6th (UK) Division
The 6th Division was a division of the British Army, which had been raised and disbanded numerous times as needed over the last 200 years. It was first established by Lieutenant-General Arthur Wellesley in 1810, for service in the Peninsular War as part of the Anglo-Portuguese Army. Over the following four years, the division took part in numerous battles and sieges. Notably, on 22 July 1812, the division was heavily engaged during the Battle of Salamanca and suffered the most casualties of any allied formation in that battle. Following the invasion of France, the formation played a prominent role in the 1814 Battle of Toulouse where it assaulted and seized numerous French redoubts protecting the city. While successful, the formation suffered heavy losses from the fighting. This battle marked the end of the Peninsular War and the War of the Sixth Coalition, and the division was broken-up. It was reformed and active for most of the following year, during the War of the Seventh Coalition; held in reserve at the beginning of the Battle of Waterloo, it was committed in the evening to bolster the centre-left of the British line and suffered heavy casualties in the process.
The division also took part in the Second Boer War and the First World War. It was active in the early stages of the Second World War, with its component brigades engaged in various parts of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre. In the twenty-first century, the division was reformed on 1 February 2008, for Operation Herrick service in the War in Afghanistan. It was disbanded following deployment to Afghanistan as a combined joint task force, in 2011. The division was again reformed, by the renaming of Force Troops Command, in August 2019.
It was disbanded again in 2024, with its units moved to Field Army Troops.
Napoleonic Wars
Initial service in the Peninsular War
Following the Battle of Bussaco, on 27 September 1810 during the Peninsular War, Arthur Wellesley ordered the Anglo-Portuguese Army to retreat towards the Portuguese capital of Lisbon and the nearby prepared fortifications, the Lines of Torres Vedras. There, they were met by reinforcements that had arrived from other theaters of the Napoleonic Wars. These troops were used to bring the 5th Division up to strength, and then, on 6 October 1810, Wellesley ordered the formation of the 6th Division with the remainder. Under the command of Major-General Alexander Campbell, the division comprised one brigade of British infantry and one brigade of Portuguese troops that included the Loyal Lusitanian Legion. Minus the Portuguese, the division was 1,948 strong. After serving in the Lines of Torres Vedras, the division took up winter quarters at Alenquer.During March 1811, the French started to withdraw from Portugal and were followed by the majority of the Anglo-Portuguese Army. After the Battle of Redinha, the division was used as the spearhead of the pursuit after the French. The presence of these three divisions, at the end of the month, intimidated the French into a further withdrawal from Guarda. It then moved to join the Blockade of Almeida and was present at the connected Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro. Now 5,250 strong, it was posted on the flank of the main British force with a deep ravine to its front that hindered any prospect of a French assault. While some ineffective skirmishing took place, the division suffered the loss of just four Portuguese troops. It remained in the vicinity of Almeida until its capture. By September, having moved into Spain, the Anglo-Portuguese Army fought the Battle of El Bodón on 25 September. The same day, to the north of that battleground, the 6th Division engaged in a skirmish with French forces and inflicted 11 dead and captured 37 more, for the loss of 12 of their own. Later in the month, the formation was withdrawn to Beira, Portugal, for winter.
In January 1812, the division left winter quarters and marched through heavy snow back into Spain. The division acted as a covering force for the initial part of the campaign, while other parts of the army undertook engagements such as the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo. In June, the division escorted Wellington as he entered Salamanca. This was followed by an active role in the Siege of the Salamanca forts and criticism of their engineering work, due to a lack of experience in digging siege works. During the siege, the division launched an unsuccessful attack on one fort and lost 126 men, including one brigadier. Following the successful end to the siege, the Anglo-Portuguese Army prepared for an engagement with the main French force in the theater that eventually occurred at the Battle of Salamanca on 22 July. The division formed part of the army's second line behind the 4th Division. When the latter came under heavy attack, the 6th Division moved forward to assist. They fended off French cavalry attacks, halted the main infantry assault, and forced the French to withdraw. The formation advanced after the French but ran into reformed troops, and then engaged in a ferocious prolonged duel until dark descended. The division's final assault was led by the Portuguese brigade, which was unsuccessful and lost 487 men in 15-minutes. However, the overall pressure and supporting attacks by other elements of the Anglo-Portuguese Army resulted in a French retreat. The British losses within the division amounted to 1,193, with the formation's overall losses being the highest of any of the Anglo-Portuguese in the battle. While the army then marched towards Madrid, the Spanish capital, the division moved to Cuéllar to be in a position to intercept any French forces that might have moved to interfere. The division was chosen for this task due to its losses, and to also allow for recently arrived sick troops to be assigned to a formation in a secondary area so that they could acclimatize to Spain and not hinder combat operations. The Anglo-Portuguese Army left Madrid in August and linked up with the 6th Division on 3 September. Over the course of the month, the division unsuccessfully attempted to outflank French forces to bring them to battle, before joining the Siege of Burgos. A failed assault soon followed, and the division was allocated a larger role in October although this attack did not materialize. On 21 October, the siege was abandoned, and the army withdrew. By the end of the year, the division was back in winter quarters in Portugal.
Invasion of France
During 1813, the division was used to guard the army's lines of communication and was based around Medina de Pomar for a time. In June, the formation arrived in the vicinity of Vitoria and then took part in the sieges of Pamplona and the siege of San Sebastián. This was followed by the Battle of Sorauren in July, where it suffered 820 casualties over the two days it was engaged in combat. The division then moved to Navarre, where it and several other formations aimed to deter a French attack while the main body undertook the second siege of San Sebastián. It then took part in the October Battle of the Bidassoa and skirmished with French troops. Success here resulted in the invasion of France and the division spearheaded the advance towards the bridge at Amotz during the Battle of Nivelle. The division forded the Nivelle, then climbed a steep hill to assault the entrenched French positions that protected the bridge. By the time they had made the climb, the 3rd Division had already forced their way across the bridge and the presence of the two formations prompted the French to retreat without much further fighting. During the battle, the division suffered 272 casualties, largely from exposure to artillery fire. The following month, the Nive was crossed at Ustaritz, during the Battle of the Nive. While the main body of the army moved forward to fight the Battle of St. Pierre on 13 December, the division was initially ordered to remain at Ustaritz. After a long march to catch up, it arrived in the rear of the British positions towards the end of the battle and played a minor role in the final stages of the fighting and suffered a mere 33 casualties. This marked the end of fighting for the year.In February 1814, the army broke winter quarters and the division moved towards Hasparren to be in a position to interdict any French attempts to lift the siege of Bayonne. It then moved to Orthez, and took part in the Battle of Orthez where it suffered 89 losses. On 20 March, near Tarbes, the division outflanked French troops who were engaged by other British forces. However, Wellington ordered an end to the battle before the division could launch an assault. It then marched on Toulouse, skirmished with French forces at various locations en route, and then took part in the April Battle of Toulouse and stormed several redoubts at Mont Rave. While successful, the division suffered 1,515 casualties. This was roughly one third of the formation's strength, which included one battalion that suffered over 50 per cent losses. Meanwhile, Napoleon, Emperor of the French, had abdicated following the capture of Paris on 31 March, which ended the War of the Sixth Coalition. With the war over, the formation was broken up along with the remainder of the army's divisions. The troops marched to Bordeaux, from where they either returned to the UK or were transported to North America to take part in the ongoing War of 1812.
Waterloo campaign
At the end of the War of the Sixth Coalition, British and Hanoverian troops moved into the Southern Netherlands—previously Austrian Netherlands—as part of an Anglo-Dutch effort to secure the territory while awaiting a political outcome to the war at the Congress of Vienna. On 11 April 1815, after the outbreak of the War of the Seventh Coalition upon Napoleon's return to power and the arrival of allied reinforcements, the force in the Southern Netherlands was reorganised into divisions of the Anglo-Allied Army. The 6th Division was reformed, under the command of Lieutenant-General Galbraith Lowry Cole, and consisted of the British Tenth Brigade and the Hanoverian Fourth Brigade. The latter, while remaining an official part of the division, was attached to the 5th Division and dispatched to take part in the Battle of Quatre Bras and stayed with them during the fighting at Waterloo. The Tenth Brigade remained at Brussels during the initial part of the Waterloo campaign and Cole went on his honeymoon. Around 16/17 June, Major-General John Lambert, commanding the Tenth Brigade and the temporary divisional commander, was ordered to move his formation up to Waterloo. While the brigade consisted of four battalions, the 81st Regiment of Foot was left behind as a reserve.The brigade arrived just prior to the battle commencing and became the final reserve of the Anglo-Allied Army. It was initially based behind the Mont-Saint-Jean farm, which was located behind the centre of the army's line, but moved progressively forward as reserves were committed into the battle. During the evening, the French succeeded in capturing La Haye Sainte, an occupied farm complex to the front of the Anglo-Allied centre-left, and then immediately pushed forward skirmishers to attack the British frontline. Under increasing pressure, as French line infantry arrived, additional British reserves were committed including two of the Tenth Brigade's battalions who quickly became heavily engaged. Fearing the French could collapse this part of the line, the brigade's final battalion, the 1st Battalion, 27th Regiment of Foot, was ordered forward. They took up a position on the Wavre–Charleroi crossroad, which bisected the Anglo-Allied Army's position, and formed square with the intent that they could engage a French breakthrough on either of their flanks while also supporting the frontline. The 27th came under such heavy fire that they suffered 50 per cent losses within a few minutes, and by the end of the battle had suffered 68 per cent casualties. Both sides remained heavily engaged, while a key moment of the battle unfolded on the centre-right of the line: the French Imperial Guard assaulted and were repulsed. As the Guard fell back, panic spread among the French infantry, facing the Anglo-Allied centre-left who joined the retreat with the battle ending soon after. The Tenth Brigade's three battalions had a strength of 2,198 at the start of the battle, and suffered 834 casualties including 170 killed over the course of the day.
Following Waterloo, the entire army marched into France and arrived on the outskirts of Paris on 1 July. The war ended a short while later, following the French capitulation. Cole rejoined the division on 7 July. On 30 November, following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the British force in France was reorganised into the Army of Occupation that consisted of four divisions and did not count the 6th among them.