Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire) Regiment

Throughout the remainder of the War the 8th Division served on the Western Front in France and Belgium, and was engaged in the following operations:-

On the 22nd August when the G.O.C. reached Grantham he found that only the A.-A.&Q.-M.-G. of the division had arrived. On the 27th the first batch of 1,000 infantry (with a small proportion of regular officers and non-commissioned-officers, from depot staffs) reached Grantham. Other parties followed and by the 21st September the strength of the infantry had risen to 13,000. At first the infantry of the 11th Division consisted entirely of north country battalions; later on, however, when the 6/East Yorkshire became the pioneer battalion its place was taken by a Wessex battalion – 5/Dorsetshire.

At first there was the usual shortage of clothing, equipment, and arms, leading to some discomfort and to considerable delay in training for war. Nevertheless, on the 18th October Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener visited Grantham and inspected the infantry in Belton Park. Until the following April the Division remained scattered: infantry at Grantham, artillery at Leeds, Sheffield, Norwich, and Weedon; engineers at Newark; field ambulances at Sheffield; train at Lichfield. Then on the 4th April the 11th Division began to move to its concentration area at Witley and Frensham, and final training was carried out and divisional operations undertaken.

On the 31st May H.M. the King inspected the 11th Division on Hankley Common, and on the 12th June orders were received that the Division was to be ready to leave at short notice for the Dardanelles. On the 20th June embarkation began at Liverpool, and the bulk of the Division sailed in the Aquitania and the Empress of Britain. On the 10th July the Aquitania with divisional headquarters and the 32nd Infantry Brigade reached Mudros. On the 23rd all headquarters and troops at Mudros left Lemnos and moved to Imbros, and the 11th Division completed concentration at Imbros on the 28th July.

At 8.30pm on the 6th August the Division left Imbros for Suvla Bay; the troops embarked in torpedo boat destroyers and motor lighters (about 500 in each vessel) each man carrying on him 220 rounds of ammunition and 2 days’ iron rations. At 11.30pm the flotilla anchored off Suvla, and shortly after m/n. 6th/7th August disembarkation began near Lala Baba.

During the Great War the 11th (Northern) Division served in Gallipoli and in Egypt, and on the Western Front (in France and Belgium), and was engaged in the following operations:

By the end of September 1914 all the surplus stores of arms, equipment, and uniforms had been issued, and for some time no uniforms were available for the rank and file of the 17th Division. Even blankets were scarce in the improvised billets and later on in the crowded camps. For months the infantry had only a few old drill-pattern rifles; and machine guns had to be represented by home-made dummy guns. In October a varied assortment of peace-time uniforms arrived; the infantry then paraded in red coats, combined with civilian head-dresses and overcoats. At the same time a supply of tents was issued to the Division, and the men were placed under canvas until the unsettled November weather compelled the abandonment of tents; the units were then moved into recently erected huts. Before the end of 1914 the infantry received a large supply of Lee-Enfield magazine rifles and a generous supply of ammunition; elementary musketry instruction became possible. Then, in March 1915 a limited issue of service rifles and new leather equipment was made to the infantry.

In the Artillery most of the officers had everything to learn, and it was soon found that 20 per cent of the recruits, who had been accepted in the rush, were unfit for military service and had to be replaced, also very few of the recruits had ever ridden of had any previous experience with horses. At the outset the only available artillery materiel was a few limbers and wagons, together with some ancient and obsolete guns and two old French 90-mm. guns, dating from the war of 1870 – pieces which were more suitable for museums than for a training centre. Even so the guns were without sights, and naturally no dial sights, directors, range tables, or telephones were available. But ingenuity, assisted by the local carpenters, provided rough and ready imitations of the missing stores, and allowed the recruits to be given some training during the early months. The first horses for the artillery arrived in February 1915, the 18-pdrs. were issues in April, and the first howitzers reached Swanage in the middle of May.

During this time the artillery had been in empty houses in Swanage and the infantry brigades had shifted their quarters more than once. Originally the three infantry brigades were around Wareham; but in October 1914 the brigades were at Wareham (50th), West Lulworth (51st), and Bovington Camp, Wool (52nd). In December the 51st moved to Wool, and the 52nd to Wimborne. In March 1915 the 51st returned to West Lulworth, and the 52nd moved back to Wool. These stations were maintained until May. Between the 27th May and the 1st June the Division marched to Winchester, Romsey, Hursley, Pitt Corner, and Flowerdown, and final intensive training for the field was undertaken.

On the 5th July the Division was informed that it would be retained in England for some time and be employed on Home Defence. At midnight this arrangement was cancelled and the 17th Division was ordered to embark for France between the 12th and 15th July. On the 6th the advanced party left, and on the same day the Division completed its mobilization – but the three field ambulances only joined the Division at Southampton during embarkation. On the 12th July embarkation began. By the 17th the Division concentrated to the southward of St. Omer, and on the 19th July it moved forward and came under V Corps, Second Army. For the remainder of the Great War the 17th Division served on the Western Front in France and Belgium and was engaged in the following operations:-

Many difficulties had to be overcome in the early days. At first there was a great shortage of officers; and no trained clerks joined with divisional headquarters, consequently orders had to be issued verbally to adjutants until clerks, typewriters, and stationery could be collected. Trained cooks also were non-existent and the messing of the troops was undertaken by a catering firm. The civilian clothing, in which the men joined, was in rags by the time that emergency blue clothing was issued in the middle of October, and 20,000 suits of underclothing and pairs of boots had to be purchased in Yorkshire. During October 100 old Lee-Metford rifles were issued to each battalion for drill, in November 8 L.M.E. service rifles and 400 sets of old buff equipment arrived for each battalion, and in December old pattern water-bottles and white haversacks were received.

In November 1914 the divisional artillery began to form at Mytchett Camp. At first each brigade was commanded by a second-lieutenant, and it was fortunate that at this time the commands were merely nominal. The first armament received was the 90m/m. French guns. The 18-pdrs and 4.5″ howitzers were not issued to the Division until the middle of 1915.

At the beginning of December 1914 the weather broke and the Division was moved into Aldershot, with part of the artillery at Ewshott. On the 22nd January 1915, in heavy rain, the Division was inspected on the Queen’s Parade by Field-Marshall Earl Kitchener, accompanied by the French Minister of War (M. Millerand); on this occasion the troops paraded in blue serge uniforms and civilian greatcoats, and the infantry had D.P. rifles. On the 10th February the battalion allowance of wire and sandbags was doubled, and stress was laid on the troops being taught to entrench and to construct obstacles at night. At the end of this month the Division moved to the Shorncliffe area., and here the Division remained until the end of May when it moved to Bordon and Bramshott. The final intensive preparation then began. On the 16th August the Division was inspected on Hankley Common by H.M. the King, and the order to embark for France was received on the 20th. On the 21st the first advanced party left, on the 23rd the Division began entraining, on the 26th the first units arrived in the concentration area, and on the 29th August the Division completed concentration around Tilques (north-west of St. Omer). The 23rd Division served on the Western Front in France and Belgium until November 1917, when it entrained for the Italian Front, on which it served for the remainder of the Great War.