This is the British Expeditionary Force order of battle on 9 May 1940, the day before the German forces initiated the Battle of France.
High-level order of battle
First Expeditionary Force
- General John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort
- 5th Infantry Division (Major-General Harold Franklyn)
I Corps (Lieutenant-General Michael Barker)
II Corps (Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke)
III Corps (Lieutenant-General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam
- Saar Force (Major-General Victor Fortune)
- 51st (Highland) Infantry Division (Major-General V. M. Fortune)
- Formations undergoing training and performing labour duties
- HQ Lines of Communication British Expeditionary Force (Major-General Philip de Fonblanque)
- Units arriving in France after 10 May 1940
Other formations
- Air Component
- Second Expeditionary Force
First Expeditionary Force
General Headquarters (GHQ)
- General Officer Commanding-in-Chief: General John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort
- Chief of the General Staff: Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Royds Pownall
- Adjutant General: Lieutenant-General Sir W. D. S. Brownrigg
- Quartermaster General: Lieutenant-General W. G. Lindsell
- Deputy Chief of the General Staff; Major-General Philip Neame
- Major-General Royal Artillery: Major-General Sydney Rigby Wason
- Engineer-in-Chief: Major-General Ridley Pakenham-Walsh
GHQ, BEF Headquarters Troops
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Armoured Brigades
- 1st Light Armoured Reconnaissance Brigade
- Brigade manning armoured cars
- 1st Light Armoured Reconnaissance Brigade Headquarters and Signals Section, Royal Signals
- 1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry
- 1st East Riding of Yorkshire Lancers
- Brigade manning armoured cars
- 2nd Light Armoured Reconnaissance Brigade
- Brigade manning armoured cars
- 2nd Light Armoured Reconnaissance Brigade Headquarters and Signals Section, Royal Signals
- 5th (Royal Inniskilling) Dragoon Guards
- 15th/19th (The King's) Royal Hussars
- Brigade manning armoured cars
- 1st Army Tank Brigade
- Brigade manning infantry and cavalry tank
- 1st Army Tank Brigade Headquarters and Signals Section, Royal Signals
- 4th Royal Tank Regiment
- 7th Royal Tank Regiment
- Brigade manning infantry and cavalry tank
Commander Royal Artillery
Commander Royal Engineers
Major-General Ridley Pakenham Pakenham-Walsh
- Direct reports
- 100th (Monmouthshire) Army Field Company, Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers
- 101st (Monmouthshire) Army Field Company, Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers
- 216th (1st London) Army Field Company, Royal Engineers
- 228th (West Riding) Field Company, Royal Engineers
- 242nd (Lowland) Field Company, Royal Engineers
- 223rd (2nd London) Field Park Company, Royal Engineers
- 109th Workshop and Park Company, Royal Engineers
- 1st Army Troops Company, Royal Engineers
- 2nd Army Troops Company, Royal Engineers
- 19th Army Field Survey Company, Royal Engineers
- 119th Road Construction Company, Royal Engineers
- 135th Excavator Company, Royal Engineers
- 1st Boring Section, Royal Engineers
- 2nd Boring Section, Royal Engineers
- 1st Anti-Gas Laboratory, Royal Engineers
- 58th (Chemical Warfare) Company, Royal Engineers
- 61st (Chemical Warfare) Company, Royal Engineers
- 62nd (Chemical Warfare) Company, Royal Engineers
- 1st Tunnelling Group, Royal Engineers
- 170th Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers
- 171st Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers
- 172nd Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers
- 173rd Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers
5th Infantry Division
Main article: 5th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)Major-General Harold Franklyn
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I Corps
Main article: I Corps (United Kingdom)Lieutenant-General Michael Barker
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I Corps Troops, Royal EngineersMain article: I Corps Troops, Royal Engineers
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I Corps Artillery Troops
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1st Infantry Division
Main article: History of the British 1st Division during the World WarsMajor-General Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander
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2nd Infantry Division
Main article: 2nd Infantry Division (United Kingdom)Major-General Henry Charles Loyd
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48th (South Midland) Infantry Division
Main article: 48th (South Midland) DivisionMajor-General Augustus Francis Andrew Nicol Thorne
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II Corps
Main article: II Corps (United Kingdom)Lieutenant-General Alan Brooke
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II Corps Troops, Royal EngineersMain article: II Corps Troops, Royal Engineers
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II Corps Artillery Troops
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3rd Infantry Division
Main article: 3rd Division (United Kingdom)Major-General Bernard Montgomery
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4th Infantry Division
Main article: 4th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)Major-General Dudley Johnson
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50th (Northumbrian) Motor Infantry Division
Main article: 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division
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III Corps
Main article: III Corps (United Kingdom)Lieutenant-General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam
III Corps Headquarters, Troops
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Commander Royal Engineers, III Corps
Commander Royal Artillery, III Corps
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42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division
Main article: 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division
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44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division
Main article: 44th (Home Counties) DivisionMajor-General Edmund Osborne
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Saar Force
On 10 May 1940, this force, which was really just the 51st Division reinforced by various small units, was part of the Colonial Army Corps of the French Third Army in front of the Maginot Line.
Units attached to the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division in April 1940 to form Saar Force
- Lothians and Border Horse
- 7th Battalion The Northumberland Fusiliers (Machine-Guns)
- 1st Battalion Princess Louise's Kensington Regiment (Machine-Guns)
- 7th Battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment (Pioneers)
- 6th Battalion The Royal Scots Fusiliers (Pioneers)
- Sound Ranging and Survey Troop - detached from 3rd Survey Regiment RA
- 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (Field)
- 51st (Midland) Medium Regiment Royal Artillery
- 385/97 Army Field Battery Royal Artillery
- 213th (North Midland) Army Field Company Royal Engineers
- Topographic Section from 19th Army Field Survey Company Royal Engineers
- 22nd Animal Transportation Company Royal Indian Army Service Corps
- Sub-Division from III Corps Ammunition Park Royal Army Service Corps
- F Section from III Corps Petrol Park Royal Army Service Corps
- 10th Army Field Workshop Royal Army Ordnance Corps
- 10th Salvage Unit
51st (Highland) Infantry Division
Main article: 51st (Highland) DivisionMajor-General V. M. Fortune
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Formations undergoing training and performing labour duties
12th (Eastern) Infantry Division
Main article: 12th (Eastern) Infantry DivisionMajor-General R. L. Petre
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23rd (Northumbrian) Division
Main article: 23rd (Northumbrian) DivisionMajor-General W. N. Herbert
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46th Infantry Division
Main article: 46th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)Major-General H. O. Curtis
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HQ Lines of Communication British Expeditionary Force
Major-General Philip de Fonblanque
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3rd Anti-Aircraft BrigadeMain article: 3rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade (United Kingdom)
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Units arriving in France after 10 May 1940
1st Armoured Division
Main article: 1st Armoured Division (United Kingdom)
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Air Component
- Air Vice-Marshal Charles Blount (Data from Jackson 1974 unless indicated.)
- 85 Squadron: Hurricane (fighter)
- 87 Squadron: Hurricane (fighter)
- 607 Squadron: Gladiator (fighter, converting to Hurricane May 1940)
- 615 Squadron: Gladiator (fighter, converting to Hurricane May 1940)
- 3 Squadron: Hurricane (fighter; reinforcement, May 1940)
- 79 Squadron: Hurricane (fighter; reinforcement, May 1940)
- 504 Squadron: Hurricane (fighter; reinforcement, May 1940)
- From 22 (Army Co-operation) Group
- 81 Squadron: Blenheim I (strategic reconnaissance)
- 57 Squadron: Blenheim I (strategic reconnaissance)
- 53 Squadron: Blenheim IV (bomber)
- 59 Squadron: Blenheim IV (bomber)
- 2 Squadron: Lysander (army co-operation)
- 4 Squadron: Lysander (army co-operation)
- 13 Squadron: Lysander (army co-operation)
- 16 Squadron: Lysander (army co-operation)
- 26 Squadron: Lysander (army co-operation)
Second Expeditionary Force
The following force was sent to France during the second week of June 1940 in an unsuccessful attempt to form a second British Expeditionary Force. This second formation was to be commanded by Lieutenant-General A. F. Brooke. All units were evacuated in late June 1940, during Operation Aerial.
52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division
Main article: 52nd (Lowland) Infantry DivisionMajor-General J. S. Drew
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See also
Notes
- ^ Attached from I Corps.
- ^ Attached from G.H.Q. Troops.
- Attached from II Corps Troops
- ^ Although this division participated in the Battle of France, it was not adequately prepared for battle by May 1940. The division only had a skeleton headquarters staff, no organic artillery formations and few support units. Only a third of the infantry had received minimal training. The battalions lacked a carrier platoon and their full complement of heavy weapons.
- The 1st Armoured Division arrived in France between 15–21 May. The division fought south of the Somme River and never linked up with the main body of the Expeditionary Force.
- Detached from 1st Armoured Division on 21 May 1940 and dispatched to defend Calais.
- Detached from 3rd Armoured Brigade and attached to the 30th Infantry Brigade. The regiment was sent to defend Calais on 21 May 1940.
- The QVR was sent, without their vehicles, to defend Calais on 21 May 1940 and attached to the 30th Infantry Brigade.
- The 20th (Guards) Infantry Brigade was dispatched from the United Kingdom to defend Boulogne on 21 May 1940.
Footnotes
- Lieutenant-General Sydney Rigby Wason after 26 May 1940
- Attached from III Corps
- Lieutenant-General Sydney Rigby Wason after 26 May 1940
- "From Percy Main to Sumatra via F". Archived from the original on 2021-02-25. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
- Ellis 2004, p. 21.
- "HQ Lines of Communication British Expeditionary Force". Orders of Battle Military Unit Database. Archived from the original on 2012-05-16.
- ^ Glover, Michael (1985). The Fight for the Channel ports: Calais to Brest 1940, a Study in Confusion. London: L. Cooper. ISBN 978-0-43618-210-5.
- Ellis 2004, p. 154.
- ^ Baughen 2016, p. 52.
- Jackson 1974, p. 136.
References
- Baughen, G. (2016). The RAF in the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain: A Reappraisal of Army and Air Policy 1938–1940. Stroud: Fonthill Media. ISBN 978-1-78155-525-5.
- Ellis, Major L. F. (2004) . Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The War in France and Flanders 1939–1940. History of the Second World War United Kingdom Military Series (repr. Naval & Military Press, Uckfield ed.). HMSO. ISBN 978-1-84574-056-6. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- Jackson, R. (1974). Air War over France 1939–40 (1st ed.). London: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0510-5.
External links
- "Documents – France & Norway 1940". British Military History. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
- "British Expeditionary Force, May 1940". niehorster.org. Retrieved 2019-10-26.
- "British Infantry Brigades, 1st thru 215th - 1939-1945" (PDF). web.archive.org. 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2019-10-29.