A Short History of the 6th Division | Page 5

period, were units of the 9th Division,
and some of those who have read Ian Hay's The First Hundred
Thousand will have recognized in it a description of a part of the
trenches of the 19th Infantry Brigade.
During this period the four brigades each received a fifth Territorial
Battalion--the Queen's Westminsters joining on the 11th November and
being allotted to the 18th Infantry Brigade; the 5th Scottish Rifles, who
went to the 19th Infantry Brigade, joining on the 19th November; the
2nd Battalion London Regiment joining the 17th Infantry Brigade in
February, and the 5th Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment the
16th Infantry Brigade on the 15th of that month. The 38th Field
Company left the Division on the 9th April, and on the 21st December
1914 the 1st London Field Company, later the 509th, began its long
connection with the 6th Division. The Division lost its squadron of the
19th Hussars, receiving in its place "C" squadron of the
Northamptonshire Yeomanry.
It was during the sojourn in Armentières that the "Fancies," without
mention of whom no history of the Division would be complete, came
into being. With the "Follies," the 4th Division troupe, formed a few
weeks before them, also in Armentières, they were the forerunners of
the Divisional theatrical troupes which subsequently became universal.

At Armentières also took place the first 6th Divisional Horse Show, a
highly successful two-day show--the first of its kind held in the B.E.F.
On the 27th May 1915 began the relief of the Division by the 27th
Division, and on the following days its move northwards to join the
newly formed VI Corps. Major-Gen. Sir John Keir left on the 27th to
take up command of the new corps, taking with him--as B.G.,
R.A.--Brig.-Gen. W. H. L. Paget.
Major-Gen. W. N. Congreve, V.C., from the 18th Infantry Brigade,
succeeded Sir John Keir in command of the Division; Brig.-Gen.
Humphreys taking the appointment of C.R.A.
CHAPTER V
YPRES SALIENT
1915-16
On the night of the 31st May/1st June the Division took over its new
front in the Ypres Salient, commencing its long tour in that unsavoury
region, and trench casualties almost doubled immediately. It continued
in the Salient up to the end of July 1916, with three periods of rest,
each of about a month's duration: the first spent in the neighbourhood
of Houtkerque and Poperinghe, in November and December 1915; the
second in the Houtkerque-Wormhoudt area, with one brigade at a time
back at Calais from mid-March to mid-April 1916; and the third again
in the Houtkerque-Wormhoudt area from mid-June to mid-July 1916.
The nature of these rests has been humorously but not untruthfully
portrayed in the columns of Punch; the author of "At the Front" in that
paper having been an officer in the K.S.L.I.
The line was just hardening after the Second Battle of Ypres when the
Division moved up to the Salient, and no active operations took place
on the actual front taken over by the Division, but its artillery was
called upon to assist its neighbours on either flank, i.e. on the 16th June
when the 3rd Division attacked Bellewarde Farm north-west of Hooge;
on the 22nd June when the 42nd Infantry Brigade of the 14th Division

attempted a small operation, and on the 6th July when the 4th Division
carried out a successful minor operation near Pilkem.
On the 30th July the 14th Division was attacked at Hooge and driven
back to Sanctuary and Zouave Woods. Their counter-attacks, gallantly
delivered, but under the circumstances giving very little prospect of
success, failed, and for a time the situation was critical. The 16th
Infantry Brigade was moved up to the area about Goldfish Château
(half-mile north-west of Ypres) as a precautionary measure, and was at
one time in danger of being thrown in to make a hasty counter-attack.
Fortunately this proved unnecessary, and on the 31st July the Corps
Commander decided to relieve the whole Division, and to allot to it the
task of restoring the line at Hooge in a carefully prepared attack.
The relief was carried out on the 2nd and 3rd August 1915, and on the
6th the Division took over its front of attack, and the preparatory
bombardment was commenced. This bombardment was very carefully
planned, carried out with great thoroughness and accuracy, and was one
of the most effective and severe that had, up to that time, been put
down by the British. The artillery co-operation in the attack was on a
similar scale and equally effective, except so far as counter-battery
work against enemy artillery to the south was concerned, and the attack
owed much of its success to the assistance it received from the artillery.
To this assistance two French batteries of "75's," lent by the 36th
French Corps, ably contributed.
The attack was