Tag Archives: 1st (British) Airborne Division

Ulster Glider Marksman

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80 Years Ago: 29 August 1942. A sniper with British glider troops. He was with the 1st Battalion, The Ulster Rifles, 1st Airborne Division.

(By War Office official photographer LT Spender. Imperial War Museum photo H23360)

The Irish unnamed marksman is aiming one of the very first No. 4 MK.I (T) sniper rifles made and issued. This one was made from an early 1930s Trials No. 4 MK. I made and converted by the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield. Note the extra sling swivel on the upper band, the “wasp-waist” early version of the Mark I foresight protector, and the magazine cut-off. The scope will be a No. 32 MK. I.

World War II British No. 4 MKI (T) Enfield Sniper Rifle with Matching Scope, via RIAC

As for the unit, The Ulster Rifles was formed during the 1881 reforms originally as two infantry regiments (83rd and 86th Regiments of Foot) which fought in South Africa, India, and in France during the Great War.

An interwar post-Free State recruiting poster advertised “free clothes on joining. Free food and lodging. Free medical attention. Games and sports of every kind” along with images of boxing and sitting around a canteen.”

Recruiting poster printed by Gale and Polden Limited, 1922 (c) for the Royal Ulster Rifles. This regiment was formed in 1881 as the Royal Irish Rifles by merging two Irish line infantry regiments, the 83rd and 86th Regiments of Foot, but Irish independence in 1922 led to two changes. ‘Irish’ was changed into ‘Ulster’ and it lost one of its recruiting counties, Louth, which became part of the Free State. Its other two counties, Antrim and Down, were in Northern Ireland and so the regiment survived Irish independence. NAM. 1983-11-138-1

When WWII hit, the 1st Battalion was recalled from the North West Frontier of India in 1939 and retrained for landings by glider. It went on to fight in that role in Tunisia in 1942, Sicily in 1943, Normandy in June 1944, and the Rhine crossings in 1945.

The regiment continued in British Army service until 1968, when it was amalgamated with the two other Northern Irish (Ulster) infantry regiments, The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria’s) and The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, to form The Royal Irish Rangers (27th (Inniskilling), 83rd and 87th).

Going for a Sunday walk among the sunflowers in the countryside with the lads

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Via the Parachute Regiment archives:

77 years ago today: Sunday, 17th September 1944, the Market side of Operation Market Garden.

Usually misidentified as Airborne Signallers, this is a group of the 1st Battalion, The Border Regiment, 1st (British) Airborne Division, at the edge of Drop Zone “X” in Holland mid-way between Sinderhoeve and Jonkershoeve, looking south towards the Klein Amerikaweg.

Pic by – Sgt. M. Lewis, AFPU.

Second from left is a Sergeant, fifth from the left is an Officer and on the right, the soldier is hoisting a 51-pound (without the ammo!) Vickers Medium Machine Gun onto his shoulder. Note the handie-talkie being used by the officer, at least four Borderers with No. 4 Enfield .303 rifles, and two with STEN MK IVs.

After having gone to France with the BEF in 1939, the Borderers made it out sans most of their equipment from Dunkirk, and, since they were “light” already was reformed as a mountain unit attached to the 31st Bde then in 1941 were transitioned to being glider-borne infantry. As such, they landed at Sicily in Operation Ladbroke, suffering heavy casualties and losing 75 percent of their ranks.

Reformed too late for Overlord, Market Garden was only their second combat glider operation. However, they were all but destroyed in that infamous “A Bridge Too Far” operation, and spent the rest of the war reforming for a third time just in case they were needed for the push on Tokyo. They were not, and ended WWII in Trieste on the early front line of the Cold War.

Formed in 1702, 1st Bn/Borderers were amalgamated with 1st Battalion, The King’s Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster), to form 1st Battalion, The King’s Own Royal Border Regiment, which was further amalgamated with the King’s Regiment and the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment to form the new Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment (King’s, Lancashire and Border) (LANCS) which today still carries a Glider Flash worn on the sleeve while in No. 1 and No. 2 uniforms to remember Ladbroke and Market Garden.