The Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 proposed a more comprehensive Mobilisation Scheme for Volunteer units, which would assemble in their own brigades at key points in case of war.

[18][21][22][23][24][25] On 3 August 1914 the Welsh Division's infantry brigades were at their annual camps when all training was cancelled and the battalions were ordered back to their HQs; war was declared next day.

[33] Over the following days the battalion was engaged in reorganising and improving the trenches facing Scimitar Hill, taking casualties from Turkish rifle fire.

The following morning 8th Bn Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) advanced with the bayonet, D Company 1/5th RWF in support, and the Turks in front began to surrender while those behind were in full retreat.

The battalion's guide got lost and there was an overnight fog, so 158th Bde was late crossing the wadi that morning, but by 06.30 it reached the edge of the Mansura ridge overlooking the plain of Gaza.

About 40 men of 1/5th RWF dashed through the machine gun fire and made a lodgement in the trenches east of Ali Muntar mosque, capturing Turks, Austrians and Germans, and held it fast despite enemy counter-attacks.

On 20 October 158th Bde moved up to the concentration area for the new offensive (the Third Battle of Gaza), taking over the front line and reconnoitring the ground over which they were to attack.

On 3 November the division advanced into the hills in a series of columns, 1/5th RWF escorting the artillery along a track over relatively flat ground towards Tell el Khuweilfe.

Later in the day the battalion was diverted to assist in the attack on the heights (the Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe), which pinned the Turkish reinforcements arriving on the battlefield.

53rd (W) Division was ordered to stand fast, though 1/5th RWF used rifle grenades to bombard and then rush a troublesome Turkish machine gun and sniper post.

On 22 December 1/5th RWF was sent forward to take over part of the outpost line under 159th Bde; the path was so steep that the relief was not completed until the following morning.

[21][24][52][53][54] 53rd (W) Division held its line throughout the bad weather of January 1918, with 158th Bde providing working parties to improve the roads for the EEF's next advance, aimed at Jericho.

The division occupied No man's land in the preceding days, then after a heavy bombardment on 9 March the 1/5th RWF captured the hill at about 09.30, despite morning fog.

[60] In the summer 53rd (Welsh) Division was changed to the Indian Army establishment: only one British battalion was retained in each brigade, the remainder being sent as reinforcements to the Western Front.

158th Brigade was in reserve, but a company of 5th/6th RWF was attached to the leading Indian unit of 160th Bde (17th Infantry (The Loyal Regiment)) and covered the left flank of the advance, occupying Keen's Knoll and Table Hill.

Brigadier Archibald Beauman, who had been put in charge of the scattered mobile forces south of the Somme ('Beauforce'), recovered 10 Bofors guns from various abandoned airfields, and these were given to 44 LAA Bty.

Attempts by 1st Armoured and 51st (Highland) Division under French command to break through to the encircled BEF at Dunkirk led to fighting round Abbeville on 27–28 May and were unsuccessful.

[77][84][86][87] After returning to the UK, the remnants of 1st Armoured Division were stationed in Surrey in VII Corps, as part of the mobile reserve to defend against the feared German invasion (Operation Sealion).

[80][74][73][77][92] After completing its refitting and training in the UK, 1st Armoured Division sailed for the Middle East, 1st Sp Gp leaving on 27 September 1941, arriving in Egypt on 5 December and shortly afterwards moving up into Libya to join Eighth Army's Operation Crusader.

1st Armoured Division was committed to battle piecemeal before it had time to prepare for desert warfare; 1st Sp Gp found itself operating in appalling hummocky country, and many of its vehicles were not desert-worthy.

[77][93][94] General Erwin Rommel's counter-attack on 21 January broke through Eighth Army's screen, 1st Sp Gp finding itself in difficulties in the bad country and under attack by Junkers Ju 87 Stuka divebombers.

[77][95] Eighth Army retired to defensive positions at Gazala, consisting of a series of fortified 'boxes', each defended by a brigade group, with the armoured divisions deployed behind for counter-attack.

[98] Once Rommel had reduced the southernmost box at Bir Hakeim, stubbornly defended until 10 June by the 1st Free French Brigade, he resumed his advance.

[99] On 12 June Eighth Army made a fresh attempt to move its armoured brigades south to attack the enemy, but although 2nd Armd Bde achieved its objective, the day was costly for the British.

76th (RWF) Anti-Tank Rgt was out of the line during August,[103] but on 8 September it was joined by ZZ A/T Bty, which had been formed within 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery.

[73][105][106] The division's role in the first phase (Operation Lightfoot) of the forthcoming battle under X Corps was to follow the advancing infantry during the night of 23/24 October, cutting corridors through the Axis minefield defences, and then deploy behind an anti-tank screen before attacking the enemy positions in daylight.

On 25 and 26 October the division made little progress against the enemy anti-tank defences but held off several Axis counter-attacks during the phase of battle dubbed 'the dog-fight' by Montgomery.

For 1st Armd Division this was a repeat of Lightfoot, with a night crossing of a minefield on 1/2 November, followed by an armoured battle on the far side, in which the Axis tank strength was badly depleted.

[111][112][113] 1st Armoured Division spent the winter of 1942–43 near Benghazi and did not move up to rejoin Eighth Army until 27 February, when it began a 1,300 miles (2,100 km) drive with X Corps to Tripoli, completed by 14 March.

[74] The RWF's regimental memorial for both world wars, a sculpted group by Sir William Goscombe John, stands at the junction of Bodhyfryd and Chester roads in Wrexham.