125th ( Lancashire Fusiliers ) Brigade The 125th ( Lancashire Fusiliers ) Brigade was a formation of the British Army during World War I and World War II . It was assigned to the 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division and served in the Middle East and on the Western Front in WWI . In WWII it was at Dunkirk and was then converted into an armoured brigade . Formation . On the creation of the Territorial Force in 1908 , the four battalions attached to the Lancashire Fusiliers were organised into a brigade within the East Lancashire Division . The battalions were drawn from the Lancashire towns of Bury ( 5th Battalion ) , Rochdale ( 6th Bn ) and Salford ( 7th and 8th Bns ) , with Brigade HQ at Preston . World War I . On the outbreak of World War I , the East Lancashire Division mobilised and was sent to Egypt to relieve Regular troops of the British Army . Those men who had not volunteered for overseas service were left behind , together with floods of recruits , to form 2nd Line battalions ( 2 / 5th – 2 / 8th Lancashire Fusiliers ) in a 2nd East Lancashire Division . The 1st Line battalions were then renumbered 1 / 5th – 1 / 8th . On 26 May 1915 the East Lancashire Division was renamed 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division , and the Lancashire Fusilier Brigade was numbered 125th ( 1st Lancashire Fusiliers ) Brigade . ( In August 1915 the 2nd Line brigade became 197th ( 2nd / 1st Lancashire Fusiliers ) Brigade in 66th ( 2nd / East Lancashire ) Division . ) Order of Battle . The 125th Brigade was constituted as follows during World War I : Brigadier - General C . H . Frith < br > Brigadier - General H . Fargus from 23 June 1917 When British infantry brigades on the Western Front were reduced to three battalions in February 1918 , 1 / 6th Battalion left and joined 197th ( 2nd / 1st Lancashire Fusiliers ) Brigade , where it merged with 2 / 6th Battalion . Gallipoli . In early May 1915 , 42nd Division embarked from Alexandria for Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula , where Allied troops had landed a few days earlier . 125th Brigade was the first part of the division to go into action , at the Second Battle of Krithia under the cmmand of 29th Division . It then reverted to 42nd Division , and took part in the Third Battle of Krithia and Battle of Krithia Vineyard . The fighting was ' a singularly brainless and suicidal type of warfare ' , and virtually nothing was achieved in any of these attacks , at the cost of heavy casualties . Two brigades of 42nd Division attacked on the second day of the Krithia Vineyard battle : ' By nightfall both brigades were back in their old lines , with the exception of some parties of the 6th and 7th Lancashire Fusiliers , who defended the Vineyard against repeated Turkish attacks until , after a bitter and pointless struggle during the following five days , a trench dug across the centre of this worthless tract o scrub became the British front line ' . After this failure , the Helles front was shut down and no further attacks were made . Five months later , following repeated failures elsewhere , the whole Gallipoli Campaign ended in evacuation back to Egypt . Recuperation . 42nd Division returned to Egypt in January 1916 with less than half the strength with which it had set out . It was stationed in Egypt for the next year , defending the Suez Canal and taking part in the Battle of Romani ( 4 – 5 August ) . Western Front . In February and March 1917 , the whole of 42nd Division moved from Egypt to France to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front , where it remained for the rest of the war . After re - equipping and training for trench warfare in a ' quiet sector ' with Fourth Army , 42nd Division relieved 15th ( Scottish ) Division in Fifth Army in the Ypres Sector at the end of August . On 6 September 125th Brigade carried out an unsuccessful attack on strongly - held German pillboxes around Iberian , Borry , and Beck House Farms . The small amount of ground they took was given up the next day . 42nd Division was then returned to holding quiet sectors , at Nieuport and then Givenchy . It was now part of IV Corps in Third Army , in which it remained for the rest of the war . During the German Spring Offensive ( Operation Michael or the First Battles of the Somme 1918 ) , the troops of 42nd Division took part in the Battle of Bapaume ( 24 – 25 March ) , First Battle of Arras ( 28 March ) and the Battle of Ancre ( 5 April ) . Then , during the Allied Hundred Days Offensive , it participated in the Battle of Albert ( 21 – 23 August ) and the Second Battle of Bapaume ( 31 August – 3 September ) during the fighting on the Somme . On the Hindenburg Line it was in the Battle of the Canal du Nord , where the " Official History " records that 125th Brigade ' s advance at 07 . 52 on 27 September ' was met by very heavy fire in front from machine guns which the barrage did not seem to have touched , and from Beaucamp on the right . . . It reached an intermediate objective about five hundred yards from the front line and towards noon a little beyond this ; but there it had to remain ' . However , IV Corps renewed the attack after dark : ' The night was very dark and rainy , but the attack was a complete success ; the enemy was surprised ; very little opposition was encountered and many prisoners were taken . Under barrages moving a hundred yards in 5 minutes , the front lines of the 125th and 127th Brigades of the 42nd Division . . . went forward in succession ' . 42nd Division resumed the attack the following afternoon ( 28 September ) , ' when the 125th and 126th Brigades ( the latter passing through the 127th ) , after some opposition , reached the top of Welsh Ridge , the objective of the division ' . Third Army ' s advance in Picardy culminated in the Battle of the Selle from 17 to 23 October . On 23 October 42nd Division was given the task of taking three successive objectives before the New Zealand Division passed through to continue the attack . 125th Brigade led the attack with two battalions in front , but in spite of a defensive smoke barrage they suffered considerably from enemy shelling during assembly . The defenders of Beaurain ' made a stout resistance and there was hard fighting in the early stages of the attack , men on both sides being killed by the bayonet ' . The left of 125th Brigade reached its objective by 04 . 45 , but the rest of the line did not do so until 08 . 00 . The New Zealanders passed through and successfully reached their objectives . The division was then withdrawn into reserve and halted around Beauvois - en - Cambrésis from 24 October until the advance was resumed on 3 November . On 7 November the 42nd Division was tasked to take the high ground west of Hautmont and if possible to capture the town . The division was held up by enfilade fire from the right , and 126th Brigade did no more than occupy some of the high ground . 125th Brigade was therefore ordered to pass through it the next morning and advance to the objective . But the 126th , ' in an endeavour to atone for its slowness on the 7th ' , pushed on and reached Hautmont before 125th could catch up . The 125th was unable to cross the Sambre because the pontoons had not arrived , so it retraced its steps to its overnight billets near Pont sur Sambre and crossed there . The brigade then forced back the enemy rearguards , and after dark its patrols went forward and cleared them off the high ground near Fort d ' Hautmont , one of the outer forts of the Fortress of Maubeuge . On 9 November the brigade encountered no resistance in reaching its assigned objective , and by 10 November the most forward troops were on the Maubeuge – Avesnes - sur - Helpe road . This was the end of the fighting , because the Armistice with Germany came into the effect the following day . In December the division moved into quarters in the Charleroi area and by mid - March 1919 most of its troops had gone home for demobilisation . World War II . The 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division and its components were reformed in the Territorial Army in 1920 . On the outbreak of World War II the division once again mobilised as a 1st Line formation and once again 125th Infantry Brigade was composed of battalions of the Lancashire Fusiliers . Order of Battle . 125 Brigade was constituted as follows during World War II : Brigadier G . W . Sutton < br > Brigadier The O ' Donovan ( 10 October 1940 – 16 August 1941 ) < br > Brigadier Philip Bowden - Smith ( from 6 September 1941 ) Dunkirk . 125 Brigade landed in France on 15 April 1940 . There it exchanged one of its Territorial battalions with a Regular battalion from 2nd Division . After the defeat of the Battle of France , the brigade was evacuated from Dunkirk on 30 May 1940 . Conversion . On 1 November 1941 , 42nd Division was converted to 42nd Armoured Division , and 125 Bde was renamed 10th Armoured Brigade . 1 / 5th , 1 / 6th and 9th Bns Lancashire Fusiliers became respectively the 108th , 109th and 143rd regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps . When 10th Armoured Brigade was scheduled for disbandment , Members of Parliament for the Lancashire towns complained about the loss of their Territorial battalions . Nevertheless , the disbandment went ahead in November 1943 . Of the battalions , only 5th Lancashire Fusiliers was reconstituted after the war .