The 33rd Division was an
infantrydivision of the
British Army that was raised in 1914, during the
First World War. The division was raised from volunteers for
Lord Kitchener's
New Armies, that was originally made up of infantry
battalions raised by public subscription or private patronage. The division was taken over by the
War Office in September 1915. It served in France and Belgium in the
trenches of the
Western Front for the duration of the war. The division's insignia was the "double-three" from a set of
dominoes.
Formation history
The Division was one of the six created for the Fourth New Army on 10 December 1914.[1] It landed in France in November 1915.[1] Major-General
Herman Landon took command of the division on its arrival.[2] It saw action at the
Battle of the Somme in autumn 1916 and, after Major General
Reginald Pinney had taken command,[3] it also saw action at the
Battle of Arras in April / May 1917 and the
Battle of Passchendaele in autumn 1917.[1] It was disbanded in June 1919.[1]
225th, 226th, 227th and 228th Companies (transferred to 29th Division in March 1916)
170th, 171st, 172nd and 173rd Companies, (transferred from 28th Divisional Train on 13 November 1915. 172nd Company swapped with the 8th Company from 2nd Divisional Train in late November 1915)
^Dunn, Captain J. C. (1994). The War the Infantry Knew 1914–1919: A Chronicle of Service in France and Belgium. London: Abacus. pp. xl–xli.
ISBN0-349-10635-5.
Seton Hutchinson, G. (2004) [1921]. The Thirty-Third Division in France and Flanders 1915–1919 (facs. repr. Naval & Military Press, Uckfield ed.). London: Waterlow & Sons.
ISBN1-84342-995-0.