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- 52nd Company, Machine Gun Corps during the Great War -


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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment

52nd Company, Machine Gun Corps



   The 52nd Machine Gun Company joined 17th (Northern) Division on the 12th of February 1916. In the spring of 1916 they were in action at the Bluff, south east of Ypres on the Comines canal then moved south to The Somme seeing action during The Battle of Albert in which the Division captured Fricourt and The Battle of Delville Wood. In 1917 they moved to Arras and saw action in The First and Second Battles of the Scarpe and The Capture of Roeux. In late summer they moved to Flanders and fought in The First and Second Battles of Passchendaele. They joined with the other Machine Gun Companies of the Division to form 17th Machine Gun Battalion on the 24th of February 1918.

22nd Mar 1916 Reliefs

4th Jul 1916 Reliefs  location map

24th Dec 1917 Reorganisation

21st Jan 1918 Course

5th Feb 1918 Course Ends

13th Feb 1918 Personnel

21st Feb 1918 Reorganisation

10th November 1918 156th Inf. Bde. Order No.70  location map

If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.





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There are:5238 items tagged 52nd Company, Machine Gun Corps available in our Library

  These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.


Those known to have served with

52nd Company, Machine Gun Corps

during the Great War 1914-1918.

  • Binks Walter. Pte (d.22nd July 1917)
  • McAlpin MiD.. Kenneth Furgus. T/Capt

All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List

Records of 52nd Company, Machine Gun Corps from other sources.


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      World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great battalion regiment artillery
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249912

T/Capt Kenneth Furgus McAlpin MiD. 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers

When Grandfather, Kenneth, left Marlborough College, he joined Guy's Hospital to start his training as a dental surgeon. However, he also joined the University of London Officer Training Corps, where he remained until 12th September 1915. He he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Light Royal Fusiliers (now known as the Regiment of Fusiliers), 2nd Battalion, arriving on the 12 November 1915 in the Dardanelles, Gallipoli.

By the 16th November he had his first battle field promotion to T/Lieutenant. It was during this time that he was transferred to the Machine Gun section of the Battalion, which would in time form part of the Machine Gun Corp. where he would see action later on in the Great War as part of the 52 Battalion Machine Gun Corp

He was finally evacuated from Gallipoli as part of the general withdrawal back to Palestine in December 1915, where the battalion stayed until embarking to Marseille, France in April 1916. As part of the pre planning and build up for what we now know as the Battle of the Somme, the battalion made its second debut in major operations in another attempt to achieve the impossible. On this occasion it took part as part of the 29th Division in the holding attack north of Ancre. It was here that Grandpa received his second battlefield promotion to T/Captain.

He was wounded during the Battle of the Somme on 16th of August 1916 at Delville Wood. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find out the nature of the wound, but it was, I expect nothing too serious as he was back at the front fairly quickly. He remained in the front line in France until December 1916, when the battalion where again withdrawn back to Palestine, where the battalion stayed for the whole of 1917.

In January 1918, the Battalion found itself back on the western front, where the Battalion was heavily engaged with the Big Push by the German Imperial Army and the resulting The Spring Offensive, then later in the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, which has seen the nation remembering this decisive battle, which is widely recognised as the turning point in the Great War, where the lessons of the Somme had been learnt. This battle saw for the first time Infantry, Artillery and Tank regiments together with the air support all coordinating in one single action, with devastating results, that the German Imperial Army where never to recover from.

Grandpa stayed in France after the amnesties on the 11th of November 1918 until Spring 1919. It was during this period that Grandpa was Mentioned in Dispatches on 2 separate occasions. The first occasion was in the dispatch from General Sir Edward Allenby on the 5thof April 1918 and the second occasion was in the dispatch from General Haig on the 8th of November 1918. Unfortunately, I have not been able to see what he did to warrant these mentions. I have no recollection of this been discussed within the family. Unfortunately, we will probably never know, as the majority of the records in the War Office where destroyed by a direct hit during the 2nd World War.

This period also saw the last of his battle field promotions, to A/Major in the Machine Gun Corps on the 25th April 1918. He was finally discharged from the regular Army in Aug 1919, where he resumed his studies at Guy's Hospital to finally qualify as a dental surgeon.

Robert McAlpin




247774

Pte Walter Binks 52nd Coy Machine Gun Corps (d.22nd July 1917)

Walter Binks served with the 9th Btn, Duke of Wellington's Regiment and 52nd Coy. Machine Gun Corps.

David Dunning






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