The 42nd (East Lancashire) Division 1914-1918

For a week or two there had been talk of war and of the likelihood of England being involved. The prospects and possibilities formed an interesting topic of conversation and spe...

Gallipoli! Who in Lancashire, in England, before the year 1915, knew where or what it was, or had even heard the name? Bitter was the dispelling of ignorance; hard indeed the ro...

The situation in Gallipoli on the 1st of June, 1915, was disappointing. Much more had been hoped for than had been accomplished, and the loss incurred for so small a gain had be...

The Division remained at Sarpi Camp, Mudros, until the middle of January. Gallipoli had left the body weak and the spirit dulled; every unit was much below strength, and most ha...

The voyage westward across the Mediterranean was made under conditions widely different from those of the outward journey of September 1914, when “glory of youth glowed in the s...

The Division reached Watou, a village in the Poperinghe area, on the 23rd of August, and, with the exception of the artillery, which went straight into the line near Potijze Châ...

On September 26 and 27 the Division took over the coastal sector of the Nieuport front, relieving the 66th Division, composed of the second line of the East Lancashire Territori...

The front of the La Bassée Sector ran north and south for nearly 5000 yards, and was intersected in the centre by the Béthune—La Bassée Canal, at a point roughly three kilometre...

Before dawn on March 21, 1918, a terrific bombardment along more than fifty miles of the British front, from east of Arras to south of St. Quentin, heralded the opening of the m...

The Division remained for a week in the Pas—Henu—Couin—Vauchelles area, a period sufficient to enable it to get rid of the clay and mud spread thickly over equipment, clothing,...

“_The Third Army has been ordered to press the enemy back towards Bapaume without delay, and to make every effort to prevent the enemy from destroying road and rail communicatio...

Along the entire front from the Belgian coast to Alsace the Allied advance progressed with a vigour and speed that surpassed the hopes of the civilized nations, and now began se...

On the 9th of October the Division marched out of the rest area to take over the left sector of the 4th Corps front, held by the New Zealand Division. After the breaking of the...

An advance along the entire fronts of the Fourth, Third and First Armies, French armies co-operating, had been planned for the 4th November. The attack on the 4th Corps front wa...