36th ( Ulster ) Division The 36th ( Ulster ) Division was a division of Lord Kitchener ' s New Army formed in September 1914 . Originally called the " Ulster Division " , it was made up of members of the Ulster Volunteer Force , who formed thirteen additional battalions for three existing regiments : the Royal Irish Fusiliers , the Royal Irish Rifles and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers . The division served on the Western Front as a formation of the British Army during World War I . The division ' s insignia was the Red Hand of Ulster . Origins : The Ulster Volunteer Force . The Ulster Volunteers were a unionist militia founded in 1912 to block Home Rule for Ireland . In 1913 they organised themselves into the Ulster Volunteer Force to give armed resistance to the prospective Third Home Rule Act ( enacted in 1914 ) . With a rival Irish Volunteers being formed by nationalists in response , outright civil war in Ireland seemed inevitable . However , the outbreak of the Great War intervened : the Act was put in abeyance until after what was expected to be a short war . The Ulster Volunteers contributed thirteen additional battalions to the Division . Unit history . The 36th Division was commanded by Major - General Oliver Nugent from 1915 to 1918 . The 36th was one of the few divisions to make significant gains on the first day on the Somme . It attacked between the Ancre and Thiepval against a position known as the Schwaben Redoubt . According to military historian Martin Middlebrook : During the Battle of the Somme the Ulster Division was the only division of X Corps to have achieved its objectives on the opening day of the battle . This came at a heavy price , with the division suffering in two days of fighting 5 , 500 officers and men killed , wounded or missing . War correspondent Philip Gibbs said of the Division , " Their attack was one of the finest displays of human courage in the world . Of nine Victoria Cross es given to British forces in the battle , four were awarded to 36th Division soldiers . 36th Ulster Division , Somme . Thiepval – Somme Thiepval , as a battle memorial , commemorates the 1916 Anglo - French offensive on the Somme . It pays tribute and respect for those who died where it stands ( 90 % of commemorations 1 July – 13 November 1916 ) and is the biggest British war memorial to the missing of The Western Front , both in physical size and the numbers it commemorates ( more than 73 , 000 ) . It was built in the late 1920s to early 1930s . The 36th Ulster Division ' s sector of the Somme lay astride the marshy valley of the river Ancre and the higher ground south of the river . Their task was to cross the ridge and take the German second line near Grandcourt . In their path lay not only the German front line , but just beyond it , the intermediate line within which was the Schwaben Redoubt . To their left flank was the 29th Division , which included the Newfoundlanders . For them in less than half an hour it was all over ; 801 men went into action and on the unwounded name call next day , only 68 answered . To their right flank was the 32nd Division , including the Grimsby Chums . Prior to the attack at 07 : 28 a large mine was exploded beneath the German line ; the Chums would then attack at 07 : 30 . Unknown to them , the mine was short of the German position . During the 2 - minute gap between explosion and whistle , the Germans set up their machine guns , probably in the new bunker which would give them a second defense . The attack did not last long ; their task was to take the fortress village of Thiepval . The First Day of the Somme was the anniversary ( Julian Calendar ) of the Battle of the Boyne , a fact remarked on by the leaders of the Division . Stories that some men went over the top wearing orange sashes are , however , sometimes thought to be myths . “ There was many who went over the top at the Somme who were Ulstermen , at least one , Sergeant Samuel Kelly of 9th Inniskillings wearing his Ulster Sash , while others wore orange ribbons ” When some of his men wavered , one Company commander from the West Belfasts , Maj . George Gaffikin , took off his Orange Sash , held it high for his men to see and roared the traditional war - cry of the battle of the Boyne ; “ Come on , boys ! No surrender ! ” On 1 July , following the preliminary bombardment , the Ulstermen quickly took the German front line . But intelligence was so poor that , with the rest of the division attacking under creep bombardment ( artillery fired in front or over men ; they advance as it moves ) , the Ulstermen would have come under attack from their own bombardment at the German first line . But they still advanced , moving to the crest so rapidly that the Germans had no time to come up from their dugouts ( generally 30 – 40 feet below ground ) . In the Schwaben Redoubt , which was also taken , so successful was the advance that by 10 : 00 some had reached the German second line . But again they came under their own barrage , not due to finish until 10 : 10 . However , this successful penetration had to be given up before nightfall , as it was unmatched by those at its flanks . The Ulstermen were exposed in a narrow salient , open to attack on three sides . They were running out of ammunition and supplies , and a full German counter - attack at 22 : 00 forced them to withdraw , giving up virtually all they gained . The Ulstermen had gained an advantage on the day of battle by not sticking to the rigid orders issued . Both the German and British generals considered the men of the New Army / Kitcheners Men as insufficiently trained in the skills of warfare . Consequently , the battle tactics they were ordered to follow by commanders was more strict and regimented than those of regular army . But the Ulstermen advanced during the bombardment by pushing forward small trenches the depth of a man , then cutting the barbed wire which was 30 inches in depth and height in places ( before bombardment ) . So when the bombardment stopped at 07 : 28 / 07 : 30 the Ulstermen attacked quickly . These Ulstermen were also here by choice . Kitchener asked Sir Edward Carson for some of the already armed men of the Ulster Division . He hoped for a Brigade ( 4x battalions ) , he got in Volunteers , a Division ( 3x Brigade ) . Thiepval was not to fall until late September ; the Schwaben Redoubt fell in mid - October . The battle ended in mid - November . The Allies advanced 8 km and the British suffered 420 , 000 casualties , the French 195 , 000 , and the Germans 650 , 000 . The only success was relieving the French at Verdun . On the first day of battle , the British suffered 57 , 740 casualties , of which 19 , 240 were dead ( the largest single loss ) . 60 % of the officers involved were killed . The Ulster Memorial Tower . The Ulster Memorial Tower was unveiled by Field - Marshal Sir Henry Wilson in Thiepval , France , on 19 November 1921 , in dedication to the contributions of the 36th Ulster Division during World War I . The tower marks the site of the Schwaben redoubt , against which the Ulster Division advanced on the first day of the Battle of the Somme . Lord Carson had intended to perform the unveiling himself , but due to illness , his place was taken by Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson . The money was raised by public subscription in Northern Ireland in memory of the officers and men of the 36th ( Ulster ) Division , and all Ulsterman who died in the great war . The tower itself is a replica of Helen ' s Tower at Clandeboye , County Down . It was at Helen ' s Tower that the men of the then newly formed Ulster Division drilled and trained on the outbreak of World War I . For many of the men of the 36th ( Ulster ) Division , the distinctive sight of Helen ' s Tower rising above the surrounding countryside was one of their last abiding memories of home before their departure for England and , subsequently , the Western Front . Victoria Cross Recipients . In total , nine members of the 36th Division were awarded the Victoria Cross : Commendations . Captain Wilfred Spender of the Ulster Division ' s HQ staff after the Battle of the Somme was quoted in the press as saying , " " I am not an Ulsterman but yesterday , the 1st . July , as I followed their amazing attack , I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world . My pen cannot describe adequately the hundreds of heroic acts that I witnessed . . . The Ulster Volunteer Force , from which the division was made , has won a name which equals any in history . Their devotion deserves the gratitude of the British Empire . " " The final sentences of Captain Wilfred Spender ' s account furthered his viewpoint : After the war had ended , King George V paid tribute to the 36th Division saying , " " I recall the deeds of the 36th ( Ulster ) Division , which have more than fulfilled the high opinion formed by me on inspecting that force on the eve of its departure for the front . Throughout the long years of struggle , which now so gloriously ended , the men of Ulster have proved how nobly they fight and die . . . " " . Winston Churchill " The record of the Thirty - Sixth Division will ever be the pride of Ulster . At Theipval in the battle of the Somme on July 1st 1916 ; at Wytschaete on June 17th , 1917 , in the storming of the Messines Ridge ; on the Canal du Nord , in the attack on the Hindenburg Line of November 20th same year ; on March 21 , 1918 , near Fontaine - les - Clercs , defending their positions long after they were isolated and surrounded by the enemy ; and later in the month at Andechy in the days of ' backs to the wall ' , they acquired a repution for conduct and devotion deathless in military history of the United Kingdom , and repeatedly signalised in the despatches of the Commander - in - Chief . " Colonel John Buchan ( History of War ) North of Theipval the Ulster Division broke through the enemy trenches , passed the crest of the ridge , and reached the point called the Crucifix , in rear of the first German position . For a little while they held the strong Schwaben Rebout ( where ) , enfiled on three sides , they went on through successive German lines , and only a remnant came back to tell the tale . Nothing finer was done in the war . The splendid troops drawn from those Volunteers who had banded themselves together for another cause , now shed their blood like water for the liberty of the world . " Whether town dweller or country lad , volunteer or regular , officer or other rank , Catholic or Protestant , the Sons of Ulster knew a comradship and a trust in adversity that should be a lesson to us all . Formation . In August 1917 the 8th and 9th battalions of the Royal Irish Rifles amalgamated to form the 8 / 9th Battalion , which disbanded in February 1918 . Between November 1915 and February 1916 the brigade swapped with the 12th Brigade from the 4th Division . In August 1917 the 11th and 13th battalions of the Royal Irish Rifles amalgamated to form the 11 / 13th Battalion , which disbanded in February 1918 .