The
38th Brigade came into existence in 1914, as one of the brigades of
13th (Western) Division, one of the
Kitchener's Army war-raised formations. It fought through the war as part of 13th Division. It was reformed on 13 January 1942 by the re-designation of the
210th Independent Infantry Brigade (Home), a Home Defence formation organised in October 1940. The 210th Brigade had been serving in the
Dorset County Division. When that division was disbanded on 24 November 1941, 210 Brigade transferred to the
1st Infantry Division. By then, all of 210 Brigade's English home defence battalions had been posted away and were replaced by the 1st Battalion,
Royal Irish Fusiliers, the 6th Battalion,
Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the 2nd Battalion,
London Irish Rifles. Of the three battalions, only the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers had seen active service, fighting in the
Battle of France where they were forced to
retreat to Dunkirk and were subsequently
evacuated to England. s and troops of the 6th Battalion,
Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, move up to
Catenanuova,
Sicily, August 1943. In June 1942, the brigade was transferred from the 1st Infantry Division to the
6th Armoured Division and it landed in
North Africa with the division on 22 November 1942, as part of the
British First Army. In March 1943, it exchanged with the
1st Guards Brigade and joined the
78th Battleaxe Infantry Division and fought with distinction throughout the rest of the
Tunisian Campaign. In late April, the 38th (Irish) Brigade played a lead role in the capture of the German defensive positions in the mountains north of Medjez-el-Bab and the campaign ended in mid-May, with almost 250,000
Axis soldiers surrendering. The brigade were the first marching troops to enter Tunis on 8 May 1943. s of the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers pass a wrecked German Nebelwerfer rocket launcher near Ceprano, Italy, 28 May 1944. After a short rest, the brigade again saw action in the
Allied invasion of Sicily (in particular the
capture of Centuripe), and in the
Italian Campaign, spearheading the
British Eighth Army's advance to the
Volturno Line, and later at the
Battle of Monte Cassino and at Lake Trasimene. Shortly afterwards, the brigade was sent to rest in Egypt. While there, the 6th Inniskillings was disbanded and the men transferred to the 2nd Battalion, another Regular Army unit, which had arrived from
13th Brigade of the
5th Division, and the surplus men were transferred to fill gaps in the other battalions of the brigade. The rest was short-lived, however, and the brigade soon returned to Italy where it was involved in fighting north of Florence, followed later by
Operation Grapeshot. During May 1945, it was (briefly) detached to both
46th Infantry and 6th Armoured Divisions and the brigade then was allotted occupation duties in
Carinthia in southern
Austria, before being formally disbanded in April 1947.
Order of battle The 38th Brigade was constituted as follows during the war: • 1st Infantry Division
25 November 1941 – 7 June 1942 • 6th Armoured Division
9 June 1942 – 16 February 1943 • 'Y" Division
16 Feb 43 – 15 March 1943 • 78th Infantry Division
15 March 1943 – 28 March 1943 • 46th Infantry Division
29 March 1943 – 6 April 1943 • 78th Infantry Division
7 April 1943 – 10 May 1945 • 6th Armoured Division
10 May 1945 – 13 May 1945 • 46th Infantry Division
13 May 1945 – 18 May 1945 • 78th Infantry Division
18 May 1945 – 31 August 1945 == Twenty-first century ==