31st Division (United Kingdom)

31st Division (United Kingdom)

The British 31st Division was a New Army division formed in April 1915 as part of the K4 Army Group and taken over by the War Office on 10 August 1915. Comprising mainly battalions from Yorkshire and Lancashire, the division was sent to Egypt in December 1915 before moving to France in March 1916 and spent the remainder of the First World War in action on the Western Front. The 31st Division was the quintessential New Army division, being made up entirely of Pals battalions.

The 31st Division's first major action was on the first day of the Somme Campaign (1 July 1916). The division suffered 3,600 casualties and failed to reach any of its objectives.

Read more about 31st Division (United Kingdom):  Formation, Battles

Famous quotes containing the word division:

    Major [William] McKinley visited me. He is on a stumping tour.... I criticized the bloody-shirt course of the canvass. It seems to me to be bad “politics,” and of no use.... It is a stale issue. An increasing number of people are interested in good relations with the South.... Two ways are open to succeed in the South: 1. A division of the white voters. 2. Education of the ignorant. Bloody-shirt utterances prevent division.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)