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BWilson
Posts: 4005
 | | History of British 50th Division in Normandy | | Posted on: 9/21/2017 4:54:24 AM | Scholarly paper and free download. [Read More]
Cheers,
BW
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With occasional, fatigued glances at life's rear-view mirror from the other side of time.
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| anemone
DONCASTER S. YORKS, UK
Posts: 6415
| | Re: History of British 50th Division in Normandy | | Posted on: 9/21/2017 5:26:03 AM | Thanks Bill for the enormous read
The Sad End of the 50th's career in WW2
Quote:This hard fought,battle weary infantry division in total since D-Day 50th Division had suffered of 488 officers and 6,932 ORs casualties, but had also assimilated 358 officers and 8,019 ORs.
On 29 November the division was relieved and pulled back into Belgium.
Return to England
Earlier in November Field Marshal Montgomery had made a speech to the division's officers in a cinema in Bourg Leopold to the effect that the 50th Division would return to England as 50th Infantry (Reserve) Division, a training division.
Veterans who had served three and a half years or more overseas would be repatriated to Britain under the Python scheme or given generous leave (LILOP, Leave in lieu of Python). Three other categories of men were drawn up, the more recent infantry reinforcements were to be posted to other rifle battalions, men who required retraining as infantry and others who could perform garrison duties.
Most of the infantry battalions were reduced to cadre strength of 12 officers and 109 men (the 9th D.L.I. and 2nd Devons were reinforced and joined 131st Infantry Brigade of the 7th Armoured Division in exchange for the 1/6th and 1/7th Battalions Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)).
The 74th Field Regiment R.A was transferred to the 49th Division, the 90th to 21st Army Group control, the 102nd Anti-Tank Regiment transferred to the 15th Division. The remains of the division returned to Britain on 14 December to train new recruits and converted rear echelon personnel.
In August 1945 the division headquarters relinquished control of its units, was sent to Norway and converted into H.Q. British Land Forces Norway for the latter stages of Operation Doomsday.
Regards
Jim
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Pro Patria Saepe Pro Rege Semper
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| Phil andrade
London, UK
Posts: 2787
| | Re: History of British 50th Division in Normandy | | Posted on: 9/21/2017 3:16:27 PM | You've got an eye for some wonderful stuff, Bill, thanks !
On page 105, in the conclusion :
Unfortunately the British Army developed their new doctrine under fire, and paid for it at great cost to its soldiers .
Crikey, yes !
We've read that before, as in 1916, so in 1944....
Regards, Phil
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"Egad, sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox!"
"That will depend, my Lord, on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."
Earl of Sandwich and John Wilkes
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| anemone
DONCASTER S. YORKS, UK
Posts: 6415
| | Re: History of British 50th Division in Normandy | | Posted on: 9/22/2017 4:51:04 AM | The 50th' reputation for "standing firm" despite probably the highest casualty rate in both world wars is second to none.In WW1 it was rebuilt completely in 1918 to continue the war to victory-in WW2 it ws reduced to cadre in late 1944 to train others-Quo Fata Vocant
Regards
Jim
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Pro Patria Saepe Pro Rege Semper
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| BWilson
Posts: 4005
| | Re: History of British 50th Division in Normandy | | Posted on: 9/23/2017 7:40:50 AM | The site http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/ has a lot of publications that may be downloaded. For example, the first five hits for a search on the word "Canadian":
* CANADIAN UPPER AIR DATA
* HUMIDITY IN CANADIAN BUILDINGS
* Canadian Light Infantry in Adaptive Dispersed Operations
* Telemedicine for the Canadian Forces: What Is a Viable Satellite Means for the Canadian Forces to Deliver Telemedicine Information Between a Deployed Force and a Canada Based Supporting Hospital
* The Entry of the Bering Sea Water into the Canadian Basin Gyre
No doubt there is plenty of material on Canadian military operations as well if one were interested. Not every document is of equal worth, of course, but a resource well worth looking at if one is looking for a variety of sources.
Cheers
BW
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With occasional, fatigued glances at life's rear-view mirror from the other side of time.
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| George
Centre Hastings, ON, Canada
Posts: 6859
| | Re: History of British 50th Division in Normandy | | Posted on: 9/23/2017 11:09:45 AM | Thanks for the link BW.
Cheers,
George
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| richto90
Posts: 425
| | Re: History of British 50th Division in Normandy | | Posted on: 9/23/2017 1:37:43 PM |
Quote: The site http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/ has a lot of publications that may be downloaded. For example, the first five hits for a search on the word "Canadian":
* CANADIAN UPPER AIR DATA
* HUMIDITY IN CANADIAN BUILDINGS
* Canadian Light Infantry in Adaptive Dispersed Operations
* Telemedicine for the Canadian Forces: What Is a Viable Satellite Means for the Canadian Forces to Deliver Telemedicine Information Between a Deployed Force and a Canada Based Supporting Hospital
* The Entry of the Bering Sea Water into the Canadian Basin Gyre
No doubt there is plenty of material on Canadian military operations as well if one were interested. Not every document is of equal worth, of course, but a resource well worth looking at if one is looking for a variety of sources.
Cheers
BW
--BWilson
Um, BW, if you're looking for Canadian military history, you might want to check DHH first?  See:
http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/index-eng.asp
Then the Laurier Centre for war diaries on microfilm:
http://lmharchive.ca/collections/
The link on t=its home page to the Canadian Military Journal online is also invaluable.
DTIC is truly valuable, but like most US government sites is absurdly difficult to search. When looking for theses, USAMHI is searchable for Army War College papers and other related. Also, other invaluable resources are the Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) at Leavenworth, especially for its access to original US Army documents from World War II and other Army historical document sites online and the Donovan Library of the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Benning, which has a large collection of Infantry School and Armor School papers online.
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| BWilson
Posts: 4005
| | Re: History of British 50th Division in Normandy | | Posted on: 9/24/2017 1:33:48 AM | Hi Rich,
"Canadian" was used as an example. I'd actually like to compel dtic to provide me a complete accounting of all the U.S. Army battalions after the regiments were done away with in the 1950s ... yeah, I can dream! I knew about CARL, but didn't know about the Donovan Library. Thanks for the tip.
Cheers,
BW
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With occasional, fatigued glances at life's rear-view mirror from the other side of time.
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| richto90
Posts: 425
| | Re: History of British 50th Division in Normandy | | Posted on: 9/24/2017 11:26:57 AM |
Quote:Hi Rich,
"Canadian" was used as an example. I'd actually like to compel dtic to provide me a complete accounting of all the U.S. Army battalions after the regiments were done away with in the 1950s ... yeah, I can dream! I knew about CARL, but didn't know about the Donovan Library. Thanks for the tip.
Cheers,
BW
--BWilson
:I DTIC is a repository, they have no other function. Heraldry is through CMH.
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| BWilson
Posts: 4005
| | Re: History of British 50th Division in Normandy | | Posted on: 9/24/2017 2:47:46 PM | I hear you. Unfortunately, what CMH has on-line is mostly useful for units in existence today. Or they have a part of their website that covers a lot of other ground that I have missed. :| Repositories have been useful, I was able to get station lists for some of the Cold War years from USAHEC that indicated who was active and where they were. I collect what I can when I find it available from download.
Cheers,
BW
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With occasional, fatigued glances at life's rear-view mirror from the other side of time.
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