Leeds Rifles

The Leeds Rifles was a unit of the 19th Century British Volunteer Force that went on to serve under several different guises in the World Wars of the 20th Century.

Origin
When a call was issued for the formation of local Volunteer Rifle Corps in 1859, the City of Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire responded enthusiastically. A unit calling itself the Leeds Rifles was quickly raised with support from the city's business leaders. It was claimed that the whole of 'A' Company was recruited from employees of Joshua Tetley & Son's brewery, beginning a long association between the Tetley family and the regiment. The Leeds Rifles was accepted as the 11th Yorkshire West Riding Rifle Volunteer Corps, with the first commissions being issued to its officers by the Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire on 17 November 1859. In May 1860 it absorbed the less-successful 22nd (Leeds) West Riding RVC, and the combined battalion-sized unit was renumbered the 7th West Riding RVC. Its first headquarters was next to Leeds Town Hall. (Separately, the City also raised the 1st (Leeds) West Riding Artillery Volunteer Corps on 2 August 1860 and 2nd West Riding (Leeds) Engineer Volunteer Corps formed on 21 May 1861.)

Nineteenth Century
Government funding for the RVCs was strictly limited, and they had to rely upon members' subscriptions and the generosity of their officers. Captain Thomas Kinnear of the Leeds Rifles, a partner in the textile firm Benjamin Gott & Son, lent over £1100 of his own money to offset the unit's debts. In 1866 he sent a circular to other RVCs that revealed the level of dissatisfaction around the country about the insufficiency of the government grant, but despite strong support for the Volunteer movement in Parliament, funding was not increased.

The primary purpose of the RVCs was home defence, but their enthusiastic members often volunteered for service overseas in other units. At least three members of the Leeds Rifles volunteered to serve in the unofficial British Legion that went to fight with Giuseppe Garibaldi in his 1860 campaign in Naples. Officers from the Leeds Rifles apparently served in Captain Watt Whalley's Natal Light Horse in the Anglo-Zulu War.

As part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 the Leeds Rifles was attached to its local county regiment, the Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment), formally becoming that regiment's 3rd Volunteer Battalion in 1887. This was despite an offer from the War Office to join a different regiment, a dispute that ran for several years. As part of the compromise, the Leeds Rifles retained their Rifle green uniforms, despite the West Yorkshires being a redcoated regiment. The Leeds Rifles was sufficiently large to purchase the old militia barracks at Carlton Hill, Leeds, and modernise it as its Regimental HQ.

During the Second Boer War the Leeds Rifles raised two service companies to supplement the Regular Army on campaign. As a result, the Leeds Rifles was awarded South Africa 1900–1902 as its first battle honour.

Territorials
When the Territorial Force was created in 1908, the Volunteer Battalions became Territorial Battalions of their linked regiments. The 1st and 2nd (V) Bns became 5th and 6th Bns of the West Yorkshires, while 3rd (V) Bn became 7th and 8th (Leeds Rifles), a double battalion of the West Yorkshires with RHQ at Carlton Barracks. The four battalions formed the West Yorkshire Brigade in the TF.

World War I
On the outbreak of World War I, the West Yorkshire Brigade mobilised as 146th Brigade in 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division. The First Line TF battalions soon raised duplicate battalions (2/5th, 2/6th, 2/7th, 2/8th), initially for home service, which constituted 185th Brigade in 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division. In 1915 they formed further reserve battalions (3/5th, 3/6th, 3/7th, 3/8th) that served in the British Isles. On 1 September 1916, 3/7th and 3/8th Bns merged to form 7th Reserve Bn in the West Riding Reserve Bde, and in the summer of 1918 this battalion was sent to Ireland. (In addition, the City of Leeds raised two battalions for Kitchener's Army: the 15th West Riding (1st Leeds) was known as the 'Leeds Pals', and the 17th West Riding (2nd Leeds) was a 'Bantam' battalion.)

Battalions in 1st West Riding Division
146 Brigade landed at Boulogne on 15 April 1915 and served in 49th (West Riding) Division on the Western Front for the rest of the war. 49 Division had a peripheral role in the British attack on Aubers Ridge, 9 May 1915, soon after its arrival at the front. Much more serious was the German attack of 19 December 1915 on the British line between Frezenberg and Boesinghe (Boezinge) on the Northern side of the Ypres Salient. The Germans employed phosgene gas for the first time, delivered by shells instead of a cloud released from cylinders. The British line stood firm, despite heavy casualties from gas and shellfire.

On 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 49 Division was in X Corps' reserve. During the morning, 146 Bde was ordered to move to Thiepval Wood to support the 32nd and 36th Divisions who had attacked at Zero. This move entailed crossing a swamp by two duckboarded causeways: 1/7th and 1/8th Leeds Rifles took the North causeway. They came under German machine-gun fire and had to cross in small parties, but by 11.35 am the brigade was in the assembly trenches in Thiepval Wood. The brigade was put at the disposal of 36th (Ulster) Division, which had gained some success at the Schwaben Redoubt, and was ordered to make a frontal assault on Thiepval village at 4.00 pm. However, due to congestion in the trenches, only the 1/6th Bn and one company of 1/8th Leeds Rifles were in position to attack. Their lines were swept by machine-gun fire from Thiepval Fort, and the survivors were withdrawn into reserve and the rest of the attack cancelled. But 36th Division had been promised support, so two companies of 1/7th Leeds Rifles advanced. It was not until 9.00 pm that the rest of the Leeds Rifles went forward and began to reach Schwaben Redoubt, but it was too late and the Ulstermen were forced to abandon the position about 10.30 pm.

However, a 30-man party of 1/7th Leeds Rifles got left behind in the redoubt, and held out for two more days under the command of Corporal George Sanders until it could be withdrawn. Sanders was awarded the Victoria Cross for this exploit, and was later commissioned as an officer.

For much of the war, the 1st West Riding Division was involved in static trench warfare, holding parts of the notorious Ypres Salient. In July 1917 it was withdrawn to begin training for an amphibious operation against the German U-boat bases on the Belgian Coast (Operation Hush), but this was cancelled after a German spoiling attack and the opening failure of the British Army's Third Ypres Offensive.

Later, the Yorkshiremen were fed into the later stages of Third Ypres under the command of II ANZAC Corps. On 9 October 1917, 49th and the untried 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Divisions of II ANZAC attacked along two parallel ridges towards the village of Passchendaele (the Battle of Poelcappelle). Although recent British attacks had been successful, 49th's 'attempt to advance was marked by one mishap after another'. The artillery preparation was poor, hampered by the mud. The two attacking brigades barely reached their jumping-off line on time, covered with mud from the approach march through the swampy ground, and 'looking like men who had been buried alive and then dug up again'. In trying to advance, they found that the Ravebeke stream – marked as 5 feet wide on their maps – had swollen to 150 feet across. The other brigade failed to cross it, leaving the West Yorkshires of 146 Bde to advance alone. They managed a few hundred yards and then 'they were staggered by shrapnel and heavy machine-gun fire from pill-boxes on the higher ground ahead'. Next they encountered a wide belt of uncut barbed wire, followed by the belt of pillboxes, each surrounded by wire, which had to be attacked individually. Finally, the Yorkshiremen faced the main resistance from the rifles and light machine-guns of the Rhinelanders of the German 16th Infantry Division hidden among the hundreds of shell-holes in the front. By 10.00 am the advance had stalled, and in early afternoon, both brigades returned to their starting points. At the end of the day 49th Division had suffered 2585 casualties and had no net gains at all.

The casualties of 1916–17 led to a manpower crisis for the British Expeditionary Force and brigades had to be reduced from four to three battalions. On 30 January 1918, 1/8th Bn transferred from the 1st to the 2nd West Riding Division and absorbed 2/8th Bn, being renamed 8th Bn.

During the second great attack of the German Spring Offensive of 1918, the Lys Offensive, 49 Division fought at the Battles of Estaires, Messines, Bailleul (in which the division defended Neuve Eglise), 1st and 2nd Battles of Kemmel Ridge, and the Scherpenberg.

Following the defeat of the German 1918 offensives, 49 Division took part in the pursuit to the Selle and the subsequent Battle of the Selle and Battle of Valenciennes.

Battalions in 2nd West Riding Division
The Second Line Territorials were released for overseas service under the Military Service Act 1916. The two Leeds Rifles battalions of 185th (2/1st West Riding) Brigade landed at Le Havre in January 1917 and served in 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division on the Western Front for the rest of the war. That spring they took part in the operations on the Ancre (15 February–13 March), the follow-up of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line (14–19 March), the First Battle of Bullecourt (11 April), the German attack on Lagnicourt (15 April), the Second Battle of Bullecourt (3–17 May) and the actions on the Hindenburg Line (20–28 May).

62 Division was not involved in the Ypres offensive of 1917, but in October 1917 it began training to cooperate with tanks in the forthcoming Battle of Cambrai. G Battalion Tank Corps was assigned to lead 185 Bde's assault when the attack began at dawn on 20 October. The division's first objective was Havrincourt on the Flesquières Ridge. It was a strong position, with the main Hindenburg Line position and several field-gun batteries hidden in dead ground, and several tanks were knocked out by direct hits before they penetrated the village with the West Yorkshires and overran the German Infanterie-Regiment von Manstein (1. Schleswigsches) Nr. 84 while the divisional reserve moved on to capture Graincourt-lès-Havrincourt. 62 Division could have gone on to take Bourlon Wood, but was held back because a neighbouring division was held up at Flesquières. A week later, 62 Division was sent in again with tank support to capture Bourlon Wood. This time 185 Bde formed the divisional reserve and was sent up to hold the meagre gains of the bloody fighting. Two days later, after the West Yorkshires had been withdrawn into reserve, a German counter-offensive recaptured almost all the gains of the previous fighting. In January 1918, 1/8th Leeds Rifles joined 185 Bde and merged with 2/8th to form a single 8th Bn. During the German Spring Offensive 62 Division was engaged at the First Battle of Bapaume (25 March) and the First Battle of Arras (28 March). On 26 March the division was heavily attacked but held its line. The following day the Germans tried to turn the division's flank at Rossignol Wood, and fighting continued through the night and into the following day.

2/7th Leeds Rifles was disbanded 16–19 June 1918, and 8th Leeds Rifles was the only unit of the West Yorkshires remaining in the brigade by the end of August. In July, 62 Division was sent to assist the French army, and took part in the Battle of the Tardenois or 'Bligny Ridge' (part of the Second Battle of the Marne (20–30 July)). On 28 July the division captured Bligny against strong opposition, and the French awarded the Croix de Guerre to 8th Leeds Rifles for this action. "Extract of General Army Order No. 430 The General Commanding the Fifth Army cites in General Army Orders the 8th Battalion The Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment) (Leeds Rifles). This élite Battalion under the forceful command of Lieutenant Colonel Norman  Ayrton England, from July 20th to July 30th, took a brilliant part in the heavy  fighting that won us the Valley of the River Ardre. On the 23rd July 1918, having cleared a path through the dense thickets of the  Bois du Petit Champ, it captured a vital position despite continuous fire from  enemy machine guns. On July 28th 1918 with magnificent spirit it captured the Montaigne de Bligny,  strongly defended by enemy forces superior in number, and maintained the  position in spite of heavy losses and the desperate efforts of the enemy to  regain the ground. (GHQ Decision No. 22389 dated 16th October 1918.) Signed Guillaumat  General Officer Commanding V° Army."

This award was approved by King George V in November 1922: "Army Order Number 431 Grant of Honorary Distinction His Majesty The King has been graciously pleased to approve of the officers, warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the 8th (Leeds Rifles) Battalion The West Yorkshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's Own) being permitted to wear in their headdresses on all ceremonial parades, a Cockade of the Colours of the French Croix de Guerre in commemoration of their exploits at La Montaigne de Bligny in 1918, for which they were 'cité' in the Orders of the 5th French Army."

This honorary distinction to the TA successors of the Leeds Rifle was confirmed by Queen Elizabeth II in 1968.

62 Division took part in the Hundred Days Offensive beginning in the summer of 1918, at the Battle of the Scarpe (26–30 August) and the Battle of the Drocourt-Quéant Line (2 September). 62 Division was back at Havrincourt on 12 September 1918 for the Battle of Havrincourt – the division was specially chosen because of its performance there in 1917. It then took part in the Battle of the Canal du Nord (27–30 September), and the Battle of the Selle (17–23 October), capture of Solesmes (20 October) and Battle of the Sambre (4 November) during the final advance in Picardy.

Interwar reorganisation
The 7th and 8th Leeds Rifles were reconstituted in the Territorial Army after World War I. 7th Battalion was commanded by Lt-Col Charles Herbert Tetley, who had won a DSO during the war, and his cousin James Noel Tetley was one of the subalterns.

In 1936 the 8th (Leeds Rifles) Bn transferred to the Royal Artillery as 66th (Leeds Rifles, The West Yorkshire Regiment) Anti-Aircraft Brigade.

In April 1938 the 7th (Leeds Rifles) Bn converted to the armoured role as 45th (Leeds Rifles) Bn, Royal Tank Regiment. In June 1939, the company at Morley was split off to form the cadre for a duplicate unit, the 51st (Leeds Rifles) Bn, Royal Tank Regiment.

World War II
In the early months of World War II, the 66th (now termed a Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment) formed part of Home Forces in the UK. 45th (Leeds Rifles) RTR formed part of 24th Army Tank Brigade (later 24th Armoured Brigade), a Second Line Territorial formation in Northern Command, in which it served alongside the Oldham TA regiments, 41 RTR and its duplicate, 47 RTR. Similarly, the duplicate Leeds battalion, 51 RTR, was in 25th Army Tank Brigade, also in Northern Command, alongside the Newcastle TA regiment, 43 RTR, and its duplicate 49 RTR.

45th RTR
On the outbreak of war 45 RTR was commanded by Lt-Col Noel Tetley. There were almost no armoured fighting vehicles available for the TA regiments, and the few possessed by 45 RTR were deployed for airfield defence in North East England during the Battle of Britain. Later in the year, 24th Army Tank Brigade was redesignated 24th Armoured Brigade and became part of a new 8th Armoured Division. During 1941 the regiment moved to the South of England to continue its training. In December 1941 Lt-Col Tetley was promoted out of the regiment to command a tank brigade, and was replaced by Lt-Col S.C. Dumbreck of the Royal Dragoons.

In May 1942, 45 RTR embarked at Liverpool for the Middle East, sailing round the Cape and reaching Egypt in July. There the crews began training on Grant tanks, but by September they were equipped with a mix of Sherman tanks (codenamed 'Swallows') and Crusaders (but apparently not to full establishment). 8th Armoured Division was not yet complete, so 24th Armoured Bde was attached to 10th Armoured Division for the forthcoming Second Battle of El Alamein.

45 RTR went into action alongside 41 and 47 RTR on the second day of the battle (D+1, 24 October), as 10th Armoured pushed towards Miteira. Its tanks engaged enemy anti-tank guns and entrenched infantry before withdrawing at dusk. The next day (D+2) 45 RTR moved into battle positions, supporting 41 and 47 RTR with gunfire. The enemy anti-tank guns were well dug in and had to be engaged by observing their flashes. One German infantry post was overrun by a troop of tanks firing their machine-guns into the trenches. The regiment withdrew again at dusk, leaving one defence squadron on the ridge. On D+3 there was confused fighting ahead of the regiment. During D+4, 45 RTR remained on the ridge all day, covering 41 and 47 RTR as they advanced through the gaps in the minefields. On the night of 27/28 October, the CO was ordered to advance at first light on D+5 to support an infantry brigade, but as the regiment only had about 20 tanks, 41 RTR was ordered to make up the numbers. The Crusader squadron had only gone a few hundred yards when they came upon some infantry digging in, and stopped. But Dumbreck had been told that the infantry he was supporting had definitely reached their objective, so one of the Sherman squadrons pushed on towards the ridge SE of the feature known as 'Snipe', supported by the other, which engaged German tanks coming from Snipe. It emerged that the infantry had not achieved their obective, and 45 RTR withdrew under shellfire. During this unsatisfactory action, the regiment lost 10 tanks and suffered 11 men killed or died of wounds, 10 missing believed dead, and 34 wounded, mainly from mines and shellfire. At the end of the day, 45 RTR handed its remaining tanks over to other regiments and was withdrawn into reserve.

After the battle, 45th (Leeds Rifles) RTR was sent a message of congratulations from the Lord Mayor of Leeds, but the regiment had fought its only battle. Over succeeding months 24 Armoured Bde's officers and men were progressively posted away to other units. However, the planned dispersal of 45 RTR was cancelled, and it took in the remaining details of 41 and 47 RTR and became a holding unit,. In this role it received large drafts of reinforcements from the UK before they were posted to other regiments. Nevertheless, on 8 March 1943, 45 RTR was finally disbanded and replaced by a Royal Armoured Corps holding unit.

51st RTR
At the end of May 1940, with the British Expeditionary Force being evacuated from Dunkirk and the imminent threat of German invasion of England, 25th Army Tank Brigade was redesignated 2nd Motor Machine Gun Brigade and its regiments reorganised accordingly. Each of 51 RTR's three MMG squadrons consisted of three troops, each with six Humber Snipe or Hillman Utility ('Tilly') two-seat cars, two carrying Vickers medium machine guns, two Bren light machine guns and two Boys anti-tank rifles. In July 1940, volunteers from the units of 25th Army Tank Brigade formed No 5 Troop of No. 5 Commando at Bridlington. In August, 51 RTR and the rest of the brigade moved to Northumberland to guard the coastline with machine gun posts along the cliffs and sand dunes.

25th Army Tank Brigade was reconstituted at the end of 1940, and its regiments began to receive a trickle of tanks on which to train. By the end of 1942, 51 RTR was fully trained and fully equipped with Churchill tankss. In January 1943, the regiment embarked with 25th Tank Brigade for North Africa, where it came under the command of British First Army in the Tunisia campaign.

On 7–8 April 51 RTR supported IX Corps at Fondouk Pass. 128th Brigade of 46th Infantry Division crossed the Wadi Marguellil during the night and at 5.30 am on the 8 April began its main attack, supported by 'C' Sqn 51 RTR, and by noon was on its objective. The regiment ended the campaign in Army Reserve.

25 Tank Brigade came under the command of Brigadier Noel Tetley of the Leeds Rifles at the end of the Tunisia campaign. The brigade, including 51 RTR, remained training in Algeria for almost a year, before they were required for the Italian campaign. 51 RTR embarked on 16 April 1944 and landed at Naples, where it was equipped with Churchill tanks, with a few Shermans and Stuarts.

The brigade distinguished itself in support of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division in the assault on the Adolf Hitler Line in May 1944. At the request of the Canadians, its regiments adopted the Maple leaf as an additional badge, later worn by 51 RTR's successors, the Leeds Detachment (Leeds Rifles), Imphal (PWO) Company, The East and West Riding Regiment. Brigadier Tetley, formerly of the Leeds Rifles himself, was the only Territorial Army RTR officer to command a brigade on active service. 51 RTR went on to fight in the Gothic Line battles of August–September 1944.

To deal with the successive enemy lines of defences anticipated in the later stages of the campaign, it was decided late in 1944 to convert 25th Tank Brigade into 25th Assault Engineer Brigade, equipped with specialised armour ('funnies'. Organised on 5 January 1945, this was primarily a Royal Engineers formation, but 51 RTR remained in the brigade and was also converted to specialised armour. 'B' Squadron received 15 Crab Mark II flail tanks, while 'A' and 'C' sqns had a total of 32 Churchill Crocodile flamethrowing tanks. Each squadron in the brigade was self-administering, so that they could be detached where required.

25 Armoured Assault Brigade first went into action at the crossing of the Senio on 9 April 1945. 51 RTR was attached to the New Zealand and 8th Indian Divisions. The flamethrowing tanks crept forward during the preliminary bombardment and positioned themselves close to the floodbank as possible. One minute before the infantry assault started the positions were flamed. Most of the Crocodiles had to be 60 feet behind the bank to be able to direct their flame over the bank.<Jackson, pp. 219, 224. World War II in Europe ended shortly after this operation.

66th HAA Regiment
In September 1940 66th HAA Regt was assigned to OSDEF (Orkneys and Shetland Defence Force), primarily guarding the great naval base at Scapa Flow. In May 1942 the regiment was sent to India, where it served in 1st and 2nd Indian AA Brigades before moving to Burma as part of 9th AA Brigade. During 1943 the regiment served in the Manipur Road sector, and in January 1944 it detached 296 Battery to the Ledo area of Assam, the start of the famous Ledo Road. The regiment went back to India in April 1944, as part of 3rd Indian AA Brigade, and was placed in suspended animation a year later.

Postwar
When the Territorial Army was reformed after the war, it included a combined 45th/51st (Leeds Rifles) RTR and the 466th (Leeds Rifles) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA.

In 1956 the 45th/51st (Leeds Rifles) RTR returned to the infantry role under its old title of 7th (Leeds Rifles) Bn West Yorkshire Regiment. It carried the honorary distinction on its colours and appointments of the badge of the Royal Tank regiment with dates '1942-45' and two scrolls inscribed 'North Africa' and 'Italy'. In 1961 it re-absorbed the 466th (Leeds Rifles) LAA Regt to form The Leeds Rifles, The Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire.

On the reorganisation of the TA into the Territorial Army Volunteer Reserve (TAVR) in 1967, the Leeds Rifles formed part of A Company (The Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire) Yorkshire Volunteers in TAVR II at York, and the Leeds Rifles Territorials in TAVR III, with HQ and two companies at Leeds. These subsequently became E (later A) (Leeds Rifles) Company, 1st Bn Yorkshire Volunteers, and C (Leeds Rifles) Company, 2nd Bn Yorkshire Volunteers. Successive amalgamations led by 1999 to the Leeds Rifles being reduced to a Leeds-based Platoon of Imphal Company, the East and West Riding Regiment. In 2006 Imphal Company became HQ Company of the 4th Bn The Yorkshire Regiment.

Honorary Colonels
Brigadier Charles Herbert Tetley, DSO, TD, ( –1948)

Brigadier Noel Tetley, DSO, TD. (1948–1963)

Brigadier Kenneth Hargreaves, CBE, TD (1963–1966)

John Houston Taylor (born 1966)

External sources

 * http://www.yorkshirevolunteers.org.uk Yorkshire Volunteers website
 * http://web.archive.org/web/20051228103659/http://www.regiments.org/regiments/index.htm Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth
 * http://www.1914-1918.net The Long, Long Trail: The British Army in the Great War
 * http://www.ra39-45.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk The Royal Artillery 1939–45.
 * http://pwo-yorkshire.museum Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire Museum
 * http://www.army.mod.uk/infantry/regiments/24555.aspx 4 YORKS website
 * http://penhey.name/omiwxe162Div(home(p).htm The British 62nd Division in the Great War