The history of the Twentieth (Light) DivisionInglefield, Valentine Erskine
History
The history of the Twentieth (Light) Division
Inglefield, Valentine Erskine
Great Britain. Army. Division, 20th (Light); World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
On the 29th, having received orders to rejoin the British Army, the
91st Field Artillery Brigade started on a five days’ march to the
neighbourhood of Poix. Here on the 3rd and 4th of April D/91 Battery
and No. 1 Section of the Divisional Ammunition Column rejoined the
brigade and D/173 Battery returned to its own formation. Large
reinforcements of N.C.O.’s and men were available, but no horses.
At a conference held on the 4th, the C.R.A. 14th Division, who
commanded all the artillery units concentrated in this area, urged
brigade commanders to report at the earliest possible moment when
their commands were fit to take the field again. The 91st Brigade,
although tired out by continuous fighting, volunteered to carry on at
once. The next day accordingly found the brigade once more on the move,
and by the 7th the batteries were in position north-west of Villers
Bretonneux.
The 91st Field Artillery Brigade was now in the IIIrd Corps
(Lieut.-General Sir R. H. K. Butler) and under the 58th Divisional
Artillery, and from the 9th covered part of the front of the 58th
Division, from the main road east of the village to the south.
Lieut.-Colonel Erskine took over the Left Artillery Section of the
Right Division, IIIrd Corps, and had at first two and later three
artillery brigades under his command.
By the 17th of April the 92nd Field Artillery Brigade was in the line
north and north-west of Villers Bretonneux, under the 5th Australian
Division, covering the front from the main road east of the village
to the north. The 5th Australian Division side-stepped to the left to
join its own Corps on the 22nd, when the 8th Division took its place.
From that time the Southern Group, under Lieut.-Colonel Erskine (91st,
291st and 179th Brigades), and the Northern Group, under Lieut.-Colonel
Balston (92nd Brigade), came under the C.R.A. 20th Division, who had
moved up into the line two days earlier to take command of the 8th
Divisional Artillery Group, covering the front of the 8th Division.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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