The following units, either belonging to the 53rd Division, or which had served with it, were chosen for the Army of Occupation on the Western Front: 1/4th and 1/6th Cheshire Regiment, 2/4th Royal West Surrey and 1/4th Sussex Regiment. The 1/6th Welsh Regiment, originally Army Troops, was also selected.
54TH (EAST ANGLIAN) DIVISION
First Line
In his despatch of 11th December 1915, dealing with the operations at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, Sir Ian Hamilton said: “The 54th Division, infantry only, arrived and were disembarked on August 11th and placed in reserve. On the following day, August 12th, I proposed that the 54th Division should make a night-march in order to attack, at dawn on the 13th, the heights Kavak Tepe-Teke Tepe.” “That afternoon the 163rd Brigade moved off and in spite of serious opposition established itself about the A of Anafarta in difficult and enclosed country. In the course of the fight, creditable in all respects to the 163rd Brigade, there happened a very mysterious thing. The 1/5th Norfolks were on the right of the line and found themselves for a moment less strongly opposed than the rest of the brigade, Against the yielding forces of the enemy Colonel Sir H. Beauchamp, a bold, self-confident officer, eagerly pressed forward, followed by the best part of the battalion. The fighting grew hotter, and the ground became more wooded and broken. At this stage many men were wounded or grew exhausted with thirst. These found their way back to camp during the night. But the colonel, with 16 officers and 250 men, still kept pushing on, driving the enemy before him. Amongst these ardent souls was part of a fine company enlisted from the King’s Sandringham estates. Nothing more was ever seen or heard of any of them. They charged into the forest and were lost to sight and sound. Not one of them ever came back.”
Owing to representations by the Corps Commander the night march and projected attack on the 13th were abandoned.
The 162nd Brigade of the 54th Division were in support in an attack on 15th August, and on the 21st, the “Battle of Scimitar Hill,” “the 53rd and 54th were to hold the enemy from Sulajik to Kiretch Tepe Sirt, while the 29th Division and the 11th Division stormed Ismail Oglu Tepe.” These attacks met with little success. During the ensuing four months the Suvla Force held on to the ground it had won, but with ever-increasing difficulty, as sickness and casualties had sadly thinned its ranks.
On the night of the 19th-20th December, 1915, the evacuation from Suvla and Anzac was completed.
The 54th Division sailed for Egypt and down to the close of the war remained part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. Shortly after landing in Egypt part of the Division was employed as Lines of Communication troops for the column working on the western frontier. (See Sir J. G. Maxwell’s despatch of 1st March, 1916.)
When Sir A. Murray proceeded to press back the Turks in Palestine the 54th Division was employed—quotations from the despatch of 28th June, 1917, as to the action of 26th-27th March, 1917, the “First Battle of Gaza,” are given under the 53rd Division.
In the despatch of 28th June, 1917, as to the “Second Battle of Gaza,” paragraph 9, Sir A. Murray stated that on 17th April, 1917, the 54th and 52nd “were to seize and occupy the line Sheik-Abbas-Mansura-Kurd Hill,” that line was taken by 7 a.m.
On the 19th these two divisions were to attack the Ali Muntar group of works south of Gaza, the 54th pivoting on the right of the 52nd; unfortunately the latter division was held up, see 52nd Division. “Meanwhile the 54th Division with the Imperial Camel Corps had advanced steadily under fire on the right of the 52nd Division. Its left brigade was in advance of the right of the rear brigade of the 52nd Division, and thus exposed to a heavy enfilade fire from the direction of Ali Muntar. At 9.30 a.m. the left of this brigade was heavily counter-attacked, but the enemy were repulsed by machine-gun fire. On the right of this brigade another brigade fought its way forward against the enemy works between Gaza and Khirbet Sihan.” These were entered by the Camel Corps. The two brigades, “in spite of most strenuous and gallant efforts to advance, were repeatedly checked by very heavy fire from this front. Towards noon the left of the right brigade was forced back by a determined counter-attack from the north-east,” but with the assistance of the third brigade it was able to regain the ground lost.