken part in the following battles and engagements.

1917
BATTLES OF ARRAS
09 to 12 April First Battle of the Scarpe [Cav. Corps, Third Army].
10 and 11 April Attack of Monchy le Preux.
1918
21 to 27 March and 01 to 05 April BATTLES OF THE SOMME
21 to 23 March Battle of St. Quentin [III. Corps, Fifth Army].
24 and 25 March Actions at the Somme Crossings [XVIII. Corps, Fifth Army].
04 and 05 April Battle of the Avre [XIX. Corps, Fourth Army].
THE ADVANCE TO VICTORY
08 to 11 August Battle of Amiens
BATTLES OF THE HINDENBURG LINE
08 and 09 October Battle of Cambrai [Cav. Corps, Fourth Army].
09 to 12 October The Pursuit to the Selle [Cav. Corps, Third and Fourth Armies].
09 to 11 November THE FINAL ADVANCE IN FLANDERS [Cav. Corps, Second Army].

On the 11th November, the leading troops of the 3rd Cavalry Division had reached the line of the Dendre at Leuze and Lessines. That night the division was withdrawn to the east of the Schelde near Tournai. Instructions were received on the 15th that the 3rd Cavalry Division (moving on the left of the front allotted to the Cavalry Corps) would cover the advance of the Second Army. On the 17th, the division moved forward, on the 21st its headquarters were established at Waterloo, and the 6th Brigade (in which was the 1/Royal Dragoons) marched across the old battlefield. Transport difficulties prevented more than one cavalry division accompanying the Second Army, so the 3rd Cavalry Division remained to pass the winter in Belgium.

Beginning in December, demobilization was gradually carried out. On the 31st March, 1919, the 3rd Cavalry Division ceased to exist, and its place was taken (for administrative purposes) by the 3rd Cavalry Division Cadre Brigade.


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