The 35th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army, raised during World War I as part of General Kitchener's fourth New Army. Its infantry was originally composed of Bantams, that is soldiers who would otherwise be excluded from service due to their short stature. The division served on the Western Front from early 1916, and was disbanded in 1919.

History Formation and training Originally authorised by the War Office for the Fifth New Army (K5) as the 42nd Division in December 1914, it was renumbered as the 35th Division of the Fourth New Army in April 1915 when the original Fourth New Army formations were repurposed to provide training and replacements for the first three Armies. The Bantam experiment had begun in late 1914, with short but strong men recruited from labour-intensive industries. Sufficient numbers were raised for the infantry of a division and part of another (the 40th Division). Other units were not bantams; the artillery was raised locally, in Aberdeen (CLVII (157th) Brigade), Burnley and Accrington (CLVIII (158th) Brigade), Glasgow (CLIX (159th) Brigade) and West Ham (CLXIII (163rd) Brigade). By June 1915, the division had begun to congregate at Masham in Yorkshire and in August it was moved to the Salisbury Plain Training Area. It had become apparent that a small number of the bantams were not physically strong enough for military duties, but instead of being dismissed, they were sent to the regimental depots. In late 1915 the division was ordered to equip for a move to Egypt, but this was cancelled, and between 29 and 31 January 1916 the division moved to France.

1916

The division headquarters opened in France on 31 January, at Château de Nieppe east of Saint-Omer. Part of XI Corps, on 5 February the division began to send officers and N.C.O.s to the front line to begin Trench warfare training and to move closer to the line in the Armentières sector. By mid February, in weather that was alternating rain and snow, infantry battalions and gunners from the 158th and 163rd Artillery Brigades were detached to front line divisions for further training, initially, the 17th Royal Scots and 17th West Yorks to 19th (Western) Division, and 17th and 18th Lancashire Fusiliers and 23rd Manchesters under the 38th (Welsh) Division. The first battlefield casualty of the division occurred on 20 February to a man of the 17th West Yorks.

Aubers Ridge area

On 7 March the division took over a part of the front line near Festubert east of Béthune, with 104th Brigade relieving the 58th Brigade of the 19th Division, the 106th Brigade relieved the 57th Brigade and was still under order of the 19th Division, the 105th Brigade was still training under the 38th Division. The division's artillery was gradually withdrawn from its instructing units and was fully formed by mid-March. On 13 March the Germans detonated a mine under the 18th H.L.I., killing or wounding 60 men. The battalion held firm and the first bravery award to a man of the division is recorded (an M.C.). The division's first trench raid was carried out by a 53 strong party from the 17th Lancashire Fusiliers, it was forced to retire as the Germans had been alerted and the allocation of only 30 rounds of ammunition per gun to the 157th and 158th Artillery Brigades was insufficient to support or adequately cut the wire. Remaining in the line, in late March the division 'side slipped' north east to a position opposite Aubers Ridge, relieving part of 8th Division, and by early April all three brigades had been in the line under 35th Divisional control. In mid April the division was moved again, this time south to the Neuve-Chapelle and Ferme Du Bois area, where it instructed parties from the 1st Australian Division in trench warfare after its arrival from Egypt. During its time in this sector the division conducted numerous patrols in no-mans-land, and the artillery, which was reorganised on 14 May to have three identical brigades, each with one howitzer battery, exchanged at times intense fire with the Germans. On 28 May the division took over the Festubert sector from the 39th Division, requiring all three brigades in the line. On 30 May a well planned German artillery barrage destroyed, then isolated, part of the line occupied by the 15th Sherwood Foresters, enabling a German raiding party to carry off the wounded in that area as prisoners. between 11 and 17 June the division (except for the artillery and trench mortars) was relieved by the 39th and 61st (2nd South Midland) Divisions, and moved west to the Busnes-Hinges area, north west of Béthune.

The Somme

On 29 June the last of the dispersed artillery rejoined the division, and by 2 July was en route to Bouquemaison, north of Albert. The division's engineer and pioneers were attached to the 29th, 48th and 4th Divisions, and some of the division's officers reconnoitred the area north of Albert for a planned division attack there as part of the Somme battles. The division was now part of VIII Corps of Third Army. On 10 July these plans were cancelled, and the division was transferred to XIII Corps and marched south as part of the corps reserve, with the division headquarters at Morlancourt, south of Albert. Except for a brief period, the division was not to be deployed as a whole during its time on the Somme. On 14 July the 105th was placed under orders of the 18th (Eastern) Division, and the 106th Brigade under the 9th (Scottish) Division in spite of the corps commander's reluctance for this type of deployment.

Delville Wood

On the night of 16–17 July the 105th Brigade relieved parts of the 54th and 55th Brigades of 18th Division, and by 18 July the 15th Sherwood Foresters had relieved the 7th Buffs in the trenches south of Trônes Wood, while part of the 16th Cheshires, some machine gunners and the pioneers took over Waterlot Farm on the Longueval-Guillemont road. By the afternoon of that day despite the heavy mud and artillery bombardment, they had beaten off an attack by some 300 Germans on the farm from Guillemont to the south east, and a battalion-sized attack from Delville Wood, using fire from carefully sited Vickers and Lewis guns to the west and east of the farm. The next day the positions east of the farm were heavily bombarded and pushed back, and when the battalion was withdrawn on 20 July it had suffered 35 officers and men killed, 194 wounded and 7 missing.

It had been decided on 19 July that the brigade would attack from the positions held by the 15th Sherwood Foresters, to the east on the next day (20 July), however communications between the brigade headquarters and the battalions was difficult due to their dispersion and continual German artillery fire. The 15th Sherwood Foresters had been under gas and artillery attack, and only two companies were fit for action. Reinforced by only two companies from the 23rd Manchesters, the attack was reduced to an assault on two specific targets, Maltz Horn Farm and Arrowhead Copse, without observed artillery support due to the lay of the land. Illuminated by the rising sun, both attacks by the 15th Sherwood Foresters were beaten back. However the French attacking on the right had made progress and so were left with an exposed flank, so a second attack by the 23rd Manchesters was made later in the morning. Although reaching the German trench, it was on a forward slope, facing the Germans, and intense machine gun fire forced a retirement. Losses to attacking companies were 375 killed wounded and missing. The brigade was relieved on 21 July by 104th Brigade and 8th Brigade of the 3rd Division.

All three brigades were employed in the Delville Wood salient, either consolidating trenches or in the front line the 18th H.L.I. at Montauban quarry on 17 July, 19th D.L.I. at Longueval, the 104th Brigade opposite Maltz Horn Farm and Guillemont between 20 and 24 July, when it was heavily shelled after an attack on Guillemont by 30th Division. It was relieved by the 105th Brigade on 25 July. The 106th Brigade supported an advance east of Trônes Wood on 30–31 July.

The infantry brigades were withdrawn from the front and billeted in villages on the Somme around west of Amiens. The artillery brigades remained to support further actions and were not withdrawn until mid-August. The infantry absorbed new drafts, however, these contained some of those rejected during the division's formation and others of the bantam type were no longer strong, there being a limited supply of this kind of man.

The division returned to the Delville Wood salient on 9 August, in control of its own units, relieving parts of the 3rd and 24th Divisions. When not in the line the men were formed into working parties moving supplies and consolidating trenches. On 21 August a planned attack by the 105th Brigade towards Guillemont was stopped by heavy artillery fire initially believed to have been 'shorts' from the British, but later learned to have been Germans firing from the area of Le Sars. It was now that doubts were voiced about the quality of the new bantams. On 24 August the 17th Lancashire Fusiliers advanced the line some east towards Combles in line with the French 1st Division. On 30 August the infantry of the division was relieved by the 5th Division, the pioneers remained in the line for two more days.

Arras On 1 September the division was transferred to the Arras sector under IV Corps and relieved the 21st Division with all three brigades in the line. The pioneers arrived on 6 September and the artillery on 10 September. Although supposedly resting after the Somme battles (as it was assumed were the Germans in this sector), there was patrolling in no-mans-land, trench raiding, with mixed results and an increase in the use of trench mortars by both sides. The effect of the trench mortaring was to continually damage, and in some cases destroy the trench system, despite being continually repaired, and as the weather worsened this repair became increasingly difficult and eventually could not be maintained.

In the early hours of 26 November, a trench raid was planned by the 19th D.L.I., in preparation the manning was thinned out in the front line for the inevitable artillery and mortar retaliation. Instead, three areas were subject to intense trench mortaring and raids by the Germans themselves, those in the 105th Brigade area, the 17th Lancashire Fusiliers and coincidentally the 19th D.L.I.. In these raids numbers of the 17th Lancashire Fusiliers were thought to have swiftly surrendered, and a corporal and a sergeant of the 19th D.L.I. deserted their posts. The raid on the 105th Brigade area was not successful, the planned raid by the 19th D.L.I. took place, and while some men reached the Germans trench, most were stopped in no-mans-land by their own covering artillery barrage and their demoralisation due to the previous hours events. A raid the next night on the 15th Sherwood Foresters gained the Germans a prisoner. These events reinforced the complaints of commanding officers about the quality of the recent 'bantam' replacements.

End of the bantam experiment