Download World War II – Formation

World War II – Formation
Commander - Brigadier The O’Donovan
When war came again to Europe in 1939 the Irish regiments were ready to play their part. The British
Expeditionary Force included battalions of The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, The London Rifles and The
Royal Irish Fusiliers and all were in action during the retreat to Dunkirk.
Sir Hubert Gough, who had commanded 5th Army in the 1914-18 war suggested that those Irish regiments
disbanded in 1922 should be reformed in order to attract the maximum number of Irish recruits. Although
this came to nothing, the creation of an Irish Brigade, drawing together battalions of the Irish line regiments
in which men from all over Ireland could serve was conceived by the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
Marked for ‘Action this Day’, his memo to the Secretaries of State for War and Air read:
‘I think now the time is ripe to form an Irish Brigade, also an Irish Wing or Squadron of the RAF’.
The Brigade was born on 13th January 1942, when 210 Infantry Brigade, a Home defence static brigade, was
renumbered as 38 (Irish) Brigade and its English battalions were replaced by Irish units.
Command of the Irish Brigade was vested in the distinguished Royal Irish Fusilier, Brigadier The
O’Donovan, a native of West Cork. The title The O’Donovan denotes the premier member of the
O’Donovan Clan and its use is the last vestige of the ancient Gaelic aristocracy. The O'Donovan pedigree
goes back to Callaghan, a 10th-century King of Munster. From his son, Donnabhain, came the family name
(donn meaning 'brown' and dubhann meaning 'black').
The Brigade consisted of one Regular Army battalion, one wartime battalion and one Territorial Army
battalion ~ 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Fusiliers, 6th Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and 2nd
Battalion The London Irish Rifles.
It served under a number of formations during the Second World War but in March 1943 it joined 78th
(Battleaxe) Infantry Division in Tunisia and fought with distinction in Tunisia, Sicily, and Italy as part of this
highly regarded division until the end of World War II.
78th (Battleaxe) Infantry Division
Brigadier The O’Donovan
World War II – Algeria and Tunisia
22 November 1942 – 26 July 1943
Commander - Brigadier N Russell
Battle Honours
Bou Arada, Oued Zarga, Medjez Plain, Tunis
The Tunisia Campaign (Operation TORCH) – November 17, 1942 – May 13, 1943 – (also known as the
Battle of Tunisia) was a series of World War II battles that took place in Tunisia in the North African
Campaign of World War II, between Axis and Allied forces. The Allies consisted primarily of American,
British Imperial Forces and the French Army. The battle opened with initial success by the German and
Italian forces, but the massive supply and numerical superiority of the Allies led to the Axis’ complete
defeat. Over 230,000 German and Italian troops were taken as prisoners of war, including most of the Afrika
Korps.
78 Division plan for the offensive was to attack northwards across the Beja-Oued Zarga-Medjez road and
capture the high ground to the north west of the Medjez-Tunis road. This mountain country has been
described by General Anderson commanding the 1st Army during Operation TORCH as:
"a vast tract of country, every hill in which is large enough to swallow up a brigade of infantry, where
consolidation on the rocky slopes is very difficult, in which tanks can only operate in small numbers, where
movement of guns and vehicles is very restricted, and where the Division had to rely on pack mules for its
supplies and to carry wireless sets, tools and mortars. The general impression is one of wide spaciousness a kind of Dartmoor, or Central Sutherlandshire, but with deeper valleys and steeper hills".
General Evelegh, Commander of 78 Division, decided that all three brigades should attack together. 11
Brigade was on the right having assembled south of Djebel Touila; 36 Brigade in the centre and 38 (Irish)
Brigade on the left. 38 (Irish) Brigade had joined 78 Division in March 1943 as replacement for 1 Guards
Brigade which had become the lorried Infantry Brigade of 6 Armoured Division.
General Sir Kenneth Anderson
Commander First Army
Major-General Vyvyan Evelegh
Commander 78 Division
Brigadier Nelson Russell
Commander 38 Brigade
World War II – Sicily and Italy
28 July 1943 – 17 July 1944
Commander - Brigadier N Russell
Commander - Brigadier TPD Scott
Battle Honours
Adrano, The Sangro, Cassino II, Liri Valley, Trasimene Line, Advance to Florence
The Allied invasion of Italy occurred during September 1943 for a number of key reasons not least important
of which was that support for the war in Italy had been declining and it was thought that an invasion would
hasten the efforts of the new government that had deposed Mussolini, which was seeking peace.
Furthermore, the weakening of Axis control of the Mediterranean supply routes eased the pressure on Allied
forces operating in the Middle and Far East, as well as on the efforts to supply to the Soviet Union.
Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 was successful, serving as a springboard for the
invasion of the mainland. In September, the first Allied troops to land were of the British Eighth Army
under the then General Bernard Montgomery, in Operation Baytown. Further landings on 9 September 1943
saw the main attack force landing, despite the Italian surrender to the Allied forces on the previous day.
The Germans created a series of defensive lines intended to keep Allied armies in southern Italy. Key to this
strategy was the Gustav Line, anchored on the mountains around the town of Cassino. To enter the Liri
valley, through which passed Highway 6, the Via Casilna, the main road to Rome, the Allies had to break
this line. From 17 January to 18 May the Gustav line was attacked by Allied troops on four occasions. These
operations resulted in 54,000 Allied and 20,000 German casualties.
Having seen its first action at Termoli on the Adriatic coast the Irish Brigade took part in the crossing of the
Tringo and Sangro rivers before moving into reserve. When the plan to make a pincer attack on Rome was
abandoned, the Brigade was committed to the New Zealand Corps in the assault on Cassino and Monte
Cassino. Its battalions spent almost a month in mountain positions under regular shell and mortar fire, before
moving to train for Operation DIADEM, the army group attack on the Gustav Line.
At 2300hrs on 11 May 1944 Operation DIADEM was launched. The Battleaxe Division was to pass through
a bridgehead created by the 4th British and 8th Indian Divisions, but such was the German opposition that
the plan fell behind schedule and it was 14 May before the Irish Brigade spearheaded its Division’s advance.
In the days of desperate fighting that followed the Irish Brigade achieved its objectives and, on the afternoon
of the 17th, threatened Highway 6. This prompted a German decision to withdraw and, next morning, Polish
troops took Monte Cassino and its ruined Abbey.
From 22 July – 9 September 1944, 38 (Irish) Brigade moved to Egypt to conduct training and recuperation
prior to subsequent operations.
Monte Cassino
World War II – Italy
15 September 1944 – 20 May 1945
Commander - Brigadier TPD Scott
Battle Honours
The Senio, Argenta Gap
The Senio is a 92 km river of Romagna in Italy, the final right-sided tributary of the river Reno. It was the
site of major engagements in 1945 during World War II. The Allied capture of the Senio River area was
critical for the success of the Allied drive to capture all of Italy. The British 4th Division and the American
101st Airborne took great casualties capturing the heavily defended crossing.
The Battle of the Argenta Gap was an engagement between British forces and German defensive positions,
from 1 to 19 April 1945, with the aim of opening up northern Italy to the Allied advance. The Battle to
breach the Gap began with Operation Roast, a commando assault across Lake Comacchio on 1 April to
secure the flanks for the coming assaults by the Eighth Army and to seize three canals that ran through the
area. The operation was highly successful, capturing large numbers of German artillery pieces, with the
destruction of three German battalions at a low cost to Allied forces. It was in this raid that Corporal
Thomas Peck Hunter of 43 Commando posthumously received the Victoria Cross for his actions and Danish
national, Major Anders Lassen of the Special Boat Service (SBS) was also awarded a VC posthumously.
On the morning of 11 April, the British 5th Corps made an amphibious assault on the south-western shore of
Lake Comacchio, cutting along and outflanking the German defensive lines, where they found the
submerged, marshy land easier to traverse than had previously been expected. As the day wore on, elements
of 169th Brigade and 40th Commando established a beachhead against the German 42nd Jaeger Division and
a mixture of other nearby German units.
The following day, the 42nd Jaeger Division began to pull back. The beachhead was linked up with 167th
Brigade that had been advancing by land. To the north, along the Po River, the 29th Panzer Division was
brought south to engage advancing Allied forces and establishes secondary lines of defence while the 42nd
Jaeger continued to retreat. Then the 78th and 56th Infantry Divisions of the Eighth Army advanced from the
south and east respectively. On the 13th, the 24th Guards Brigade landed near the defensive positions of the
29th Panzer Division and with a German retreat the British 6th Armoured Division was able to penetrate the
Argenta Gap. German resistance was moderate, with the stiff defence of small villages such as the villages
of San Antonio and Casa Tomba. German Panzer tanks were captured with their crews sleeping inside such
was the speed of the Allied advance. By the 18th the battle for the Argenta Gap was over, and much of the
retreating German force had been destroyed before it could retreat across the Po River. The German army
began a general withdrawal from the area around Bologna on 20 April.
The Pipes and Drums of the Irish Brigade play in
front of St Peter's Church in the Vatican City, Rome,
12 June 1944
Brigadier TPD Scott
World War II – Austria
20 May – 31 August 1945
The End Game
Commander - Brigadier TPD Scott
German resistance began to disintegrate and the Brigade advanced quickly through northern Italy, crossing
into Austria on 7 May. The German Army in Italy surrendered on 2 May. The 2nd World War finally ended
on 8 May.
The Brigade took up occupation duties in Carinthia in southern Austria, and was eventually formally
dissolved in April 1947.
The Brigade roll of honour for World War 2 lists 1,050 members of the Brigade who gave their lives in
Tunisia, Sicily and Italy, the final member being Corporal Nutley of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (‘The
Skins’).
Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
(‘The Skins’)
The London Irish Rifles
Royal Irish Fusiliers
(‘The Faughs’)