27th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 27th Infantry Brigade


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dates= 1939 - 1945
1948 - 1951
country= Great Britain
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branch= British Army
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role= Infantry
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battles= Korean War
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The 27th Infantry Brigade was a British Army brigade during the Second World War and Korean War.

Unit History

World War II

In 1939 this brigade was formed as part of the 9th (Highland) Infantry Division a duplicate of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division . When the 51st Highland Division surrendered during the Battle of France the 9th Highland Division was redesignated as a new 51st Division. Due to this the 27th Brigade became the British 153rd Infantry Brigade.

Post World War II

The Brigade was reformed in 1948 and sent out to Hong Kong , but was then sent on to Korea at the outbreak of the Korean War , where Major Kenneth Muir of the Argylls won the Victoria Cross in September 1950. On January 3, 1950, the Brigade had been forced into hand-to-hand combat to rescue one of its cut-off battalions and had suffered heavy casualties in its defense of the Third Battle of Seoul. The Brigade was joined by the specially raised 16 Field Regiment Royal New Zealand Artillery in January 1951, and then a Canadian infantry battalion in February. They fought in the intense Battle of Kapyong in April 1951. Kapyong was the last action for the brigade as such, as Headquarters 28 Brigade arrived to take over, along with two new battalions.

Component units

1939-1940

*5th Bn, The Black Watch
*7th Bn, The Gordon Highlanders
*9th Bn, The Gordon Highlanders
*1st Bn, The Gordon Highlanders

1948 onwards

*1st Battalion, The Royal Leicestershire Regiment
*1st Battalion, The Middlesex Regiment (to April 1951)
*1st Battalion, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (to April 1951)
*1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
*16th Field Regiment, Royal New Zealand Artillery

Commanders

*Brig. G.T. Gurney
*Brig. William Fraser
*Brig. D.A.H. Graham

Korea

*Brig B.A. Coad

References

*Gregory Blaxland, The Regiments Depart: A History of the British Army 1945-70, William Kimber, London, 1971.

External links

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