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THE 36th (ULSTER) DIVISION AND ITS PART IN THE GREAT WAR !
Part of a memorial window dedicated to the 36th (Ulster) Division which can be seen in Belfast's City Hall
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36th Ulster Divison
In October, 1915 after several months of preparation in England, men of the 36th (Ulster) Division sailed across the Channel and began to disembark in France. The soldiers, drawn from all parts of the nine counties of Ulster, had previously trained at Finner Camp in Donegal, Ballykinlar in County Down, and the Clandeboye Estate near Bangor. All were volunteers with an overwhelming majority of them in their late teens and early twenties and, while many perhaps sought adventure and a chance to see some of the world beyond the confines of their own home towns and villages, they believed absolutely that their cause in going to war to free France and Belgium from German oppression and invasion was just and honourable.
During the next winter and spring they learnt their combat and trench skills in the quieter regions of the Western Front before moving, in June, 1916, to take over their allotted areas on either side of the River Ancre and west of the village of Thiepval in preparation for the forthcoming Battle of the Somme which started on 1st July, 1916. For the British, Commonwealth, and Empire soldiers the outcome on that day was little short of a massacre. The Ulster Division, which gained a few hundred yards of ground from Thiepval Wood up the hill towards the dauntingly fortified Schwaben Redoubt, suffered some five and a half thousand casualties - out of a total divisional complement of ten or eleven thousand men. (In writing of "casualties" it is a generally accepted assumption that one out of every three was killed or died of wounds later). Unable to advance or retreat, and impossible to reinforce because of unrelenting German shell, and machine-gun fire, those soldiers in the redoubt and elsewhere in no-man's-land held on until night gave them cover to slip back to the precarious safety of their own lines. The next day the division was withdrawn from the front and moved to the area around St. Omer where it regrouped, received large numbers of fresh soldiers to replace those killed or wounded, and made ready for its next engagement - the Battle of Messines.
The small town of Messines lies at the southern end of a low, rounded ridge which stretches eight kilometres northwards towards Ypres. The ridge overlooks the flat Flanders Plain and, in 1917 in the hands of the Germans, it dominated the southern sector of the Ypres Salient held by the British . Its capture was vital if the commander-in-chief's (Field Marshal Haig) strategic attack eastwards out of the Salient was to succeed.
The 36th Division joined the Second Army under General Plumer - a senior officer old-fashioned in appearance but with the deserved reputation both for meticulous battle preparation, and, in what had become a war of attrition, a keen regard for the saving of the lives of the men under his command. On a frontage of about 1,200 yards the Ulstermen took position south-west of the heavily fortified village of Wytschaete and, with the 16th (Irish) Division on its left, prepared for the day of attack - 7th June. At 3.10 a.m., with a roar clearly heard in London, nineteen monstrous British mines containing a total of 600 tons of high explosives were detonated under the defenders on the ridge. Beneath an intense artillery barrage the men of Second Army attacked the dazed and demoralised Germans and, by mid- afternoon, the entire ridge was in British hands. Wytschaete had held out for some time but after a fierce struggle it was captured by the combined efforts of the Irish and Ulster Divisions.
After its success at Messines the 36th was withdrawn for rest and to prepare for its next battle.
Perhaps even more than the "The Somme", "Ypres" is a name which recalls all the waste of life, horror, and squalor of the Great War. The old walled Belgian town of Ypres is situated about forty miles east of Calais and throughout World War One it was defended by the indefatigable bravery of British soldiers and the obstinacy of their high command. On a shallow plain which barely rises above sea level, the clay soil of the land was drained by an intricate network of ditches; while to the east, north, and south a series of low ridges overlooked and commanded the town. From November, 1914 the Germans held the ridges and by July, 1917 the British "Salient" extended eastwards in an arc of about two to three miles in depth. Able to see almost every movement in the Salient and the town itself, the Germans had shelled the area continuously for years until all buildings were reduced to unrecognisable rubble and every field into an impassable quagmire pitted with millions of overlapping shell holes always filled with stinking liquid mud and often the decomposing remains of animals and the occasional bodies of dead soldiers.
It was through, and then out of, this area that Haig intended to make a massive and war-winning attack striking eastwards from Belgium and towards Germany. The implementation of the plan was given to Fifth Army, commanded by General Gough who, unlike Plumer, had a reputation for poor staff work and a lesser regard for the care and safety of his men. In early July the Ulster Division moved near to St. Omer again and into the command of Fifth Army.
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The Battle of Third Ypres started on 22nd July when 3,091 British guns began a bombardment of the German positions which lasted until 31st July by which time some four and a quarter million shells had been fired. Then, at 3.50 a.m., in torrential rain twelve divisions made their attack on an eleven-mile wide front. Initially, on the left, some gains were made but on the right the attack slithered quickly to a halt. Thus things remained, for in the rain, which continued unabated day after day, neither man nor animal nor tank could move.
The 36th had been kept back from the original assault so that it could be used at a later date. But in the area north-east of Ypres and near the village St. Julien the division there was so badly battered and its soldiers so tired that it was decided to withdraw them and replace them much earlier than expected with the Ulster Division. This was accomplished in the rain and mud of the night of 2nd August and completed by the early hours of the next morning. There they existed for another fourteen days where all were soaked by the continual rain and suffered from a lack of food, of heating, and of drinkable water. Lying in trenches which were little more than watery scratches scooped out of the morass and feebly protected by sandbags filled with mud, the soldiers endured perpetual shelling and small arms fire. It was out of these conditions that, with the 16th (Irish) Division on its right, they were ordered to make an attack on 16th August in what has become known as the Battle of Langemarck.
The Ulster Division was to advance about two and a quarter miles to reach its objective - an imaginary "Red Line". At 4.45 a.m. the men left their trenches but: pounded by high-explosive, shrapnel, and gas shells; ravaged pitilessly by machine-gun fire from impregnable concrete pill boxes protected by barbed wire entanglements; saturated by the rain; lost in a featureless landscape; and encumbered by the clinging mud: only a little ground on the left was gained, and by nightfall most of those still alive were back where they had started. That any progress at all was made is a tribute to the bravery and determination of the men, for the ambitious plan, conceived in the comfort of a distant headquarters, defied reality and was fatally flawed. In the dreadful conditions of the battlefield the British artillery's preliminary barrage and its subsequent "creeping" covering fire, which went far ahead of the attackers, were ineffective; and a few supporting tanks, bogged down in the impassable mire, never appeared. Furthermore, a weary division which had already sustained some 2,000 casualties due to enemy action during the previous two weeks, should never have been ordered to attack in the face of such overwhelmingly adverse odds.
For the capture of a few worthless yards of mud the attack resulted in 58 officers and 1278 men being gassed or wounded. During its sixteen days in the line, from 2nd to 18th August, the Division suffered the total loss of 144 officers and 3,441 men either killed, wounded or missing.
The 16th (Irish) Division suffered grievously also, and together the two division suffered about 7,800 casualties - amounting to perhaps 50% of their original numbers. However, the efforts and sacrifices of the men were not enough for 5th Army's Commanding General; for Haig confided to his diary that Gough, 'was not pleased with the action of the Irish divisions .... They seemed to have gone forward but failed to keep what they had won .... The men are Irish and apparently did not like the enemy's shelling.'
The pitiful tragedy of "Third Ypres" continued its bloody course until, on 4th November, the battle ended when the Canadians captured the muddy mound which had once been the village of Passchendaele - a name now associated irrevocably with the battle and which, perhaps, recalls more poignantly the sorrows of the men who fought there.
After Langemarck the Division was withdrawn to rest and to receive reinforcements. It did not, however, ever have the same character again for most of its original men had been lost in the everyday hazards of war, and in the Battles of The Somme, Messines, and Passchendaele. Many of the recruits which filled the empty ranks were from diverse other parts of the British Isles - often young conscripts aged about nineteen or twenty. Nevertheless, the division still had a significant part to play in many of the remaining battles and campaigns of the War such as: The Battle of Cambrai in November, 1917; the German Spring Offensive of 1918, and its advance through Belgium during the War's final hundred days.
Everywhere it fought it acquitted itself with courage and fortitude and by 11th November, 1918, nine Victoria Crosses and a multitude of other gallantry medals had been awarded to the doughty men of the 36th (Ulster ) Division.
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BRIGADES & REGIMENTS
107th Brigade
8th Royal Irish Rifles (East Belfast)
9th Royal Irish Rifles (West Belfast)
10th Royal Irish Rifles (South Belfast)
15th Royal Irish Rifles (North Belfast)
108th Brigade
11th Royal Irish Rifles (South Antrim)
12th Royal Irish Rifles (Central Antrim)
13th Royal Irish Rifles (County Down)
9th Royal Irish Fusiliers (Co. Armagh, Co. Monaghan, Co. Cavan)
109th Brigade
9th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Co. Tyrone)
10th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Co. Derry)
11th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Co. Donegal, Co. Fermanagh
14th Royal Irish Rifles (Belfast Young Citizens)
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The Ulster Tower
The Ulster Tower was raised as a memorial to the soldiers of the Ulster Division who fought in the Great War.
Mostly built by public subscription, it was officially opened on 19th November, 1921 - almost five years to the day after the official end to the Battle of the Somme.
It is a very close copy of Helen's Tower which stands in the grounds of the Clandeboye Estate which is located in Northern Ireland east of Belfast and near the seaside town of Bangor.
Many of the men of the Ulster Division trained in the estate before moving to England and then France early in 1916.
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Inscription on the Tablet in the Memorial Chamber of the Tower at Thiepval
This Tower is dedicated to the Glory of God in grateful memory of the Officers, non-commissioned Officers and Men of the 36th (Ulster) Division, and of the sons of Ulster in other forces who laid down their lives in The Great War, and of all their comrades-in-arms, who by divine grace were spared to testify to their glorious deeds. |
Ulster Tower, Clandeboye Estate,
The Tower itself is a replica of a well known Ulster landmark, Helen's Tower, which stands on the Dufferin and Ava Estate at Clandeboye, County Down. On the completion of Helen's Tower in 1867 it was dedicated by Lord Dufferin to his beloved mother Helen, Baroness Dufferin, who was the grand-daughter of the playwright Richard Brindsley Sheridan. It was in the shadow of Helen's Tower that the men of the newly formed Ulster Division drilled and trained on the outbreak of the Great war. For many of the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division the distinctive sight of Helen's Tower rising above the surrounding countryside was one of their last abiding memories of home before their departure for England, and subsequently, the Western Front.
It is erected on the site of the famous advance of the Ulster Division on the 1st July 1916
The inscriptions include the following tribute from King George V
Throughout the long years of struggle ... the men of Ulster have proved how nobly they fight and die.
On Saturday 19 November, 1921, the completed Ulster Memorial Tower was unveiled by Field -Marshall Sir Henry Wilson.
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Ulster Divisional Badge
It has been suggested to me that I should include a picture the 36th divisional badge in my pages on the Ulster Division.
This is a tricky subject, for, as far as I can discover, none was ever officially sanctioned by any army or divisional order. However, while this may be true, many people believe that the one reproduced here is the badge of the 36th (Ulster) Division.
I have no wish to become embroiled in what is now an unresolvable question. However, I print below an article which I read on this subject and will let any reader interested in this matter make up his own mind. |
THE RED HAND OF ULSTER
Whether the Red Hand of Ulster should be dexter or sinister is a query put to members of the Museum staff with remarkable frequency. The device has been used by many people in an indiscriminate way for all manner of purposes, from a position on a menu card to one on a ship's funnel and, although clarification as to the correct hand to use has been issued from time to time, the practice of using the wrong hand persists. It is felt, therefore, that a note on this subject would be useful and one cannot do better than quote that written by the late John Vinycomb. M.R.I.A., a foremost authority in his day on heraldic devices and a resident of Ulster for many years.
" . . . The arms assigned to the Province of Ulster, and registered in the Office of Ulster King of Arms, are in plain terms - a red cross upon a gold field, with a small white shield bearing a red right hand cut off at the wrist, placed on the centre of the cross. These arms are derived from those borne by De Burgo, Earl of Ulster of the period of the Norman invasion, with the addition of the O'Neill escutcheon. As to the origin or the celebrated device of the Red Hand, much has been written. The early legend of the cutting off of the left hand, and throwing it ashore is not of any account, for the same story appears in many places, and is not borne out by the fact that the O'Neills, Kings of Ulster, and all branches of that princely house invariably used the right hand as do the present representatives. All the early seals of the O'Neills have the right hand - never the left. The reason of the confusion as to right or left hand appears to have arisen in this way: On the institution of the Order or Baronets of Ulster by King James I 'a hand gules' was adopted as the badge of the new Order (right or left not specified). A dexter or a sinister hand was used indiscriminately by the baronets for some time, but gradually settled down exclusively to the sinister hand - the ancient legend apparently carrying the day as regards the badge of the baronetcy. As the badge of the province, however, the dexter is the right hand, in a double sense, and is by authority so recorded in Ulster's Office. And so it remains that while the badge of the province - 'The Red Hand of O'Neill' - argent a dexter hand gules - authoritatively settled beyond dispute. There should be no drops blood."
Mr. Vinycomb also adapted old lines on "The Rule of the Road" to explain which hand to use, under the title, "Right versus Left."
These read as follows:-
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