3rd (Lahore) Division

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3rd (Lahore) Division
'2nd Mule Corps, Lahore Division', 5 November 1914
Active1852 – ?
Country India
Branch British Indian Army
TypeInfantry
Garrison/HQMian Mir (Lahore)
EngagementsWestern Front[1]

Palestine Campaign

Commanders
Notable
commanders
Sir
Arthur Hoskins

The 3rd (Lahore) Division was an

Indian Corps in France before being moved to the Middle East where it fought against troops of the Ottoman Empire
.

Pre-Mutiny

The Lahore Division first appears in the Indian Army List in 1852, when the short-lived Cis-

Second Anglo-Sikh War. In 1852 a military cantonment (known until 1906 as Mian Mir) was established outside the city.[4]

Composition 1852

'Policemen Indiens de la Division de Lahore et l'A.P.M Locon', November 1914
3rd (Lahore Division) in camp at Cercottes near Orléans in France.
Study of a sepoy, standing beside a limber, with diagrams and dimensions of the limber, Estaires, France, 5 June 1915

Sir John Cheape, KCB, Bengal Engineers (appointed 9 July 1852) (absent commanding Bengal Division in Second Anglo-Burmese War
).

Lahore: Commanding Station: Brigadier Sir James Tennant,

Bengal Artillery

Wazirabad: Brigadier J.R. Hearsey

  • 4th Company 7th (Native) Battalion, Bengal Foot Artillery
  • Her Majesty's
    3rd Light Dragoons
  • Her Majesty's
    10th Foot
  • Her Majesty's
    24th Foot
  • 21st Bengal Native Infantry
  • 32nd Bengal Native Infantry
  • 34th Bengal Native Infantry

Sialkot: Lieutenant-Colonel J.T. Lane, Bengal Artillery

  • 2nd Troop, 2nd Brigade, Bengal Horse Artillery
  • 1st Company, 1st (European) Battalion, Bengal Foot Artillery
  • 10th Company, Bengal Sappers and Miners
  • 4th Bengal Light Cavalry
  • Detachment Her Majesty's 24th Foot
  • 63rd Bengal Native Infantry
  • 6th Bengal Irregular Cavalry

Govindgarh (Bathinda):[5]

  • 3rd Company, 8th (Native) Battalion, Bengal Foot Artillery
  • Detachments Her Majesty's 10th Foot and Native Infantry

[6]

Indian mutiny

During the '

Indian Mutiny' (or 'First War of Independence') some Indian regiments at the Mian Mir cantonments plotted to mutiny but were disarmed under the guns of a British horse artillery battery and infantry battalion to prevent them seizing Lahore Fort. Later the 26th Bengal Native Infantry at Mian Mir did mutiny, murder some of their officers and escape under cover of a dust storm, but Lahore was held for the remainder of the conflict by British troops and Indians troops loyal to the government.[7]

Post-Mutiny

Over succeeding decades, the stations controlled by Lahore Division varied, and the forces under command were regularly rotated. For example:

Composition January 1888

GOC: Maj-Gen Sir

H.F.M. Wilson
, Rifle Brigade

Divisional HQ: Mian Mir (Lahore Cantonment)[8]

Mian Mir:

Fort Lahore:

  • 3rd Battery, 1st Brigade, Scottish Division Garrison Artillery, Royal Artillery
  • Detachment 2nd Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers

Multan Brigade:

Ferozepore:

Amritsar:

  • Detachment 1st Battalion, Border Regiment
  • Detachment 24th (Punjab) Regiment Bengal Native Infantry

Dharamsala
:

  • 1st Battalion,
    1st Goorkha Light Infantry
  • 2nd Battalion, 1st Goorkha Light Infantry

Bakloh (near Dalhousie):

  • 1st Battalion,
    4th Goorkha Regiment
  • 2nd Battalion, 4th Goorkha Regiment

[9]

Pre–World War I

Under the reforms introduced by

Walter Kitchener, the CinC's younger brother, who commanded it at the Rawalpindi Parade 1905. In 1914 the division, with headquarters at Dalhousie, consisted of the Ferozepore, Jullunder (based at Dalhousie) and Sirhind (based at Kasauli) infantry brigades, and the Ambala cavalry brigade (based at Kasauli).[10]

World War I

Western Front 1914

Indian reinforcements who fought at Givenchy in December 1914
Major General Philip M. Carnegy, Commander of Jullundur Brigade

In 1914 the 3rd (Lahore) Division was part of

Marseilles on 26 September 1914, but there were further delays while the troops were re-armed with the latest pattern rifle, and the supply train could be improvised, using tradesmen's vans procured locally.[11]

The 3rd Lahore Divisional Area was formed in late 1914 to take over the garrison duties of the 3rd Division when it left for France. The 3rd Lahore Divisional Area was disbanded in May 1917, the responsibilities of the area being taken over by the 16th Division.

Order of Battle October 1914[12][13]
GOC: Lieut-Gen H.B.B. Watkis, CB

Ferozepore Brigade
GOC: Brig-Gen R.G. Egerton, CB

Jullundur Brigade
GOC: Maj-Gen P.M. Carnegy, CB

Sirhind Brigade - arrived at Marseilles from Egypt 30 November, joined 9 December 1914
GOC: Maj-Gen J.M.S. Brunker

Divisional Troops: Mounted Troops:

Artillery:

  • V Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (RFA) - joined 22 November 1914 from 7th (Meerut) Division
    • 64th, 73rd & 81st Batteries, V Brigade Ammunition Column
  • XI Brigade, RFA - joined 22 November 1914 from 7th (Meerut) Division
    • 83rd, 84th & 85th Batteries, XI Brigade Ammunition Column
  • XVIII Brigade, RFA
    • 59th, 93rd & 94th Batteries, XVIII Brigade Ammunition Column
  • 109th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (4.7-inch guns)
    • Heavy Battery Ammunition Column
  • Lahore Divisional Ammunition Column

Engineers

  • 20th & 21st Companies,
    3rd Sappers and Miners

Signals Service:

  • Lahore Signal Company

Pioneers

  • 34th Sikh Pioneers

Supply & Transport:

  • Lahore Divisional train

Medical Units:

  • 7th & 8th British Field Ambulances
  • 111th, 112th and 113th Indian Field Ambulances

The division finally got into action piecemeal at the simultaneous Battles of La Bassee, 1st Messines and Armentieres along the British part of the Western Front in October–November 1914. The degree to which the division was broken up can be gauged by the 29 October entry in the diary kept by the Indian corps' commander, Lt-Gen Sir James Willcocks:

"Where is my Lahore Division?
Sirhind Brigade detained in Egypt.
Ferozepore Brigade: somewhere in the north, split up into three or four bits.
Jullunder Brigade: Manchesters gone south to (British) 5 Division (this disposes of only British unit)
47th Sikhs: Half fighting with some British division; half somewhere else!
59th Rifles and 15th Sikhs: In trenches
34th Pioneers (divisional troops) also in trenches
15th Lancers: In trenches.
Two companies of Sappers and Miners fighting as infantry with British divisions.
Divisional Headquarters: Somewhere?
Thank heaven the Meerut Division will get a better chance."
[14]

When the troops were relieved in November 1914, the reassembled division defended a section of the front in Indian Corps' sector.

Western Front 1915

After winter operations (in which the Indian soldiers suffered badly) the division next took part in the Battles of

Aubers Ridge, Festubert and Loos in 1915.[1]

Order of Battle May 1915[15]
GOC: Maj-Gen

H.D'U. Keary

Ferozepore Brigade
GOC: Brig-Gen R.G. Egerton, CB

Jullundur Brigade
GOC: Brig-Gen E.P. Strickland

Sirhind Brigade
GOC: Brig-Gen W.G. Walker, VC

Divisional Troops: As before, with addition of XLIII (Howitzer Bde, RA (40th & 57th Batteries)

Mesopotamia

On 13 August 1915, General

Tigris Corps, too late to relieve 6th (Poona) Division at Kut-al-Amara.[18]

Palestine

After the fall of Baghdad, the

Palestine Campaign was given priority over Mesopotamia, and in March 1918 the division was transferred to Egypt to join Sir Edmund Allenby's Egyptian Expeditionary Force until the end of the war.[19] At the Battle of Megiddo in September 1918 it formed part of Sir Edward Bulfin's XXI Corps on the right flank.[20]

Order of Battle from May 1918[21][22]
GOC: Maj-Gen

A.R. Hoskins

7th Brigade:

8th Brigade:

9th Brigade:

Divisional Artillery (reorganised in April 1918):

(372, 373 and 374 were new six-gun 18-pounder batteries formed in 64th (2nd Highland) Division's billeting area round Norwich, England, in December 1916[23] and shipped to Mesopotamia.[24])

See also

  • List of Indian divisions in World War I

References

  1. ^ a b Baker, Chris (2010). "The British Corps of 1914-1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  2. ^ East India Register and Army List 1851–53; Bengal and Agra Directory and Annual Register 1852.
  3. ^ East-India Register and Army List 1847–53
  4. ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India. Vol. 16. 1908. p. 115. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  5. ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India. Vol. 12. 1908. p. 343. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  6. ^ Bengal and Agra Directory and Annual Register 1852; East-India Register and Army List 1853
  7. ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India. Vol. 16. 1908. p. 97. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  8. ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India. Vol. 17. 1908. p. 316. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  9. ^ India List January 1888
  10. ^ Monthly Army List August 1914.
  11. ^ Edmonds, 1914, Vol II, p. 92, Note 1.
  12. ^ Edmonds, 1914, Vol II, Appendix 1.
  13. ^ F.W. Perry & A.F. Becke, Orders of Battle.
  14. ^ Lt-Gen Sir James Willcocks, With the Indians in France, London: Constable, 1920 (quoted in Corrigan p 74).
  15. ^ Edmonds & Wynne, 1915, Vol II, Appendix 2.
  16. ^ Edmonds & Wynne, 1915, Vol II, pp. 402–3.
  17. ^ Moberly, Vol II.
  18. ^ Baker, Chris (2010). "The British campaign in Mesopotamia 1914-1918". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  19. ^ Moberly, Vol IV.
  20. ^ Bullock.
  21. ^ Bullock, Appendix.
  22. ^ Perry, pp. 51–2.
  23. ^ Army Council Instruction 2403 of 22 December 1916
  24. ^ Perry, pp. 51–2.

Bibliography

External links