41st Division (United Kingdom)

The 41st Division of the British Army was a New Army division, which saw service on the Western Front and in Italy during the First World War.

The division was formed as part of the fifth wave (K5) of divisions in the New Army; it did not have a regional title, but was composed primarily of recruits from the south of England. Several of its battalions had been raised by local communities, and were named for their towns or industries. After training and home service, it deployed to the Western Front in mid-1916; its first major combat came in September of that year, at the Battle of Flers–Courcelette. After fighting in 1917 at the Battle of Messines and Third Battle of Ypres it was transferred to the Italian Front. It remained here for three months through the winter of 1917-18 before returning to the Western Front, where it arrived just before the German Spring Offensive. It participated in the Allied "Hundred Days Offensive", and ended the war in Flanders, from where it moved to join the Army of Occupation in Germany following the Armistice.

It was demobilised in March 1919, with some units transferred to the London Division, British Army of the Rhine. The division was not reformed after the war, and did not serve in the Second World War.

Formation

 * 122nd Brigade :


 * 12th (Service) Battalion (Bermondsey), The East Surrey Regiment
 * 15th (Service) Battalion (2nd Portsmouth), The Hampshire Regiment
 * 11th (Service) Battalion (Lewisham), The Royal West Kent Regiment (disbanded March 1918)
 * 18th (Service) Battalion (Arts and Crafts), King's Royal Rifle Corps


 * 123rd Brigade :


 * 11th (Service) Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
 * 10th (Service) Battalion (Kent County), The Royal West Kent Regiment
 * 23rd (Service) Battalion (2nd Football), The Middlesex Regiment
 * 20th (Service) Battalion (Wearside), Durham Light Infantry (to 124 Bde March 1918)


 * 124th Brigade :


 * 10th (Service) Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
 * 26th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers
 * 32nd (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (disbanded March 1918)
 * 21st (Service) Battalion (Yeomen Rifles), King's Royal Rifle Corps (disbanded March 1918)
 * 20th (Service) Battalion (Wearside), Durham Light Infantry (from 123 Bde March 1918)


 * Pioneers :


 * 19th (Service) Battalion (2nd Public Works Pioneers), The Middlesex Regiment

Battles

 * Battle of the Somme (1916)
 * Battle of Flers-Courcelette
 * Battle of Le Transloy
 * Battle of Messines (1917)
 * Third Battle of Ypres