- Hallamshire Battalion
Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= The Hallamshire BattalionYork and Lancaster Regiment
caption=
dates= 1859 - 1999
country=United Kingdom
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branch=British Army
type=Territorial Army
role=Infantry
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battle_honours=World War I World War II The Hallamshire Battalion was part of the
York and Lancaster Regiment of theBritish Army .History
Formed in 1859 as The Hallamshire Volunteer Rifle Corps with its H.Q. at
Sheffield . The titleHallamshire came from the ancient lordship ofWest Riding comprising the parishes of Sheffield andEcclesfield .In 1881 with the reorganisation of the British Army the volunteer corps became a volunteer battalion for the York and Lancaster Regiment; 1st (Hallamshire) Volunteer Battalion. In 1908 it became the 4th (Territorial) Battalion. A year later it regained its title becoming 4th (Hallamshire) Battalion.
World War I
In April 1915 the battalion was moved to
France as part of the 49th (West Riding) Division and sent to theYpres salient by June. Over the next six months they lost 94 killed and 401 injured in the attrition warfare of the trenches.After a period of rest in
Calais they moved to the Somme . On the 1st July the battalion was part of the follow-up assault wave. During the next three months of the campaign the Hallamshires lost 27 officers and 750 soldiers killed and wounded.During the rest of the war the Hallamshires suffered many more casualties including 288 in the first use of
Mustard Gas at Nieuwpoort in July 1917. In the final Allied Advance to Victory, the Hallamshires were ordered on13 October to reach the line of the riverSelle which was supposedly undefended on the western bank. They advanced across open ground without artillery support to find strongly defended enemy positions. They achieved their objective but with only 4 officers and 240 men present of the 20 officers and 600 men who had started the advance.In 1924 the number was dropped by order of King George V in recognition of their war service and the battalion was known as simply The Hallamshire Battalion, Yorks and Lancs.
World War II
The Hallamshires first saw action in
World War II as part of the ill fatedNorwegian campaign in 1940. The battalion arrived with the 146th Infantry Brigade . They were ashore for twelve days seeing limited action and losing their only casualties on the journey home when one of their transports was sunk.The battalion spent the next two years "defending"
Iceland before returning toScotland for garrison duties and to prepare for the invasion of North West Europe. The Hallamshires landed inFrance on 9 June 1944 with the 49th Infantry Division and moved into the front line four days later. Twelve days after landing the Hallamshires were involved in the attack onFontenay-le-Pesnel against the26th Panzer Grenadier Regiment . The attack was successful but at the expense of 123 members of the battalion killed or wounded. To this day, former members of the battalion at that time still celebrate the victory as the Fontenay Club.The battalion was involved in the capture of the docks at
Le Havre before the Germans could destroy the vital instalations. Here they captured 1,005 prisoners, threeDornier flying boats and a submarine! In September, the Hallamshires crossed theAntwerp-Turnhout canal and for his part in a subsequent action, Corporal JW Harper was posthumously awarded theVictoria Cross . During the winter months, the battalion served in theNijmegen salient and participated in the liberation of Arnhem in April 1945, their final action in World War II. Eleven months had seen the battalion suffer 158 killed and 689 woundedExternal links
* [http://www.yorkshirevolunteers.org.uk/hallamshire.htm Yorkshire Volunteers Site]
* [http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/volmil-england/vinf-no/ys-hallam.htm British Regiments Site]
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