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Unit / Ship / Establishment:
9th Battalion (West Belfast) Royal Irish Rifles
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Detail : |
| The 9th (West Belfast) Battalion was raised in Belfast September 1914 from the Belfast Volunteers. They joined the 107th Brigade 36th (Ulster) Division at Ballykinler. The Ulster Division was formed from the Ulster Volunteer Force in August and September 1914, a process complicated by the tension surrounding the issue of Home rule. In July 1915 they moved to Seaford, Sussex in England. They proceeded to France in the first week of October, landing at Boulogne. The 36th (Ulster) Division concentrated near Flesselles, north of Arras. With training and familiarisation, including periods in the trenches with 4th Division in the front line north of the River Ancre near Albert. On the 21st of October they moved to the area around Abbeville. From the 5th November 1915 to 3rd Feb 1916 the 9th Battalion served with with 107th Bde, 4th Division for winter training. On the 29th August 1917 the 8th amalgamated with 9th Btn to form 8th/9th Bn. The 36th Ulster Division took over the front line in Spring. In 1916 they Division suffered heavily on the first day of the Battle of the Somme where they attacked at Thiepval. In 1917 They were in action at The Battle of Messines, capturing Wytschaete and in the The Battle of Langemarck during the Third Battles of Ypres and the The Cambrai Operations where the Division captured Bourlon Wood. In early 1918 the army was reorganised and the 9th battalion was disbanded in France on the 7th of February 1918. |
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