Home -> British Service -> Army -> Machine Gun Corps -> Infantry -> No. 11 Battalion

Units That Used The Vickers

The Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)

No. 11 Battalion, MGC

Photobucket

A Machine Gun Battalion was attached to each Infantry Division and was formed of three MG Companies. Unlike other MG Bns serving on the Western Front, this Battalion only comprised of three Companies rather than four. This was due to no Divisional MG Company being established.

Division attached to: 11th (Northern) Division
Formed from the: 32nd Machine Gun Company
33rd Machine Gun Company
34th Machine Gun Company
250th Machine Gun Company

The 11th Bn, MGC was formed on the 28 February 1918.

As a unit of the 11th (Northern) Infantry Division during this period, it will have taken part in the following battles and engagements.

1918
THE ADVANCE TO VICTORY
SECOND BATTLES OF ARRAS
30 AugustBattle of the Scarpe [XXII Corps, First Army].
02 and 03 SeptemberBattle of the Drocourt-Queant Line [XXII Corps, First Army].
BATTLES OF THE HINDENBERG LINE
27 September to 01 OctoberBattle of the Canal du Nord [Canadian Corps, First Army].
08 and 09 OctoberPursuit to the Selle [Canadian Corps, First Army].
THE FINAL ADVANCE IN PICARDY
04 NovemberBattle of the Sambre [XXII Corps, First Army].
05 to 07 NovemberPassage of the Grande Honnelle [XXII Corps, First Army].
On the 9th November the 11th Division established its outpost line beyond the Mons-Mauberge road and the high ground to the east of Havay was occupied before 11am on the 11th November, when the Armistice brought hostilities to a close.

Between the 26th and 28th November the Division moved back behind the Schelde to Denain, Wallers, and Conde, and for the rest of the year educational training was undertaken and men were sent on technical courses. Demobilization began in January, 1919 and continued at an increasing pace; on the 1st February the infantry of the division still numbered 8,239 all ranks, but by the 1st March this total had shrunk to 4,864. On the 19th February the outlying brigade at Conde moved in to Denain, and units were broken up to cadre strength, and in June the cadres began moving to England to be broken up. By the 28th June the infantry strength had dwindled to 228 all ranks and the war history of the Division then came to an end. During the Great War the 11th (Northern) Division lost 32,165 killed, wounded, and missing.


Sources

  • Becke, 1934
    This page is published by the Vickers MG Collection & Research Association, a not-for-profit company, limited by guarantee, registered in England, Company Registration Number 07855202 - www.vickersmachinegun.org.uk