RECORD OF THE 5TH (SERVICE) BATTALION: The Connaught Rangers from 19th August 1914 to 17th January, 1916

The 5th Connaught Rangers began life in Galway, the regimental Depot, on the west coast of Ireland but soon moved to Dublin where the drafts to make up the battalion began to arrive. The battalion officially came into existence as the 5th Battalion on 19 August 1914 under the command of Lt Col H.F.N. Jourdain who remained in command throughout the period covered in this book. The first chapter describes the build-up in great detail, giving the names of every officer and the date of arrival, and the dates of arrival of each draft and its strength. The battalion was allocated to 29th Brigade, 10th (Irish) Division, the first Irish division in the history of the British Army, composed of battalions of all the Irish line regiments. After preliminary training in Ireland the division moved to England in May 1915, concentrating in the Basingstoke area and in July it embarked for Gallipoli.
The battalion, with 29th Brigade, landed at Anzac Cove on the morning of 6th August, attached to the Anzac Corps, and thereafter took part in several actions, Lone Pine, Chunak Bair and the attack on Hill 60 (27th-29th August) which involved severe, hand-to-hand fighting. At the end of September the 10th Division was withdrawn prior to transfer to the Macedonian front. The battalion left Gallipoli on 29th September some seven weeks after landing, during that period it incurred 684 casualties (220 dead) out of an original embarkation strength of 975. On 10th October 1915 the battalion arrived at Salonika and about a month later the division advanced into Serbia and Bulgaria. Operations were conducted in rugged, inhospitable country, in freezing cold (on one occasion even the greatcoats were frozen stiff) and against a tough enemy. Fighting was particularly savage at Kosturino which cost the battalion well over 500 casualties – nearly 150 invalided with frost-bite. By the end of the year the division had fallen back to Salonika.
This is a very detailed record of the battalion’s activities with frequent strength states, casualty lists with officers named as well as names of those joining. A table at the end of the book summarises the casualties from July 1915 to January 1916, they total 1,219.