's recruitment poster for Kitchener's Army. On 6 August 1914, less than 48 hours after Britain's declaration of war,
Parliament sanctioned an increase of 500,000 men for the Regular
British Army. The newly-appointed
Secretary of State for War,
Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, issued his famous call to arms: 'Your King and Country Need You', urging the first 100,000 volunteers to come forward. This group of six divisions with supporting arms became known as Kitchener's First New Army, or 'K1'. The K2, K3 and K4 battalions, brigades and divisions followed soon afterwards. But the flood of volunteers overwhelmed the ability of the Army to absorb them, and by the time the Fifth New Army (K5) was authorised, many of its constituent units were being organised as '
Pals battalions' under the auspices of mayors and corporations of towns up and down the country. On 10 December 1914 the
War Office (WO) authorised the formation of another six divisions and their brigades to command these K5 units, including 39th Division consisting of 116th, 117th and 118th Brigades. However, on 10 April 1915 the WO decided to convert the K4 battalions into reserve units. The K4 divisions and brigades were broken up and the K5 formations took over their numbers, so that 39th Division became
32nd Division. A new 39th Division was authorised on 27 April and authorisation for three new infantry brigades – 116th, 117th and 118th – was issued on 12 July 1915, but in practice 116th Bde was created by renumbering 121st Bde from the original 40th Division, and only 117th and 118th were newly-formed. The new 39th Division began to assemble around
Winchester in
Hampshire early in August 1915, but when it moved to
Aldershot at the end of September it still consisted of little more than 117th Bde Headquarters (HQ) and three of its battalions. In November the division moved to
Witley Camp in
Surrey, where the remaining units joined and it completed its training. Mobilisation orders were received during February 1916, but it was considered that the Pals battalions of 118th Bde were not yet ready for active service. They were left behind and 118th Bde Headquarters (HQ) went to
Le Havre in France on 23 February to take over command of five experienced
Territorial Force battalions that had been sent as reinforcements to various formations on the
Western Front earlier in the war. After some delays the rest of the division began entrainment for
Southampton Docks on 2 March. Disembarkation at Le Havre was completed on 8 March and the division concentrated round
Blaringhem in
First Army's area by 11 March. ==Service==