5th Infantry Division (United Kingdom) - First World War

First World War

The 5th Division was a permanently established Regular Army division that was amongst the first to be sent to France at the outbreak of the First World War. It served on the Western Front for most of the war except for a brief period in Italy.

The 5th Division, as a regular army formation (one of the Old Contemptibles) fought in many of the major battles of the Western Front from The Battle of Mons in 1914, the later stages of the Somme offensive, including the first battle using tanks, up to the Battle of the Selle in 1918. They were in almost continuous action throughout the war and suffered a tremendous amount of casualties as can be seen from the way the battalions that made up the division changed during the war. By 1918 the 5th Division, like most other regular divisions, contained very few of those regulars who went to France in 1914.