63rd (Royal Naval) Division
The 63rd Division was a United Kingdom infantry division of the First World War. It was originally formed as the Royal Naval Division at the outbreak of the war, from Royal Navy and Royal Marine reservists and volunteers, who were not needed for service at sea. For RN personnel, the designation HMS Victory IV was used. The division fought at Antwerp in 1914 and at Gallipoli in 1915. In 1916, following many losses among the original naval volunteers, the division was transferred to the British Army as the 63rd Division, re-using the number from the disbanded second-line 63rd Division Territorial Force. As an Army formation, it fought on the Western Front for the remainder of the war.
Origins
Advanced Base Force
When the war began, a Marine Brigade of four infantry battalions was formed from men of the Royal Marine Light Infantry and Royal Marine Artillery. The brigade was to be an Advanced Base Force, according to a pre-war plan to furnish the Admiralty with a means to take, fortify or defend temporary naval bases for fleet operations or the supply of army field forces. The recruits included regular marines and those mobilised from the Fleet Reserve; each battalion was drawn from one of the big naval depot ports—Chatham, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Deal—and named accordingly.Royal Naval Division
On 16 August, Winston Churchill the First Lord of the Admiralty, decided to embody two more naval brigades with surplus men of the Naval Reserve, to join with the Marine Brigade to produce a composite Royal Naval Division. A few petty officers and ratings were transferred from the navy to provide a cadre and some officers were provided by the army but most of the recruits were reservists or men who had volunteered on the outbreak of war. The eight battalions were named after naval commanders, Drake, Benbow, Hawke, Collingwood, Nelson, Howe, Hood and Anson, later being numbered from 1st to 8th. The division was not provided with medical, artillery or engineer units, consisting solely of lightly equipped infantry. Many of the trained men were then reclaimed for fleet service and recruits were taken over at the request of the War Office, from oversubscribed north country regiments. Training was slow, except for the Marine Brigade which had its own infrastructure, because resources were needed for the rapid expansion of the army and naval ratings were not issued with field equipment or khaki uniforms before being embarked for overseas service. On 26 August, the Marine Brigade was sent to Ostend to reinforce the Belgian garrison, after German cavalry had appeared in the area. The brigade returned on 1 September after the scare subsided and on 3 September the Admiralty decided to train the two Naval Reserve brigades as infantry, to form an infantry division with the Marine Brigade. Rifles were drawn from Royal Navy stocks and only arrived at the end of September; these were older Charger-Loading Lee–Enfields rather than the modern Short Magazine Lee–Enfields issued to the army.Belgium
Ostend
Following early Belgian and Entente defeats in the German invasion of Belgium and cut off from the rest of the Allies by the German advance, the majority of the Belgian army fell back towards the fortified port of Antwerp, in late August 1914. Belgian troops were also withdrawn from ports along the Belgian coast. The Admiralty wanted to deny the Germans submarine bases in Belgian ports for operations in the English Channel. On 24 August, German cavalry patrols were reported near Ostend and it was decided to land a small naval detachment to secure the town. Further south, the French armies and the British Expeditionary Force conducted the Retreat from Mons, with the German armies driving south-west after them, leaving very few units to guard lines of communication. The Admiralty planned to use the Channel ports as a base to attack German land supply routes, with the Royal Marine Brigade forming the basis of a landing force.Deal Battalion was still assembling, so only Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth battalions were sent to Flanders; two landing at Ostend in the early morning of 27 August and the other the next day. They were ordered to hold the town until Belgian troops who had retreated into France could be transferred and troops arrived on 30 August. The rapid Allied retreat led the War Office to decide that supplies would have to be brought through ports in western France, as the existing arrangements in the Pas de Calais ports were too exposed. This would be more demanding on naval escort ships, leaving too few to support the force at Ostend. The Marines were re-embarked on 31 September and returned to their ports.
Antwerp
The division participated in the Siege of Antwerp. The Royal Marine Brigade arrived opposite Lier in requisitioned London buses on 4 October and occupied a position around the northern fringe of Lier, which turned out to be sections of a shallow trench between hedgerows, with one strand of wire in front. The two naval brigades arrived early on 6 October to reinforce the Marine Brigade but were diverted to forts 1 to 8 of the inner ring, where the trenches were again found to be shallow and the ground cleared for in front, which made them easily visible to German artillery observers. On the night of intervening trenches between forts 2 and 7 were occupied by the two naval brigades and the 4th and 7th Fortress regiments, with the Belgian 2nd Division and the Marine Brigade in reserve. The British forces under the command of Major-General Archibald Paris were ordered by Winston Churchill to continue the defence for as long as possible and to be ready to cross to the west bank rather than surrender.The Belgian commanders decided to continue the defence of Antwerp with the garrison troops and move the 2nd Division and the British troops across the Scheldt; it was decided that if forts 1 and 2 were lost, the Royal Naval Division would withdraw at dusk. News arrived that the forts had fallen at and orders were sent to the 2nd Division and the British for a retirement, which began at but the orders failed to reach all of the 1st Naval Brigade, only one battalion of which withdrew. The 2nd Naval Brigade, three of the four Royal Marine battalions and Drake Battalion of the 1st Naval Brigade withdrew with Major-General Paris. They initially marched from the rendezvous at Zwijndrecht to Beveren, where it was believed that trains to Ostend were available. On arrival at that location, it turned out that the railhead had moved to Sint-Gillis-Waas, six miles further west. After a slow and disorganised march, this station was reached and this body of the RND safely returned to their camp at Deal
after the crossing from Ostend.
At on October 8th, the error with the delivery of orders was realised by the remaining portion of the RND. This remainder - three battalions of the 1st Naval Brigade and the Portsmouth battalion of the Marine Brigade under Commodore Wilfred Henderson, began to cross the river from and moved west, parallel to the Netherlands frontier. The 1st Naval Brigade reached the Scheldt at midnight, only to find that the bridges were being demolished and under a German shrapnel bombardment. The troops crossed using barges and boats and set out for a rendezvous at Zwijndrecht, which was reached at on 9 October.
Now aware of the railway situation, and with reports of a German encircling manoeuvre being made from the south west, the RND marched to Sint-Gillis-Waas. The organisation of this march of around 10 miles became increasingly poor due to the men's fatigue, poor morale and navigation errors caused by lack of accurate maps and understanding of the country. The march broke up into several different formations proceeding by separate roads or cross-country. Trains were arranged and men embarked as they arrived, but before they could depart came information that the German advance had captured the railway station at Moerbeke, westward along the railway line between Sint-Gillis-Waas and Ostend. Deciding there was no alternative, Commodore Henderson marched his formation for the Dutch border to the north and at about half the original complement, were interned as the crossed into neutral territory. About forty sailors managed to break off from the main group or escape Dutch confinement, sneak along the border and join up with the Paris and the 2nd Brigade before it left Ostend. The other men were to spend the rest of the war at Groningen, where they were held in a camp they dubbed HMS Timbertown, a name inspired by the wooden huts where they were quartered.
The Portsmouth battalion of the Marine Brigade had been ordered to act as a rearguard for the 1st Naval Brigade's withdrawal. This unit made for the railway at Sint-Niklaas. With no trains to be found there, they made for Kemzeke. On this march they encountered several hundred sailors who had become separated from the main formation during their march and were lost. This ad-hoc unit of about 800 men boarded trains at Kemzeke, but did not know that the Germans had captured Moerbeke, which they had to pass through. Their train was derailed as it entered that village and a brief exchange of fire occurred. Around 200 men held back the German attack, broke away and then marched cross-country to pick up a train to Ostend at Zelzate. Approximately 550 were captured by the Germans either at Moerbeke or nearby after trying to escape back along the railway line.