Formation and home service The division was created at the end of August 1914, as the 2nd East Lancashire Division, a second-line formation of the
East Lancashire Division. Territorial Force soldiers could not be deployed overseas without their consent and the Territorial units were accordingly split into a "first line", with men who had volunteered for overseas service and a "second line", which was intended for home service, by the ten per cent who refused to volunteer on 12 August. The second line units also served to absorb the large number of recruits who had joined the Territorial Force following the outbreak of war. The first commander was
Brigadier-General Charles Beckett, a 65-year-old retired officer, who had commanded a
Yeomanry brigade some years earlier. As with the original East Lancashire Division, the 2nd East Lancashire was organised in three infantry brigades of four battalions each. These were later numbered as the
197th (Lancashire Fusiliers) Brigade, composed of the 2/5th, 2/6th, 2/7th and 2/8th
Lancashire Fusiliers; the
198th (East Lancashire) Brigade, composed of the 2/4th and 2/5th
East Lancashire Regiment and the 2/9th and 2/10th
Manchester Regiment; and the
199th (Manchester) Brigade, composed of the 2/5th, 2/6th, 2/7th and 2/8th Manchester Regiment. the 198th Brigade from
Blackburn,
Burnley Ashton-under-Lyne and
Oldham and the 199th Brigade from
Wigan,
Manchester and
Ardwick.
Flanders and Poelcappelle, 1917 The division arrived in France in early 1917 as part of the last batch of second-line Territorial divisions to be sent from Britain, and was attached to the
First Army. On 12 April, Brigadier-General
Godfrey Matthews, a former Royal Marine officer commanding 198th Brigade, was wounded by shellfire and died the next day. In June, the division was transferred to the
XV Corps of the
Fourth Army on the relatively quiet coastal sector in
Flanders. During the summer, XV Corps was held ready for
Operation Hush, an amphibious landing by the
1st Division and a coastal offensive by the rest of XV Corps, which was planned to support an advance from Passchendaele Ridge east of
Ypres, by the
Fifth Army. The operation was postponed several times and was cancelled in October. At the end of September, the 66th Division was relieved by its parent unit, the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division. After a few days of overlap, where many men were able to meet friends and relations they had not seen since 1914, the division moved south to the Ypres area. The division was assigned to
II Anzac Corps, a predominantly Australian formation and the 199th Brigade moved into the front line to replace the
3rd Australian Division on 5 October. The relief was badly mismanaged, leaving the Australian staff officers doubtful of the efficiency of the division. On 9 October, the division made its debut in the
Battle of Poelcappelle. On the night of the 197th and 198th brigades had begun to cover the to the front line, which usually took about hours. Despite starting ten hours before the attack, the 197th Brigade was late. At zero hour, the 198th Brigade attacked on the left flank of the divisional front, into defences which had been little damaged by the artillery bombardment, advancing behind a meagre
creeping barrage and were held up short of the first objective. The 197th Brigade arrived late on the right flank, exhausted and disorganised after a twelve-hour march through mud but attacked as soon as it arrived. The brigade rapidly advanced over drier sandy ground and reached the final objective, short of
Passchendaele village at an officer's patrol entered the village and found it empty. Around midday, the 197th Brigade battalions near the village withdrew their flanks, to gain touch with the units on either side at the first objective; the troops in the centre misinterpreted this and also withdrew the same distance. A German counter-attack was repulsed at and before nightfall, the divisional commander ordered a short withdrawal, to link with the
49th Division on the left and to avoid
enfilade fire from the Bellevue Spur. The brigade ended the day beyond the start line for the loss of the division was relieved by the 3rd Australian Division on the night of A second senior officer was killed in action, when Brigadier-General Arthur Lowe, commanding the divisional artillery, was killed near Ypres on 24 November. In late December 1917, a new commanding officer, Major-General
Neill Malcolm was appointed to the 66th Division. Malcolm was a decorated veteran of several colonial wars, who had served in staff posts since being wounded in the
Second Boer War and had most recently served as
chief of staff of the Fifth Army. The division was reorganised over the winter, with the brigade machine-gun companies being consolidated into a battalion and a
pioneer battalion, the 1/5th
Border Regiment joining the division. The most substantial change was the loss of three battalions, the 3/5th Lancashire Fusiliers and 2/8th and 2/10th Manchester Regiment, one from each brigade. On the morning of 21 March, the German spring offensive began at the
Battle of St. Quentin. Elements of the German
25th Division and
208th Division attacked through a thick fog at dawn, overrunning the two battalions (4th East Lancashires and 2/8th Lancashire Fusiliers) which held positions in the forward zone. By 10.30 am, they had reached the "battle zone", where the fighting intensified. On the right flank, near the boundary with 24th Division, a reserve company of 2/7th Manchesters held a defensive position from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm, when they surrendered, having lost 70 per cent casualties and run out of ammunition. To their left, the 2/6th Manchesters held out until the early afternoon, when the 160 survivors were forced to retreat further into the battle zone. The northern element of the division's defensive plan was a fortified quarry outside the village of
Templeux-le-Guérard, held by the 2/7th Lancashire Fusiliers and 1/5th Border Regiment but this had been quickly surrounded and bypassed by the attackers, to be mopped up later in the day, with only a few men escaping. The village was defended by the 2/6th Lancashire Fusiliers and an artillery battery; in the course of the day, the battery was destroyed while the fusiliers were pushed back towards the edge of the village, clinging on to their positions as night fell. During the day, 711 men of 66th Division had been killed; while detailed figures are not available this would suggest around 1,000 men were wounded and another 2,000 captured. British casualties for the day were 7,500 killed, 10,000 wounded and 21,000 captured; 66th Division is known to have lost 711 men killed. On the morning of 22 March, German attacks continued to push back the remaining units of the 66th Division, now supported by the
1st Cavalry Division and a handful of tanks. The composite force managed a fighting retreat, with most units avoiding encirclement. Shortly after noon the remnants of the division were ordered to retreat behind the
50th (Northumbrian) Division, which were preparing fresh defences on the original Green Line along the edge of the rear zone. The 66th Division retreated through the new defensive line by 4:00 pm, with the aid of the 5th
Durham Light Infantry (DLI), which had been temporarily transferred to support them and the 50th Division took over the front line. Over the following days, the divisions of XIX Corps fell back towards the line of the
River Somme, where the 66th Division (plus the 5th DLI) took up positions on the west bank of the river around
Barleux and
Foucaucourt-en-Santerre, west of
Peronne. On 24 March, the German army crossed the Somme and the 2/8th Lancashire Fusiliers counter-attacked the bridgeheads without success but continued to hold a line close to the river. Expecting a follow-up attack the next day,
149th Brigade was temporarily attached to 66th Division and both units were slowly pushed back from the banks of the Somme, withdrawing to
Assevillers as night fell on 25 March. The remnants of the 66th Division were holding a position south of the Somme, with the 50th Division to the right and troops from the Third Army over the river to the left. An attack on the morning of 26 March, opening the
Battle of Rosières, pushed back the units on the north bank and the 66th Division retired, losing contact with the 50th Division, which fell back on
Rosières-en-Santerre to avoid being flanked. "Little's Composite Battalion" with the remaining troops of the 198th Brigade, moved from reserve to Foucaucourt and defended the village until the early afternoon, retired to Framercourt and then filled a gap between the 66th and 39th divisions. The battalion had been formed from stragglers and reinforcement drafts by Lieutenant-Colonel W. B. Little, commander of 1/5th Borders, who had been on leave when the German offensive began and moved up towards the front line during 25 March. Other British troops were north of the 66th Division around
Vauvilliers and by that night, the line south of the Somme was held by 16th, 39th, 66th and 50th divisions. The battle continued on 27 March, with the 66th Division pushed back to
Harbonniers. That night, the division took up positions between
Wiencourt and
Guillaucourt, facing north on a line of about . The three brigade headquarters had moved forward to reinforce the front line; until the 66th Division was reorganised later in the year, casualties were so numerous that the brigade structure was not reformed and the brigadiers took turns to command the infantry. On the morning of 28 March, a German attack broke through at Guillaucourt and the 66th Division retreated south to
Cayeux-en-Santerre, with the 39th Division on the left. By nightfall, the line had been pushed back to
Ignaucourt, a few miles from Amiens. Elements of the division remained in the fighting line as late as 30 March, when they fought in a counter-attack near
Aubercourt under the command of one of the 66th Division brigadiers. The division was relieved by part of the
18th Division on the night of 30/31 March. After ten days' fighting, only 2,500 men remained in the division and it had almost ceased to function as an organised unit. Two of the three infantry brigades and eight of the twelve infantry battalions had lost their commanders and the front-line strength was reduced to 1,200 riflemen, fewer than a company per battalion. A proposal to disband the division was discussed in the first week of April but quickly rejected. On 29 March, near
Vauchelles-lès-Domart, Malcolm had been badly wounded in his good leg (he was lame in the other, following an injury in South Africa) and left the division to recover, command being taken temporarily by Brigadier-General A. J. Hunter. The 66th Division was ordered to move north to secure eastern Belgium. On 18 November, it began to move north into the
Namur region, where it was stationed between
Huy and
Rochefort. The division remained there while it demobilised and was disbanded on 24 March 1919. Bethell remained in Germany as Colonel-Commandant of the 2nd Rhine Brigade, headquartered at
Wiesbaden. ==General officers commanding==