29th Division (United Kingdom)

29th Division
Active	January 1915 – 1919
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Infantry
Size	Division
Nickname(s)	"Incomparable Division"
Engagements	World War I Gallipoli Campaign Landing at Cape Helles First Battle of Krithia Second Battle of Krithia Third Battle of Krithia Battle of Gully Ravine Battle of Sari Bair Battle of Krithia Vineyard Battle of Scimitar Hill Western Front Battle of the Somme Battle of Passchendaele Battle of Cambrai (1917)

World War I

The 29th Division, known as the Incomparable Division, was an infantry division of the British Army, formed in early 1915 by combining various Regular Army units that had been acting as garrisons around the British Empire. Under the command of Major-General Aylmer Hunter-Weston, the division fought throughout the Gallipoli Campaign, including the original landing at Cape Helles. From 1916 to the end of the war the division fought on the Western Front in Belgium and France.

According to the published divisional history (see reference below), 'The total casualties of the 29th Division amounted to something like 94,000. Gallipoli alone accounted for 34,000. This must be, if not a record, among the highest totals in any division … The number of Victoria Crosses won by members of this division was 27 (12 at Gallipoli). This constitutes a record'.

The 29th Division served on the Gallipoli peninsula, a point in the strategic Dardanelles straits between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea (and thus the Mediterranean). The division was there for the duration of the ill-fated campaign. It made the first landings as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in April 1915 and was among the last to leave in January 1916. The division suffered through the worst of the fighting at Cape Helles before being moved to fight on the Suvla front as well.

On the morning of 25 April 1915 the Battle of Gallipoli began when battalions from the division's 86th and 87th Brigades landed at five beaches around Cape Helles at the tip of the peninsula under the command of Major-General Aylmer Hunter-Weston. Three of the landings faced little or no opposition but were not exploited. The two main landings, at V and W Beaches on either side of the cape, met with fierce Turkish resistance and the landing battalions were decimated.

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