REGIMENTAL RECORDS OF THE ROYAL WELCH FUSILIERS – Vol IV. 1915-1918. TURKEY – BULGARIA – AUSTRIA

This volume is concerned with operations on Gallipoli, in Mesopotamia, Palestine, Macedonia (Salonika) and Italy, although the author prefers THE WAR WITH TURKEY, THE WAR WITH BULGARIA and THE WAR WITH AUSTRIA as titles to the three parts into which the book is divided. The first part (Turkey) begins with a brief background on the Turkish army, its strength and dispositions and then, after an account of the landings on 25th April 1915, goes on to describe the regiment’s part in the Gallipoli campaign.Four battalions were involved at Gallipoli: 5th, 6th. 7th (Territorial battalions) and the 8th (Service) Battalion. The 8th Battalion was in 13th (Western) division, the only RWF battalion in that division, and landed at Anzac on 4th August 1915, followed shortly after by the three Territorial battalions with 158th Brigade in the 53rd(Welsh) Division. For the next four months they were in the fighting, notably at Suvla, Sari Bair and Scimitar Hill until both divisions were evacuated to Egypt in December. The 13th Division went on to Mesopotamia in April 1916, where the 8th Battalion was the only RWF battalion to fight in that theatre, and it was there to the end. The 53rd Division, after returning from Gallipoli remained in Egypt through 1916 and in February 1917 advanced into Palestine, and in August 1918 the 5th and 6th Battalions amalgamated to form the 5th/6th. In February 1917 the 74th (Yeomanry) Division was formed in Palestine and two Welsh Yeomanry regiments were posted to it and redesignated 24th and 25th Battalions RWF. Both battalions fought in Palestine and in France. The 11th (Service) Battalion went to France in September 1915 with 22nd Division; a month later the division was transferred to Salonika and with it went the 11th RWF, which was the only battalion of the regiment to fight in the Macedonian campaign. Finally, the 1st Battalion, which had served on the Western Front with the 7th Division from October 1914, went with the division to Italy in November 1917 where it remained to the armistice. The activities of all these battalions are well described in this history which concludes with a chapter on the Armistice and Demobilisation. There are a number of appendices which include: the Roll of Honour for the whole Regiment, taken from ‘Soldiers Died’ and ‘Officers Died;’ a short piece on the campaign in the Cameroons (Dobell, the British commander, was an RWF officer; brief notes on the Regimental Goats and the ‘Flash’; the COs of all the battalions, with dates; an account of the unveiling and dedication of the War Memorial at Wrexham, the depot of the regiment; and a table showing details of the battalion’s war establishment in 1914. Again, there is a comprehensive index. All in all these four volumes make up a very fine regimental history.