5-я пехотная дивизия британской армии: история и реорганизации

British Army formation

The 5th Infantry Division was a regular army infantry division of the British Army. It was established by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington for service in the Peninsular War, as part of the Anglo Portuguese Army, and was active for most of the period since, including the First World War and the Second World War and was disbanded soon after. The division was reformed in 1995 as an administrative division covering Wales and the English regions of West Midlands, East Midlands and East. Its headquarters were in Shrewsbury. It was disbanded on 1 April 2012.

The 5th Division during the Peninsular War under the command of General James Leith was present at most of the major engagements including the Battle of Bussaco, the Battle of Sabugal, the Siege of Almeida, the Battle of Badajoz, the Battle of Salamanca, the Battle of Vitoria, the Siege of San Sebastian, the Battle of Nivelle and the Battle of the Nive.

The division was also present during the Waterloo Campaign first seeing action at the Battle of Quatre Bras then at the Battle of Waterloo under the command of Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton.

The division's order of battle at Waterloo was as follows: Under the command of Lieutenant General Sir Charles Warren, 5th Division joined up with the Natal Field Force shortly after the Battle of Colenso and was a part of the relieving army of the besieged Ladysmith.

The 5th Division was unusual among other British divisions in that no battle patches were worn on their tunics or helmets, aside from those briefly worn by New Army battalions bringing them from their former division.

During the interwar period, the division spent time based in Egypt and then in Palestine. The latter occurred during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.

The division remained in Germany, undertaking occupation duties, into the immediate post war period. Major General John Churcher was the final commander, taking command in July 1947 and the division was disbanded two months later in September. In April 1958, as part of a restructure undertaken by the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), the 7th Armoured Division was converted into and became the newly revived 5th Division and was headquartered at Verden an der Aller, Germany. This incarnation of the division lasted until 30 June 1960. The following day, 1 July, it was redesignated as the 1st Division and took on that formation's lineage and insignia. On 1 April 1968, the Army Strategic Command was formed in the UK, with a goal of supporting NATO forces from as far north as Norway to as far south as Turkey; to provide internal security operations world wide; and to undertake limited operations alongside allied forces. In conjunction with this command being formed, the 5th Division was resurrected at Wrexham. During this period, it consisted of the 2nd, the 8th, and the 39th Infantry Brigades. However, with the onset of Operation Banner, the deployment of British troops to Northern Ireland during The Troubles, the division was disbanded on 26 February 1971 as it was no longer needed.

During the mid 1990s, the British Army restructured and disbanded various regional districts, which were replaced by several regionally based divisions. This included the reformed 5th Division, alongside the 2nd and the 4th Divisions. These formations were all dubbed "regenerative" divisions, and held administrative and training responsibilities for all non deployed forces located within their geographical boundaries. For the 5th Division, this included Wales, the West Midlands, and North West England. In the event of a major international crisis, the formation would be used as the core to form a combat ready division around. On reformation (April 1995), the division was headquartered in Shrewsbury and comprised the 42nd Brigade (headquartered in Preston, Lancashire), the 143rd Brigade (Shrewsbury), and the 160th Infantry Brigades (Brecon). At the time, it was around 4,600 strong and also contained 97 artillery pieces, one multiple launch rocket system, two helicopters, and 123 tracked vehicles. As part of its training mandate, the division dispatched troops to train in Belize, was the first British formation to undertake training operations in Slovakia, and regularly worked with the Army Cadet Force. In addition to training, the division was held responsible for environmental conservation in areas that it oversaw. It also conducted a number of UK based humanitarian missions in the early 2000s. During Operation Waterfowl, the division assisted those effected by the Autumn 2000 Western Europe floods. In 2001, the division supported farmers across the country, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, during the 2001 United Kingdom foot and mouth outbreak (its deployment falling under the codename Operation Peninsular). The same year, it also sent troops to join the Stabilisation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Operation Palatine). By the mid 2000s, the division's boundaries had changed. The 2nd Division was assigned northern England and the 42nd Brigade. In turn, the 5th Division's area of responsibility was expanded so that it stretched from Wales, across the Midlands, and included the East of England. It also took command of the 49th (East) Brigade. The opening decade of the millennium saw the outbreak of the War on terror, which resulted in British deployments to Afghanistan (Operation Herrick) and Iraq (Operation Telic and the division prepared troops for deployments to these conflicts. It also sent troops to the Falkland Islands. The Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010 identified that the army had had become optimised for operations in Afghanistan, but in order to meet potential future threats would need to be reorgnised to become more flexible. This restructure was called Army 2020 and resulted in the decision to disband the three regional regenerative divisions, to be replaced by Support Command, with the aim of making the home based forces better able to support any deployed troops. The 5th Division was disbanded alongside the 2nd during April 2012, with the 4th Division preceding them in January.