The Huddersfield Rifles was a unit of Britain's Volunteer Force first raised in 1859. It later became a battalion of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment in the Territorial Army, serving as infantry on the Western Front in World War I and as an air defence unit during and after World War II.
Origin An invasion scare in 1859 led to the creation of the Volunteer Force and huge enthusiasm for joining local Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs).Beckett. The services of a corps at Huddersfield were accepted by the Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire on 3 November 1859, when it was assigned the number 10, but by July 1860 it had become the 6th Yorkshire West Riding Rifle Volunteer Corps, with four companies. The title 'The Huddersfield' was added in 1868. It became the senior unit of the 5th Administrative Battalion of West Yorkshire RVCs when that was formed at Huddersfield on 18 September 1862 with the following organisation (dates are for first officers' commissions):Beckett, Appendix VII.Frederick, p. 95.Westlake, pp. 260–7. 6th (The Huddersfield) Yorkshire West Riding RVC at Huddersfield 24 February 1860 32nd Yorkshire West Riding RVC at Holmfirth 2 June 1860 34th (Saddleworth) Yorkshire West Riding RVC at Saddleworth 10 September 1860, joined 5th Admin Bn in 1877 41st Yorkshire West Riding RVC at Mirfield 15 March 1869 44th Yorkshire West Riding RVC at Meltham 29 August 1868, disbanded 1875.
The annual inspection of the battalion was a major social event: two or three thousand people attended the 1869 parade, when the Huddersfield Rifles, Holmfirth Volunteers, and Mirfield and Meltham Companies were inspected, and the Saddleworth Volunteers 'kept the ground' with the police.Leeds Mercury, 12 July 1869. Later, the Huddersfield Rifles had a prizewinning brass band.Huddersfield Rifles at Brass Band Results
On 1 June 1880 the 5th Admin Bn was consolidated as a new 6th Yorkshire West Riding RVC with the following organisation:Leeds Mercury, 20 June 1880. A, B, C & D Companies at Huddersfield (ex-6th RVC) E Company at Holmfirth (ex-32nd RVC) F, G, H & J Companies at Saddleworth (ex-34th RVC) K Company at Mirfield (ex-41st RVC) An additional company was formed in Huddersfield in 1900.
Duke of Wellington's Regiment
On 1 July 1881, as part of the Childers Reforms, the corps became a Volunteer Battalion of the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment and on 1 February 1883 was designated as the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the regiment. At this time, battalion headquarters was at The Armoury in Ramsden Street, Huddersfield. The uniform had been scarlet with sky blue facing, but the facings were changed to the standard white by 1887. Under the mobilisation scheme introduced by the Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 the units of the Volunteer Force were assigned to either garrisons or mobile brigades. The Volunteer Battalions of the Duke of Wellington's were assigned to the West Yorkshire Volunteer Infantry Brigade in Northern Command and in the event of war were expected to mobilise at Leeds.Beckett, pp. 135, 185–6.
Boer War Volunteers from the battalion served in the 2nd Boer War, gaining the unit its first Battle Honour: South Africa 1900–02.Leslie.
Territorial Force When the Territorial Force (TF) was formed under the Haldane Reforms in 1908, Volunteer Battalions were renumbered as battalions of their parent regiments. The 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Duke of Wellington's formed two new battalions: the 5th Battalion at Huddersfield, and the 7th Battalion at Milnsbridge.London Gazette, 20 March 1908. The former West Yorkshire Brigade was split in two, and all four TF battalions of the battalions of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment composed the new 2nd West Riding Brigade in the West Riding Division.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 85–91.James, p. 76.
World War I
Mobilisation At the end of July 1914, the units of the West Riding Division left for their annual training camps, but on 3–4 August the 2nd West Riding Brigade was ordered to its war stations, guarding coastal defences near Hull and Grimsby.Duke of Wellington's at Long, Long Trail On 5 November they were relieved and moved to billets in Doncaster, where the division formed part of Central Force of Home Defence, and began to train for active service.
Meanwhile, the formation of Reserve or 2nd Line units for each existing TF unit had been authorised on 31 August 1914. Initially these were formed from men who had not volunteered for overseas service, together with the recruits who were flooding in. Later they were mobilised for overseas service in their own right. These battalions were distinguished by the prefix '2/' being added to their title, while the parent battalions took '1/'; later, 3rd Line battalions were organised as well.Becke, Pt 2b, p. 6.
1/5th Battalion On 31 March 1915 the West Riding Division was informed that it had been selected to proceed to France to join the British Expeditionary Force, and the infantry embarked at Folkestone, the 1/5th Bn landing at Boulogne on 14 April 1915. On 15 May, the division officially became the 49th (West Riding) Division, and the 2nd Brigade became 147th (2nd West Riding) Brigade.
The battalion now underwent more than a year of trench warfare with few notable events except a peripheral part in the Battle of Aubers Ridge (9 May 1915) and sustaining the First German phosgene attack on British troops (19 December 1915).Edmonds, pp. 158–62.
Somme For the attack on the first day of the Battle of the Somme (the Battle of Albert, 1 July 1916), 49th was the reserve division for X Corps, which was tasked with capturing the Thiepval plateau. 147th Brigade was moved up in the late morning, crossing the swampy River Ancre, and then occupying dug-outs previously occupied by the attacking divisions. The brigade thus escaped the casualties suffered by the rest of the 49th Division as it renewed the fruitless attacks on Thiepval.Edmonds, p. 412. However, the 49th Division was thrown into action repeatedly during the long Battle of the Somme: Battle of Bazentin Ridge (14–17 July) Battle of Pozières Ridge (23 July–18 August and again 27 August–3 September) Battle of Flers–Courcelette (15–22 September)
Ypres During the Third Ypres Offensive the 49th Division was engaged in peripheral activities along the Flanders Coast from 12 July to 23 September 1917, which came to nothing as the main Ypres attacks failed to break through the German lines. 49th Division made one attack at Ypres, at the Battle of Poelcappelle on 9 October. The division started from its assembly area during the previous night. Ground conditions were atrocious, the approach routes were under enemy shellfire, and the men only just reached their jumping-off line before Zero hour. Much of the supporting artillery was unable to get into position. Consequently, the attack bogged down virtually on the start line. Casualties were heavy, and many of them could not be evacuated until the exhausted 49th Division was relieved by the New Zealand Division.Wolff, pp. 223–37.Pugsley, pp. 281–3.
Disbandment By the beginning of 1918 the British manpower crisis was so bad that one battalion in each brigade was broken up to provide reinforcements. At the end of January 1918 the 1/5th Duke of Wellingtons was disbanded. Some men were drafted to other battalions of 147 Bde, the remainder were transferred to the 62nd Division where they amalgamated with 2/5th Bn, which became simply the 5th Bn.
2/5th Battalion The 2/5th Duke of Wellington's was raised at Huddersfield on 9 October 1914, forming part of 2/2nd West Riding Bde in 2nd West Riding Division, later numbered 186th (2/2nd West Riding) Brigade and 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division respectively. The division began to assemble for training in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in March 1915. The 2nd Line battalions were already supplying reinforcements to the 1st Line; once they left their regimental stations in March, new 3rd Line or Reserve battalions were formed to take over this role.Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 41–8.
Arms and equipment were slow to reach the units. A few drill and service rifles were received in April 1915, but these were soon withdrawn and replaced by .256-in Japanese Ariska rifles with which to train. These were not replaced with Lee-Enfield service rifles until January 1916. Meanwhile, the troops trained in the Dukeries area of Nottinghamshire and in south and east Yorkshire until November 1915, when it moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, where it dug an entrenched defence line. Finally, it moved to Salisbury Plain for battle training at the beginning of 1916.
However, recruitment in the West Riding was unable to keep up with the demands of the units already raised there, and orders were issued on 14 March 1916 that for each draft reaching the units of the 62nd Division an equal number had to be returned to the 3rd Line for drafting to the 1st Line battalions in France. This arrangement considerably delayed the despatch of 62nd Division on active service. It was only after spending the summer of 1916 training in East Anglia (with 2/5th Bn stationed at Halesworth, Suffolk in June) and then moving into winter quarters in the East Midlands (with 2/5th Bn at Bedford) that orders were issued on 23 December for the division to be ready to embark for France on 5 January 1917.
1917 By 18 January the division had crossed from Southampton to Le Havre and concentrated around Authie. It served in the operations on the River Ancre in February and March, and later in March it followed up the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. On 11 April it was engaged in the First Battle of Bullecourt, and on 15 April 186th Bde was involved in repelling the German attack at Lagnicourt. 62nd Division attacked again at the Second Battle of Bullecourt in early May, and was engaged in further actions along the Hindbenburg Line later in the month.
The division was not involved in the great Ypres offensive of 1917, and was therefore fresh when it was selected to take part in the tank attack at Cambrai on 20 November. The division attacked towards Havrincourt, where the Germans put up most resistance. 186th Brigade was in divisional reserve, and after the village had been cleared, it moved on towards the second objective, the village of Graincourt. Men of the Duke's were reported to have advanced firing Lewis guns from the hip during street fighting in Anneaux.Cooper, pp. 97–9, 109–10.Griffiths, p. 134. On the second day of the battle, 186th Bde attacked towards Bourlon with 2/5th Duke of Wellington's as the reserve battalion. The last attack on Bourlon village was made on 27 November, when 2/5th Bn was checked by heavy machine-gun fire and was unable to link up with the flanking division. The division was then relieved.Cooper, pp. 129–31, 170.
1918 At the end of January 1918 the battalion absorbed part of the 1/5th Bn (see above) and was redesignated simply 5th Bn; at the same time the 2/6th Duke of Wellingtons in 186 Bde was also broken up, and some of the men were drafted into the 5th Bn.
During the German spring offensive, 62nd Division came up from support and was involved in the Battles of Bapaume (25 March) and Arras (28 March). After some four days' hard fighting the German advance was halted in the division's sector.Blaxland, pp. 75, 84–5.
In June 1918, the 2/7th Duke of Wellingtons in 186 Bde was broken up, and some of the men were drafted into the 5th Bn. Similarly, the battalion received some men from the 12th Bn Green Howards when that was broken up in July 1918.Becke. Pt 3b, pp. 102–4.Johnson, p. 87.