Sailors in WW1 trenches! Who remembers the Royal Naval Division?

The Royal Naval Division fought as infantry and with distinction in Gallipoli and on the Western Front from the first few weeks of WW1 right through to the end. It was regarded as one of the finest fighting units and thus, was often assigned some of the toughest tasks and, accordingly, suffered a higher percentage of casualties than many of the army divisions. 47,000 sailors and marines were killed or wounded during the war. But why were sailors serving in the trenches alongside their army colleagues?

The division was established by Churchill, then the First Lord of the Admiralty, early in the war in a bid to save the Channel port of Antwerp from the German advance. On the mobilisation of the Royal Navy shortly prior to the outbreak of war, the Navy found itself with more reservists than it needed at sea. Churchill not only arranged for these men to be formed into eight battalions, armed with rifles and sent to Belgium with the Royal Marines, but for many of its officers to come from volunteers with no naval or military experience. Several were MPs, one was the son of the Prime Minister, Asquith, and another the poet, Rupert Brooke. Arthur Asquith rose through the ranks from sub lieutenant to brigadier-general and earned three DSOs. It became known as ‘Winston’s Little Army’. I tell the tale of the division’s operations in the defence of Antwerp (in which Churchill took an active part personally) in my novel, The Wings of the Wind. However, spoiler alert – the 8,000 strong division wasn’t successful in its efforts, although it did slow down the German advance. Whilst the division’s four battalions of Royal Marines were professional soldiers, the division wasn’t supplied with medical, artillery or engineering support. Due to the needs of the rapidly expanding army, the sailors couldn’t even be supplied with khaki uniforms or the more modern rifles of the army.

Following the fall of Antwerp, 900 members of the division were captured and a further 1,500 interned by the Dutch after they crossed the border into Holland. The rest returned to the UK and some were withdrawn to man the rapidly expanding fleet. The others were reformed and properly trained as infantry before being sent to the beaches of Gallipoli. There, despite the failure of the campaign, the division served with distinction. Following the withdrawal from Gallipoli, it was sent to France and fought alongside the army in the Battle of the Somme. By now the men were being issued with khaki uniforms, but they retained their naval ranks, customs and language. However, following heavy losses, the division was placed under the command of the army and renamed the 63rd (Royal Navy) Division. When their Royal Marines commanding officer, Major General Paris, was wounded and superseded by the army Major General Shute, Shute was less than impressed by what he called the ‘unmilitary’ nautical traditions of the RND. However, wounded sailors endeared themselves to the nurses at the Front as they tended to clean the wards, make their own beds and mend their own kit. Such naval traditions ensured the men formed tight-knit units that produced high morale and engendered respect from other army commanders. The division was disbanded in France in April 1919.