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
In May the Divisional Mounted Troops left the Division. Headquarters
and “D” Squadron of the Westmoreland and Cumberland Yeomanry, after a
fortnight’s training with the 2nd Cavalry Division, moved on the 15th
to join the remaining squadrons as a regiment under XIth Corps. The
Divisional Cyclist Company from the 26th of May became absorbed in the
XIVth Corps Cyclist Battalion.
On the 18th of May the Division began to relieve the Guards in the
right sector of the Corps line. The G.O.C., 20th Division, took over
command of this sector on the 21st. The 60th Brigade was on the
right, the 61st on the left, and the 59th in reserve, with Divisional
Headquarters at the Mairie in Poperinghe. On the right of the 20th was
the Canadian Corps; on the left the 6th Division.
The line ran from some 400 yards north-west of Hooge in a general
north-westerly direction, passing in front of Y Wood, through the cast
of Railway Wood, and just in front of Crump and Warwick Farms and the
village of Wieltje. A few hundreds of yards north-west of Wieltje the
sector ended at the point where the Divisional right had formerly
rested.
The German front line run at a general distance of 250 to 400 yards
from our own, with, however, certain important variations. A sharp
German salient at the north-east corner of Railway Wood ran to within
70 yards of the British trenches; opposite Verlorenhoek the lines were
a little over 200 yards apart. About 300 yards north of Warwick Farm a
sharp triangular salient projected from the German line, and there was
a rather blunt German salient on the south-east side of the Wieltje
road.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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