The 3rd (United Kingdom) Division, also known as The Iron Division, is a regular army division of the British Army. It was created in 1809 by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, as part of the Anglo-Portuguese Army, for service in the Peninsular War, and was known as the Fighting 3rd under Sir Thomas Picton during the Napoleonic Wars. The division fought at the Battle of Waterloo, as well as during the Crimean War and the Second Boer War. As a result of bitter fighting in 1916, during the First World War, the division became referred to as the 3rd (Iron) Division, or the Iron Division or Ironsides. During the Second World War, the division (now known as the 3rd Infantry Division) fought in the Battle of France including a rearguard action during the Dunkirk Evacuation, and played a prominent role in the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944. The division was to have been part of a proposed Commonwealth Corps, formed for a planned invasion of Japan in 1945–46, and later served in the British Mandate of Palestine. During the Second World War, the insignia became the "pattern of three" — a black triangle trisected by an inverted red triangle.
Napoleonic Wars
The division was part of the Allied British and Portuguese forces that took part in the Peninsular War. It fought at the Battle of Bussaco in September 1810,Cannon, p. 48 the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro in May 1811Cannon, p. 56 and the Battle of El Bodón in September 1811,Cannon, p. 59 before further combat at the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812,Cannon, p. 61 the Siege of Badajoz in March 1812Cannon, p. 65 and the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812.Cannon, p. 73 It also fought at the Siege of Burgos in September 1812Cannon, p. 77 and the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813.Cannon, p. 81 It then pursued the French army into France and saw action at the Battle of the Pyrenees in July 1813,Cannon, p. 90 the Battle of Nivelle in November 1813Cannon, p. 92 and the Battle of the Nive in December 1813.Cannon, p. 93 After that it fought at the Battle of Orthez in February 1814Cannon, p. 95 and the Battle of Toulouse in April 1814.Cannon, p. 99
According to Picton, the fighting by the 3rd was so intense at the Battle of Vitoria, that the division lost 1,800 men (over one third of all Allied losses at the battle) having taken a key bridge and village, where they were subjected to fire by 40 to 50 cannons, and a counter-attack on the right flank (which was open because the rest of the army had not kept pace). The 3rd held their ground and pushed on with other divisions to capture the village of Arinez. The 3rd Division was also present at the Battle of Quatre Bras and the Battle of Waterloo in the Waterloo campaign under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Alten K.C.B. (Count Carl von Alten).
Crimean War The 3rd Division took part in the Crimean War and fought in the Battle of Alma and the Siege of Sevastopol. It was under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Richard England.
Second Boer War During the Second Boer War (1899–1902) the division began under the command of General Gatacre. In 1902 the army was restructured, and a 3rd Infantry division was established permanently at Bordon as part of the 1st Army Corps, comprising the 5th and 6th Infantry Brigades.Rinaldi, p. 31
First World War
During the First World War the 3rd Division was a permanently established Regular Army division that was amongst the first to be sent to France at the outbreak of the war as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The division served on the Western Front in France and Belgium for four years, from 1914 to 1918. During this time, it was nicknamed "The Iron Division". The division's first general officer commanding (GOC) during the war, Major General Hubert Hamilton, was killed by shellfire near Béthune on 14 October 1914, the first British divisional commander to be killed in the conflict.
The division served in many major battles of the war, including the Battle of Mons and the subsequent Great Retreat, and later the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, and the Battle of Passchendaele.
Inter-war period After the end of the First World War, the division was stationed in southern England where it formed part of Southern Command. In 1937, one of its brigades, the 9th Infantry Brigade, was commanded by Brigadier Bernard Montgomery. He assumed command of the 3rd Division shortly before Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939.Heathcote 1999, p. 214
Second World War France 1940
The 3rd Infantry Division, under the command of Major-General Bernard Montgomery was sent overseas to France in late September 1939, just under a month after the outbreak of the Second World War.Joslen, p. 43-44 There the division became part of Lieutenant General Alan Brooke's II Corps of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).
In May 1940, after several months of relative inactivity, the German Army launched its attack in the west which resulted in the BEF being split up from the French Army, evacuated from Dunkirk. Due to Montgomery's strict training regime, the 3rd Division suffered comparatively few casualties and earned a reputation as one of the best British divisions in France. During the evacuation Montgomery was promoted to temporary command of II Corps and Brigadier Kenneth Anderson took temporary control of the division before, in July, Major General James Gammell assumed command.
For over a year after Dunkirk the composition of 3rd Division remained largely unchanged (except that the motorcycle battalion was converted into 3rd (RNF) Reconnaissance Regiment, Reconnaissance Corps). Then, in September 1941, the 7th Guards Brigade was transferred to help create the Guards Armoured Division, and, in November, the 37th Infantry Brigade Group joined the 3rd Division and was renumbered 7th Brigade with the following composition:Joslen, pp. 43–4.Joslen, p. 286. The brigade anti-tank companies were disbanded during 1941 and 92nd (Loyals) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, formerly the 7th Battalion, Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire), joined the division in March 1942. In June 1942, 3rd Infantry Division was reorganised as a 'Mixed' Division, with 33rd Tank Brigade replacing 7th Infantry Brigade. By early 1943, the experiment with 'mixed' divisions was abandoned, and division reverted to being an infantry formation, 33rd Tank Brigade being replaced by 185th Infantry Brigade.Joslen, pp. 30, 360.
France 1944
The 3rd British Infantry Division was the first British formation to land at Sword Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944, as part of the invasion of Normandy, part of the larger Operation Overlord. For the assault landing, 3rd British Division was organised as a Division Group, with other formations temporarily under its command. These included 27th Armoured Brigade (Sherman DD amphibious tanks of 13/18th Hussars, and the Sherman tanks of the Staffordshire Yeomanry and East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry) , 1st Special Service Brigade and No. 41 (Royal Marine) Commando, with 5th Royal Marine Independent Armoured Support Battery (Centaur IV close support tanks), and specialist units of the 79th Armoured Division: 22nd Dragoons (Sherman Crab mine clearing tanks), Royal Engineers 77 and 79 Assault Squadrons of 5th Assault Regiment (Churchill AVRE tanks for obstacle demolition).
The division's own artillery were all self-propelled (the artillery field regiments with M7 Priest;Ellis, p. 542. the anti-tank regiment: M10 tank destroyerEllis, p. 546.) and the SP field guns and RM Centaurs were able to fire from their landing craft during the run-in to the beach. In addition, 3rd Division had 101 Beach Sub-Area HQ and No. 5 and No. 6 Beach groups under command for the assault phase: these included additional engineers, transport, pioneers, medical services and vehicle recovery sections which would hold and manage the beach landing area after the initial assault.Ellis, pp. 173, 184–6.Joslen, pp. 584–5.
The 3rd Division's brigades were organised as brigade groups for the assault, with 8 Brigade Group making the first landing, followed by 185 Brigade Group and 9 Brigade Group in succession during the morning and early afternoon.
The 3rd Infantry Division fought through the Battle for Caen, in Operation Charnwood and Operation Goodwood.
Low countries and Germany The division participated in the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine and fought in the Netherlands and Belgium and later the Allied invasion of Germany. For the campaign in Normandy, the division was commanded by Major-General Tom Rennie until he was wounded on 13 June 1944; Major-General 'Bolo' Whistler, a highly popular commander, took command on 23 June 1944.Delaforce, p. . During the campaign in Normandy, two posthumous Victoria Crosses were awarded to units under its command. In August 1944, corporal Sidney Bates of 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment and in March 1945 Private James Stokes of the 2nd Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry, both units part of the 185th Infantry Brigade.
During the often intense fighting from Sword Beach to Bremen, the 3rd Division suffered 2,586 killed with over 12,000 wounded.Delaforce, p. 206. Following the German surrender, the division moved towards central Germany. It was then ordered to Berlin, to become part of the Western Allied garrison, but before a move could be made it was sent to Belgium. It was intended that the division would be flown to the United States, from where it would join the assault on Japan. With the surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War, the move was cancelled.
Post-war and Cold War
The division remained in Europe until October 1945, when it left for the Middle East. After spending time in Egypt and undertaking internal security operations during the Jewish insurgency, it was disbanded in June 1947. Sources differ on the specifics. The Imperial War Museum stated it was disbanded in Palestine while historians Lord and Watson stated the division first returned to the UK in April 1947 before being disbanded. However, they also note that at least one source (although not specified by the authors) claimed that the division was still active in Palestine until February 1948.
With the outbreak of the Korean War and the need for a divisional-sized strategic reserve based in the UK, the 3rd Infantry Division was reformed at Colchester, England, on 14 December 1950. In April 1951, the division helped form the signals regiment for the 1st Commonwealth Division, which served in the Korean War. In November, the entire formation was dispatched to Egypt to garrison the Suez Canal Zone. During this period, the Egyptian government abrogated the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, which was the basis for British troops to remain in the canal area. The ensuing political landscape saw increased animosity to the British presence, eventually resulting in an agreement to withdraw. The division departed for the UK during 1954, where it returned to Colchester and its role as the British Army's strategic reserve. March 1955 saw troops deployed to Cyprus, during the Cyprus Emergency. The following year, the division was mobilised for Operation Musketeer, the attack on Egypt during the Suez Crisis. In the event of a successful invasion, the division would have severed as a follow-up formation and occupied Port Said. Only the divisional headquarters was dispatched, and the division was ultimately not deployed. In April 1959, the divisional headquarters moved from Colchester to Bulford.