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THE FIRST INDIAN DIVISION to come to Europe, the Lahore Division, embarked at Karachi 24 August and, after a short period ashore in Egypt, came ashore at Marseilles on 26 September.1 In the course of 1915 the Indian formations in France, which were constituted as a corps, were beset by a low level of establishment and by a wholly inadequate rate of reinforcement, and indeed by May 1915 the Indian formations were exhausted : one battalion, which landed in France with 841 officers and men, by November 1915 had just 79 officers and men who had not been absent for more than ten days as a result of wounds or sickness. Total casualties for the corps to 15 November were 4,539 killed, 679 other deaths, 23,661 wounded, and 5,373 missing. Between 4 and 6 November the Indian Corps was relieved and after 7 November units and formations were put on trains for Marseilles and the Middle East. The corps was disbanded 8 December and the last Indian troops to leave France, from the Meerut Division, sailed from Marseilles on 26 December 1915.2 The first Australian forces sent to the European theater were the 1st Infantry Division and Light Horse Brigade, but their departure was delayed because of the activities of German cruisers, and it was not until 21 October 1914 that the former sailed from Melbourne. On 1 November these formations, plus a New Zealander formation, sailed from King George Sound, Albany, in Western Australia (in 34°57’ South 117°54’ East) for Colombo. While in the Indian Ocean it was decided in London that the Australasian formations would not proceed to Britain but would be stationed in Egypt. These formations arrived at Alexandria on 3 December, a combined formation named the New Zealand and Australian Division subsequently being formed. The two Australasian infantry divisions then saw service on Gallipoli in April 1915. After the evacuation from Gallipoli in January 1916 and after reinforcements had arrived from New Zealand, the 1st New Zealand Division was raised in March 1916 and embarked at Port Said and Alexandria on 6 April; by the end of the month it was at Hazebrouck , in the Ypres sector on the Western Front. At the same time Australian formations appendix 14.2. the arrival of british imperial and dominion formations in europe appendix 14.2 351 were re-formed and, with one mounted infantry division and one light horse brigade (plus aircraft and camel corps troops) left in Egypt, one infantry division went to Britain and the other three Australian divisions and one New Zealand division proceeded to France and the Western Front, the 5th Infantry Division being the first Australian formation to see combat on 19–20 July at Fromelles in the first battle of the Somme.3 The first Canadian formation to be sent overseas sailed from Quebec on 6 September and was sent to Bermuda, where it relieved the resident British battalion, which returned to Europe; in March–April 1915 another Canadian unit took on the role of garrison force at St. Lucia in the Windward Islands. After all sorts of problems in equipping newly formed units, an increase in size from initial plans and then in terms of requisitioning transports for the movement of troops and equipment, the first Canadian formation to be sent to Europe sailed from the St. Lawrence in some thirty transports on 3 October. Initially afforded protection by a force that included the pre-dreadnought battleship Glory and met in mid-ocean by the battlecruiser Princess Royal and the pre-dreadnought Majestic, the first transports to enter the harbor at Plymouth did so on the morning of 14 October; troops began landing the following day, but nine days were to elapse before all troops were put ashore. The Canadian units were then moved to Salisbury Plain for training, the sixteen-week experience of an ill-prepared British winter serving to prevent other imperial arrivals in Britain. Duly constituted, the 1st Canadian Division was moved to the continent in February 1915 and went into the line at Ypres, but it had been preceded by a battalion, raised among former troops, that had been landed in France on 21 December. It had then been incorporated within the 27th Infantry Division and entered the line 6–7 January 1915. Overall the Canadians raised five divisions but the last to be formed, the 5th Infantry Division, was assigned to British home defense and in the event it was...

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