British 5th Infantry Division.

Does anyone know when the 5th British infantry div was transferred to the n.w.e. Campaign.?,thanks.

 

February 1945 prior to the Rhine crossing.

 

5th Div were at sea 27/02/45 to 2/3/45. They are officially deemed serving NWE 2/3/45 to 31/8/45.

 

Hey guys,thanks for the help.Cheers,Lee.

 

Just started to research my fathers war service and his papers show that he embarked from CMS on 27/02/45 and disembarked NWE 01/03/45. His papers show he was a dispatch rider in the 5th Divisional signals. I'm currently trying to establish his route through NWE as his photographs include : Wesel, Lubeck, Wismar, Celle, Osnabruck, Ulzen, Brunswick and Hamburg.

Any info gratefully accepted.

 

Was the division transferred to the 21st Army Group because of the infantry losses before the Rhine assault.?Cheers,Lee.

 

I understand it was part of a general shift of forces from Italy to Northwest Europe for the final drive into the Reich. I Canadian Corps moved complete from Italy to NWE (Operation Goldflake), finally uniting First Canadian Army as a single body, at the same time. Allied Armies in Italy had to contend with their own 'infantry crisis' during 1944 as well, particularly as priority for replacements went to NWE, and a fair few non-Inf units were converted wholesale to infantry.

Considering it's various travels during the conflict (BEF 1940, India/Iraq/Syria 1942, Sicily/Italy 1943-45 and NWE 1945) 5th Inf Div doesn't seem to get much mention. I've not seen a decent history of them in print. If Rpickett051 is still searching, I'd recommend a post over on the related WW2talk forum, who have a good record on helping people trace their relative's service during the war.

Gary

 

I see Gary,thankyou for the help.Lee.

 

This is interesting, I had not seen 5 Division in orders of battle etc. for the NWE campaign, and the links I've been able to find don't say much more than that it arrived in theater in early 1945. Anyone know about operations it served in?

Also interesting that 5 Div and I Canadian Corps were shifted from Italy just when there appeared to be a chance of executing Churchill's proposed advance into the Balkans. It appears that 5 Div at least went by ship the long way around rather than via Marseilles, no doubt the rail and road network on the continent already had more than enough to carry.

The British dealt with their manpower shortage in part by breaking up units in the field, including 50 and 59 Divs, but it appears that 5 Div arrived intact and remained so.

 

Which begs the question .Apart from the 2 div's above,how many other British units(Bde's and Regt's),were also disbanded,for replacements.?Cheers,Lee.

 

In 21AG, along with 50th and 59th Divs, 70 Bde of 49th Div was disbanded in August 1944 (replaced by the previously independent 56 Bde). The independent 27 Armd Bde was also broken up at the end of July 1944, but its three Regts went to new formations. 24th Lancers were disbanded and the two County of LLondon Yeomanries merged. 31 Tank Bde went into hibernation for a spell but became an important part of 79th Armd Div commanding largely different units and there were disbandments among the RAC Regts.

I was just trying to see if it's possible to do a quick tally of the number of Inf Bns and Armd Regts disbanded by 21AG prior to VE-Day, but there was quite a lot of musical chairs going on, making it a bit more involved to work out! A couple of Bns from 50th Div were transferred to 131 Bde of 7th Armd Div when 50th returned to the UK to become a training formation for example. Likewise a number of LoC Bns formed the new 115 Bde, then a couple of those Bns swapped with units from other Inf Bdes. All quite confusing!