VI Corps (United Kingdom)

VI Corps was an army corps of the British Army in the First World War. It was first organised in June 1915 and fought throughout on the Western Front. It was briefly reformed during the Second World War to command forces based in Northern Ireland, but was reorganized as British Forces in Ireland (subsequently British Forces in Northern Ireland) one month later.

This article is about the United Kingdom Army unit. For other units of the same name, see VI Corps.

VI Corps
VI Corps formation badge.
ActiveFirst World War
1940
Country United Kingdom
Branch British Army
TypeField corps
EngagementsFirst World War:[1]
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Sir John Keir
Sir Aylmer Haldane

Prior to the First World War

In 1876 a Mobilisation Scheme for the forces in Great Britain and Ireland, including eight army corps of the 'Active Army', was published. The '6th Corps' was headquartered at Chester, composed primarily of militia, and in 1880 comprised:

This scheme had been dropped by 1881.[2] The 1901 Army Estimates (introduced by St John Brodrick when Secretary of State for War) allowed for six army corps based on the six regional commands: 'Sixth Army Corps' was to be formed by Scottish Command with headquarters in Edinburgh. It was to comprise 3 regiments of Imperial Yeomanry, 26 artillery batteries (17 Regular, 6 Militia and 3 Volunteer) and 25 infantry battalions (2 Regular, 13 Militia and 10 Volunteers). Under Army Order No 38 of 1907 the corps titles disappeared.[3]

First World War

Operations around Ypres

VI Corps was organised within Sir Herbert Plumer's Second Army of the British Expeditionary Force on 1 June 1915. It was placed under the command of Lt-Gen Sir John Lindesay Keir, promoted from command of 6th Division. Initially it comprised 4th Division from V Corps and 6th Division from III Corps, and it took over the left of the British line at Ypres.[4][5]

VI Corps cooperated with the attack by its neighbour V Corps on Bellewaarde Ridge on 16 June 1915 with rifle and artillery fire, and in July and August 1915 it was engaged in trench fighting round Hooge Chateau.[6] The corps was first seriously engaged in the Second Battle of Bellewaarde, a subsidiary attack to assist First Army's attack at Loos on 18 September 1915.[1][7]

Phosgene attack
Main article: German phosgene attack (19 December 1915)

Before dawn on 19 December 1915 VI Corps was the victim of the first German attack with phosgene gas. It had the 6th Division and 49th Division holding the line and 14th (Light) Division in reserve. The attack was made by the German XXVI Reserve Corps between the Roulers and Staden railways, NW of Ypres. The attack was designed to test new weapons (the gas released was an 80:20 mixture of chlorine and phosgene) and to inflict casualties. There was some shelling, but apart from sending out infantry and air patrols to gauge the effectiveness of the gas cloud, the Germans made no attempt to advance. VI Corps' anti-gas measures were reasonably effective, and a pre-arranged counter-barrage of shrapnel shells discouraged the enemy patrols. The British reserves stood to, but were not required. A total of 1069 gas casualties (120 fatal) were suffered, three-quarters by 49th Division.[8]

1916

In early 1916 the expanding BEF was reorganised, and VI Corps became part of Sir Edmund Allenby's Third Army in the Arras sector, with which it remained until the Armistice.[9]

'Order of Battle of VI Corps March 1916[9]
General Officer Commanding: Lieutenant-General Sir John Keir

Later in the year, VI Corps was taken over by Lt-Gen J.A.L. (later Sir Aylmer) Haldane, promoted from command of 3rd Division, who remained in command until the end of the war.[10]

Arras Offensive

In the Spring of 1917 VI Corps took part in Third Army's Arras Offensive. During the phase known as the First Battle of the Scarpe (9–14 April), 37th Division of VI Corps captured Monchy-le-Preux. During the Second Battle of the Scarpe (23–24 April), 15th (Scottish) Division captured Guemappe.[11]

Order of Battle of VI Corps April 1917[11]
GOC: Lt-Gen Aylmer Haldane

For the Battle of Arleux (28–29 April) VI Corps only had 3rd and 12th (Eastern) Divisions in the line, but 56th (1/1st London) Division was added for the Third Battle of the Scarpe (3–4 May). 3rd and 12th Eastern) Divisions took Roeux (13–14 May), which brought it up to the Drocourt-Queant Switch Line (part of the Hindenburg Line defences) and completed VI Corps' participation in the offensive.[11]

The German counter-offensive

VI Corps fought in the Battle of St Quentin (21–23 March), and the First Battle of Bapaume (24–25 March), the opening phases of the German 1918 Spring Offensive (Operation Michael), otherwise known as the 'First Battles of the Somme 1918'.[12]

Order of Battle of VI Corps March 1918[12]
GOC: Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer Haldane

By the end of the month, VI Corps was back where it had been a year earlier, fighting a new Battle of Arras on 28 March. For this action Haldane had 2nd Canadian Division and 97th Brigade of 32nd Division under command, as well as Guards, 3rd and 31st Divisions. 32nd Division took part in the Battle of the Ancre on 5 April.[12]

The Hundred Days

During the Second Battles of the Somme in August 1918, VI Corps attacked at Albert (21–23 August).[13]

Order of Battle of VI Corps August 1918[13]
GOC: Lt-Gen Aylmer Haldane

For the Second Battle of Bapaume (31 August – 3 September) and the subsequent Allied attacks during September 1918, VI Corps had Guards, 2nd, 3rd, and 62nd (2nd West Riding) Divisions under command.[13][14] During the Final Advance in Picardy, VI Corps fought in the Battle of the Selle (17–25 October) and the Battle of the Sambre (4 November).[14][15]

German resistance was now crumbling, and the Allied advance had become a pursuit. During the night of 8/9 November, the reserve of Guards Division, 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards, was pushed ahead through a black night with its machine guns on pack mules to seize the citadel of the old French frontier fortress of Maubeuge, which the Germans had captured after a siege in 1914. The main German defence line was now seven miles away. By 11 November when the Armistice came into effect, the 62nd and Guards Divisions were the advance guard of Third Army, but were doing no more than pushing forward infantry outposts and cyclist patrols against the dissolving German forces.[16] VI Corps was among Allied troops that advanced into the Rhineland after the Armistice.[17]

Second World War

In June 1940, following the Allied defeat in the Second World War's Battle of France, the British Army proceeded to reorganise their forces throughout the UK. In mid-June VI Corps was formed to command all British troops based in Northern Ireland. On 12 July, the corps ceased to exist, and its headquarters was used to form British Troops in Ireland (by the end of the year, the command had been renamed British Troops in Northern Ireland or BTNI). This command supplemented the existing Northern Ireland District, which was made responsible for local defence while BTNI would launch counterattacks against any German invasion of the territory or would spearhead an advance into the Republic of Ireland if the Germans invaded.[18]

General Officers Commanding

Commanders have been:

Trivia

In July 1918, the sculptor John Tweed, who had failed to gain employment as an official war artist, was commissioned by General Jan Smuts to travel to France and prepare designs for a proposed South African War Memorial. Tweed knew Haldane, who had raised the money for Tweed's sculpture of Lt-Gen Sir John Moore at Shorncliffe, and Haldane offered the sculptor facilities with VI Corps HQ. Tweed spent the last five months of the war as a civilian member of the corps staff, and accompanied the troops into the Rhineland. Although one of Tweed's studies entitled Attack was exhibited, the ambitious architectural monument that he designed for South Africa was never executed.[22]

Notes
  1. The British Corps of 1914–1918
  2. Army List 1876–1881.
  3. Dunlop 1938.
  4. Edmonds & Wynne 1927, p. 86.
  5. Who Was Who 1929–40.
  6. Edmonds & Wynne 1927, p. 99, 102–108.
  7. Edmonds & Wynne 1927, p. 139.
  8. Edmonds 1932, pp. 158–162.
  9. Edmonds 1932, p. 39.
  10. Miles 1938, p. 184.
  11. The Arras Offensive
  12. The First Battles of the Somme 1918
  13. The Second Battles of the Somme 1918
  14. Edmonds & Maxwell-Hyslop 1947, App I.
  15. The final advance in Picardy
  16. Edmonds & Maxwell-Hyslop 1947, pp. 529, 553.
  17. Tweed 1936, p. 173.
  18. Blake 1956, pp. 154–159.
  19. Obituary: Lieutenant General Sir John Keir, The Times, 4 May 1937, p. 18.
  20. Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
  21. Blake 1956, p. 159.
  22. Tweed 1936, pp. 172–174.

References
  • Blake, John William (1956). Northern Ireland in the Second World War. Belfast: H.M. Stationery Office. OCLC 252242666.
  • Dunlop, Col John K. (1938). The Development of the British Army, 1899–1914: From the Eve of the South African War to the Eve of the Great War, with Special Reference to the Territorial Force. London: Methuen. OCLC 29682538.
  • Edmonds, J. E.; Wynne, Graeme Chamley (1927). Military Operations: France and Belgium: Winter 1914–15: Battle of Neuve Chapelle: Battles of Ypres. History of the Great War based on Official Documents by Direction of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I. accompanying Map Case (1st ed.). London: Macmillan. OCLC 459168716.
  • Edmonds, J. E. (1932). Military Operations: France and Belgium, Sir Douglas Haig's Command to the 1st July: Battle of the Somme. History of the Great War based on Official Documents by Direction of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I. accompanying Appendices and Map Case (A. F. Becke) volume (1st ed.). London: Macmillan. OCLC 689489.
  • Edmonds, J. E.; Maxwell-Hyslop, Lieutenant-General Robert (1947). Military Operations: France and Belgium, 26 September – 11 November: The Advance to Victory. History of the Great War based on Official Documents by Direction of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. V (1st ed.). London: HMSO. OCLC 769477029.
  • Falls, C. B. (1940). Military Operations: France and Belgium, The German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line and the Battles of Arras. History of the Great War based on Official Documents by Direction of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I. accompanying Appendices volume (1940) and Map Case (A. F. Becke 1932) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan. OCLC 222075288.
  • Miles, Wilfrid (1938). Military Operations: France and Belgium, 2 July 1916 to the End of the Battles of the Somme. History of the Great War based on Official Documents by Direction of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. II. accompanying Appendices and Map Case (A. F. Becke) volume (1st ed.). London: Macmillan. OCLC 174835218.
  • Tweed, Lendal (1936). John Tweed, Sculptor. London: Lovat Dickson. OCLC 250421268.
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