Divisional Orders of Battle

[KennethB]

Hi,

Is there a good source showing the order of battle for British forces in WW1?

I'm hoping to be able to see the make up of each Division down to it's regiments. I'm hoping that with this info I'll be able to look at war dairies not only for the regiments but brigade and divisional ones too.

Thanks,

Ken

[Desmond7]

The Long Long Trail has much of this information (if not all of it) mapped out.

Searching by Division usually gives everything from top down.

For example:-

http://www.1914-1918.net/britdivs.htm

best wishes

Des

[Ron Clifton]

Hello Ken

The definitive source is a sub-series of the British Official History: Order of Battle of Divisions by Major A F Becke. All the volumes were repeated in the 1980s/1990s by Sherwood Press or Ray Westlake.

Part ! covers the Regular divisions.

Part 2A covers the Territorial 1st-line divisions and Mounted divisions.

Part 2B covers the Territorial 2nd-line divisions.

Part 3A covers the first three New Armies (9th-26th divs)

Part 3B covers the other New Army divisions (30th onwards), the RN Division and the special war-formed divisions (71st-75th).

The series was continued in more recent years by F E Perry:

Part 5A covers the Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and East African divisions.

Part 5B covers the Indian Army divisions.

Becke's Part 4 covers the HQs of Corps, Armies and GHQs but does not include Corps Troops. For those, you need to look at the Orders of Battle towards the end of class WO95 at the National Archives at Kew. Those for France are in WO95/5467 to 5469 and subsequent files cover other theatres. For those, you will need to visit Kew, but for Becke and Perry's work your local library may be able to help, through the inter-library loan service. Apart from what is on The Long Long Trail, I don't think that the information is available online.

However, there is a "quick and dirty" way: browse the online catalogue to class WO95, which is arranged in order of the divisions with their units as at the end of the war. The units in France come first, and then (at about file 4000) the units in Italy, Gallipoli and the other theatres. Units which served in two theatres, e.g. those which went to Italy in Nov 1917 and returned to France in March 1918, will have diaries in both series.

Ron

[KennethB]

Hi guys,

Thanks so much, still learning the resources for this conflict.

Ken

[Malcolm]

There is also the Regimental Warpath at http://www.warpath.orbat.com/ which lists Australian,New Zealand, African Indian and Canadian Divisions.

Aye

Malcolm

[Steven Broomfield]

Sadly, regarding Indian Divisions, Malcolm's link (warpath) shows only British units.

[Malcolm]

Yeah, bummer ain't it!!

Try http://orbat.com/site/cimh/regiments/Indian%20Infantry%20WW1%20-%201st%20through%2030th.pdf

Aye

Malcolm

[27thBN]

This may be a link to the 4 posts above site .Its very good anyway i use it with the LLT between the 2 sites all you need

MC