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Operation VARSITY, the airborne element of Operation PLUNDER, involved the landing of the XVIII (US) Airborne Corps, consisting of the 6th (UK) and the 17th (US) Airborne Division, onto the east bank of the Rhine. The operational mission was to capture and hold terrain to disrupt the German defences until relieved by advancing elements (Second Army) of Montgomery's 21st Army Group.
Following the First World War, a Committee on National Expenditure, chaired by Sir Eric Geddes, made recommendations on economies across all government departments and public expenditure. The 'Geddes Axe', as the measures were referred to, included the disbanding of all Irish regiments except The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and The Royal Irish Rifles; the latter being retitled The Royal Ulster Rifles.
Orders from James II’s army, dated 18 June 1690, directed drums to beat a retreat at night and, in 1694, William III’s army also ordered:
'The Drum Major and Drummers of the Regiment which gives a Captain of the Main Guard are to beat the Retreat through the large street, or as may be ordered. They are to be answered by all the Drummers of the guards, and by four Drummers of each Regiment in their respective Quarters.'
When the Great War started in August 1914 The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, The Royal Irish Rifles and The Royal Irish Fusiliers were in the British Expeditionary Force that went to France and fought in the first battles that developed into the stalemate of trench warfare.
At home in Ireland men volunteered in their thousands and all three regiments soon formed new battalions. Irish men of all denominations fought side by side in the 10th (Irish), 16th (Irish) and 36th (Ulster) Division, and were decorated for their gallantry and bravery throughout the war.
Before the 1690s, many countries – including Britain and Ireland – did not have permanent or ‘standing’ armies. Instead, troops were mustered as needed and housed in temporary accommodation, such as huts, tents, taverns or private homes. In the early eighteenth century, Ireland witnessed the construction of a network of permanent residential army barracks to house a professional standing army. The Irish model came to set the example for similar networks in Britain and further afield. The remains of over 300 historic army barracks are now scattered across the island.
In the painting, Lieutenant Francis Bodenham Thornley is depicted leading an attack during the Battle of the Somme. He had been wounded and later while recuperating was tasked with giving military advice to the artist J P Beadle.
In the painting the Riflemen are carrying the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Rifle (SMLE) fitted with Sword Bayonets, and a Rifleman can be seen carrying a battalion marker used to indicate the Battalion's progress in the advance. The painting depicts the actions of the 5th Battalion The Royal Irish Rifles.
On the evening of 3 February 1991, the IRA forced a civilian to drive a van bomb to the 5th Battalion The Ulster Defence Regiment's Magherafelt base. The driver's wife had been blindfolded and held at gun point to ensure the driver followed through with the task. On approaching the base, the driver crashed into the security bollards alerting the guard in the front-gate sangar.
Prior to the partition of Ireland on 3 May 1921, it had been ordered that all the Irish infantry regiments would be disbanded. However, this was later amended to permit the continuance of two Northern Ireland based regiments, each of two battalions.
The battle for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders was part of a strategy agreed by the Allies at conferences in November 1916 and May 1917. General Sir Douglas Haig believed that a campaign against the enemy in the Ypres sector of Flanders, where the Germans were entrenched along the 8-mile ridge extending from Passchendaele to Messines, would create a breakthrough that would afford 'opportunities for the employment of cavalry in masses' to sweep to the Belgian coast where the German Navy U-Boat bases at Ostend and Zeebrugge would be captured.
Major General T P D Scott CB CBE DSO*
