List of British infantry brigades of the Second World War (101–308 and named) facts for kids

During the Second World War, British brigades were led by a brigadier. This picture shows Brigadier Ronald Senior (center) with his team from the 151st Infantry Brigade in 1944. They are being visited by Lieutenant-General William Duthie Morgan (left) and Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden (right).

During the Second World War, a British infantry brigade was a military group made up of several battalions. A brigadier was in charge of each brigade. Usually, three infantry brigades would form an infantry division. However, brigades could also work on their own. When they did, they were often assigned to a larger command called a corps.

Brigades were very flexible. They rarely kept the same battalions for long. Also, brigades could move between different divisions or higher commands. This happened when the army needed them in a new place or for a new job. Their role could change a lot too. They might be fighting units or training groups.

The British Army had 216 different brigade groups during the war. But not all of them existed at the same time. Some were formed by simply changing the name or number of an existing group. This article focuses on brigades numbered above 100 and those with special names. Brigades numbered 100 and below are on a separate list.

The British Army had two main parts during the war. One was the regular army, made of full-time soldiers. The other was the Territorial Army (TA), which had part-time reservists. The TA was key to making the army bigger during wartime. Existing TA groups, called first-line units, would create new groups. These new groups, called second-line units, would start with a small team of experienced soldiers, known as a cadre. Then, they would grow until they were full strength. The regular army also made new brigades by putting existing infantry battalions together. Many new infantry brigades were also formed when members of the Royal Artillery were retrained as infantry soldiers.

Understanding British Brigades

The infantry was the main fighting force of the British Army. Here, a brigade from the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division cheers for Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

The infantry was the backbone of the British Army in the Second World War. Infantry soldiers were organized into regiments. These were administrative groups, not fighting units. The actual fighting unit of an infantry regiment was the battalion. A regiment could have many battalions.

A brigade usually had three infantry battalions. A brigadier commanded them. A brigade was about 2,500 men strong. In battle, brigades received support from artillery, engineers, and other units. These support units usually belonged to the larger formations the brigade was part of.

Brigades were not fixed groups. Their makeup and role could change based on what was needed. For example, the 114th Infantry Brigade kept the same three battalions throughout the war. But the 144th Infantry Brigade had 15 different battalions at different times. It was rare for a brigade to have battalions only from one regiment. Only a few brigades had more than one battalion from the same regiment. The 128th (Hampshire Regiment), the 131st (Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)), and the 177th Infantry Brigades (South Staffordshire Regiment) kept battalions from the same regiment for their entire existence.

A brigade could be an independent unit, reporting only to a high command. Or it could be part of a division. Brigades in divisions could be moved between different divisions. For example, the 114th and 129th Infantry Brigades stayed with their divisions for the whole war. But the 157th Infantry Brigade was part of four different divisions. It was also assigned to six corps-level commands and one army group command.

At the start of the war, the regular army had 224,000 men. It also had 173,700 reservists. The part-time Territorial Army (TA) had 438,100 men. It had about 20,750 reservists. The regular army's main job was to keep peace and defend the British Empire.

Before the war, British Army infantry brigades and divisions mostly existed on paper. Battalions were grouped into brigades, but they were spread out. They lacked artillery, communication, engineer, and transport support. If war broke out, fighting brigades and divisions had to be put together. Other forces needed for brigades and divisions had to be created. At the start of the war, the regular army had 24 infantry brigades. Most were in the UK. Six were in the Middle East. One was in Malta. One each was in West Africa, British Malaya, and Hong Kong.

In 1940, the British Army grew a lot. 140 new infantry battalions were formed. Most of these joined the 201st to 227th Independent Infantry Brigades (Home). These brigades were meant for static defense along vulnerable coastlines. They were assigned to county divisions. These brigades were special because they could have up to five battalions.

By mid-1944, the British Army had a shortage of men. They did not have enough soldiers to replace losses in frontline infantry units. To fix this, men from the Royal Artillery were transferred and retrained as infantry. These men formed the 301st, and the 303rd to 308th Infantry Brigades. Also, two brigades were formed by the Royal Marines to help with the shortage. The 116th and the 117th Infantry Brigades Royal Marines were mostly made of landing craft crew. These crew members had already been trained as infantry in the Royal Marines Division. Over the war, 140 regular army brigades were formed. But they did not all exist at the same time. Many were renamed or renumbered.

The TA was supposed to be the main way to expand the British Army. But before the war, the British government cut funding and size for the TA. By 1936, they decided the TA could not be ready for a European war in three years. So, they delayed more funding. After Germany occupied parts of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, the TA was ordered to double in size. In early 1939, the TA had 35 infantry brigades. The existing first-line groups were told to create a second group. They used a small team of trained personnel, called cadres. The new groups were called second-line. This process was called "duplicating." By the start of the war, some second-line brigades were ready. Others were still being created. By the end of 1939, the TA had 32 first-line and 32 second-line infantry brigades.

From 1939 to 1940, each brigade of the British Expeditionary Force had a company of nine French 25 mm Hotchkiss anti-tank guns. After the Battle of France and the evacuation from Dunkirk, more brigade anti-tank companies were formed. They used the Ordnance QF 2-pounder (40 mm) anti-tank gun. These companies were later disbanded.

The British Army learned from the Battle of France. Brigades in the UK were reorganized into brigade groups. This meant adding artillery, anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, machine guns, and engineers to them. This change was then used for brigades overseas. But brigades organized this way within a division made it harder for the division to focus artillery fire. Training exercises in the UK showed this weakness. So, UK-based brigades were reorganized back into regular brigades. The extra units went back to being divisional assets. Brigade groups that fought in the Western Desert Campaign stayed that way through most of 1942. These groups often faced much larger enemy forces and were defeated. This was because they lacked firepower and were not grouped with other formations.

British infantry units were highly motorized. Each battalion had enough transport to move its platoon's weapons, equipment, and supplies. At the start of the war, within a division, there was enough motor transport to move an entire infantry brigade at once. If more transport was not available, the infantry marched. As the war went on, more transport became available. An infantry battalion with enough lorries to move all its men and equipment at once was called a lorried infantry battalion. A variation was the motor battalion, from the army's rifle regiments. They were fully motorized but organized differently. Later in the war, these units also received lend-lease half-tracks. When lorried or motor battalions were grouped, their brigade sometimes got a special name, like the 133rd Lorried Infantry Brigade.

Infantry Brigades (101 to 308)

Named Infantry Brigades

See also

• British Army during the Second World War
• British deception formations in World War II
• British infantry brigades of the First World War
• List of British infantry brigades of the Second World War (1–100)