- The following is a transcription from: A Record of the Battles and Engagements of the British Armies in France and Flanders, 1914-1918.
THIS brochure is an attempt to produce a record of the Armies, Corps, Divisions, and, in certain instances, Infantry Brigades and Battalions engaged in the various Operations, Battles and Actions of the British Armies in France and Flanders during the Great War.
It originally appeared in the form of articles in the "Journal of the Royal United Service Institution" for August and November, 1923, and, as a result of information kindly supplied by readers of the Journal, certain corrections and additions have been made to the original text. Two indexes, one of place names and one of formations, have also been added to facilitate quick reference to any particular engagement or formation.
The framework on which the Record has been built is the Report of the Battles Nomenclature Committee, published in May, 1921, and the names, dates and boundaries fixed in that Report have been carefully followed, with the exception that a few of the names of battles have been slightly changed to agree with the revised official nomenclature used in the lists of Regimental Battle Honours recently announced by the War Office: for example, "Battle of Pozieres Ridge" has become "Battle of Pozieres."
The work has been compiled from information obtained from many sources and a bibliography would include almost every official publication, formation history, and unit history dealing with the Western Front.
The various types of military operations, in order of importance, have been classified by the Battles Committee as follows :—
1. The "Phase." The war on the Western Front has been divided into seven Phases.
2. "Operations" is the word applied to a series of military events taking place in a certain area and between certain dates having a common purpose or common effect. When an Operation is composed of various Battles, lists of troops engaged are given under the names of the Battles and not under the general heading of Operations. In certain instances, however, Operations do not include any engagements of sufficient magnitude to merit the title of Battle—for example, Operations on the Ancre (11th January-13th March, 1917); in such a case a list of formations participating in the Operations is given.
3. The word "Battles" is used in the sense of Group of Battles For example, the Battles of the Somme, 1916, include twelve individual Battles and three Actions. All troops taking part in these separate Battles and Actions are shown under the group title (The Battles of the Somme, 1916) as well as under their individual Battle or Action.
A difficulty presented itself here as a division might come into line on the battle front within the chronological limits of a Group of Battles without participating in any specified engagement. Thus, the 42nd Division was in line east of Ypres from 1st September to 18th September, 1917, without qualifying for any Battle or Action; as this period was not one of trench warfare in the ordinary sense of the word but rather one of consolidation and preparation, essentially part of the Group of Battles, it was decided to include such divisions in a separate list placed immediately after the general list of divisions engaged in the Battles.
In these general lists to Groups of Battles each division's number is followed by a figure in brackets, which indicates the number of individual Battles of the Group of Battles in which the division fought.
4. A "Battle" is one distinct engagement and all formations in line within the official geographical and chronological limits of that Battle are included in the list of troops taking part in that Battle. Certain Battles contain "Tactical Incidents" and the division or divisions taking part in that incident are shown.
5. "Actions" are followed by lists of Armies, Corps and Divisions taking part in that Action, except in Phase I, when the Corps is not shown.
6. "Miscellaneous Incidents" are confined to divisions.
In some cases it was impossible arbitrarily to decide whether a formation qualified for an engagement or not, particularly when the engagement boundary did not coincide with formation boundary; again in some engagements, such as the Battle of Delville Wood, no geographical boundaries have been given, which meant that the greatest latitude had to be given in order to avoid the accidental omission of any formation.
Any foreign troops which were engaged with the British are shown in italics.
In conclusion, the compiler wishes to thank Major A. F. Becke, of the Historical Section (Military Branch), Committee of Imperial Defence, for his invaluable advice and assistance, which enabled the Record to be made sufficiently accurate for publication.