The History of the 36th (Ulster) DivisionFalls, Cyril
History
The History of the 36th (Ulster) Division
Falls, Cyril
Great Britain. Army. Division, 36th; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
On July the 13th the Division moved into the well-known training
area west of St. Omer, with headquarters at Tilques. Those of the
107th Brigade were at Bayenghem, of the 108th at Eperlecques, and of
the 109th at Boisdinghem. Here training and reorganization began,
and here reinforcements arrived in considerable numbers.[25] Five
days later the Artillery, which had remained in line covering the
49th Division, rejoined, having moved north by march route. R.A.
Headquarters were established at the château at Recques. The troops
were much refreshed by this return to civilization, and units had
leisure to absorb their drafts. Unfortunately it did not last very
long. On July the 20th Headquarters moved to Esquelbecq, to a famous
and beautiful moated château, that bore at the door rings to which
Marlborough's troopers had tied their reins, and had been occupied
by General Grant after Waterloo. Meanwhile the 108th Brigade moved
forward, by 'bus and lorry, to Kortepyp Camp, south of the village of
Neuve Eglise, and Red Lodge, on the southern slopes of Hill 63, and
west of the famous Bois de Ploegsteert, that will go down to Britons
for all time as "Plug Street Wood." On the 23rd Headquarters moved
to the château on Mont Noir, a couple of miles north of Bailleul,
and that night the 108th Brigade re-entered the line in relief of two
battalions of the 20th Division. By the end of July the 109th Brigade
had come in on the right, in relief of troops of the 41st Division,
and the 107th had relieved the 108th Brigade. The front line now
held ran from a ruin on the Neuve Eglise-Warneton Road, known as
Anton's Farm, on the right, to another known as Boyle's Farm on the
Wulverghem-Messines Road, on the left. The frontage was some three
thousand yards in a straight line, but there were over two and a half
miles of front-line trench. On September the 1st the headquarters of
the Division moved from Mont Noir to the village of St. Jans Cappel,
near Bailleul.
The Division was to remain for upwards of a year in this part of the
line, but it seldom held precisely the same section of front for more
than a few weeks at a time. The various moves cannot be treated in
detail. There were changes in August, all three Brigades entering the
line, and early in September a "side-step" to the north, the right
boundary now being the River Douve, and the left "Piccadilly Trench,"
south of the Kemmel-Wytschaete Road. The 108th Brigade was now on
the right, the 107th in the centre, and the 109th on the left. The
characteristics of the various parts of all this front were similar,
the conditions of the soil the same throughout, so that a general
description will hold good for all the period passed by the Division
in the neighbourhood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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