From North Africa, Sicily, and up the Italian peninsula into Austria, the 78th "Battleaxe" Infantry Division of the British Army was perhaps the best led, and most effective during the Second World War. So proud of the division were it's members, that it's distinctive battle axe insignia would be worn in lieu of all other regimental or arm of service indicators.
Formed largely from the surviving pre-war professional soldiers that had been evacuated at Dunkirk in 1940, it was officially raised on 25 May 1942. It's insignia was a left facing bladed crusader style battle axe chosen by it's first commander Major General Vyvyan Evelegh. Intended to land in North Africa as part of the planned Operation Torch, the 78th Division's veteran brigades were chosen as they already had significant amphibious warfare training in anticipation of such a mission. They would begin their combat chronicle in earnest by 8 November 1942, landing near Algiers, Algeria. After a lightening campaign to capture Algeria with little resistance, the division moved east, they entered into the Tunisian Campaign a few days to support the British V Corps.
They would be integral to the hard won victory at Longstop Hill in April 1943, with the support of Churchill tanks. Longstop had been the impenetrable fortress of the Merjeda Valley and the last barrier to the Allied drive towards Tunis. The German Panzergrenadiers and anti-tank gunners had dug themselves in along it's craggy ridges, allowing them hold off several attacks by the Coldstream Guards in December 1942. With this dominating Axis feature still causing a thorn in the Allied advance by that following April, it would be the 78th Division's 36th Infantry Brigade turn to finish the job comprised of the 6th Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, 5th Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), 8th Argyll and Southerland Highlanders and 1st East Surrey Regiment. Facing the desperate but well led penal units of the 999th Light Afrika Division, the British were up against an experienced defender with an intersecting web of machine gun, mortar and artillery positions. The qualities of the 78th's reputation for exceptional leadership was shown beyond a shadow of a doubt during that savage fighting. Among those who spurred his men up the hill was Major John "Jock" Anderson of the Argylls. Under withering enemy fire, and despite being wounded, he quickly reorganized his battalion after severe casualties taking the first set of objectives, and continued to press onto the attack. Under his leadership, his small force of only four officers and less than forty surviving men would ultimately destroy several machine gun and mortar positions, and capture 200 prisoners. For this action, Anderson was awarded the Victoria Cross that following June.
The victory at Longstop allowed for the British First Army to capture Tunis by May 7th with such speed that some German and Italian troops were still caught emerging from shops and bars. Shortly afterward, the Tunisia campaign concluded with Axis forces completely cut off and over 250,000 men taken prisoner. Joseph Goebbels likened the defeat to the disaster at Stalingrad the year prior. The stunning victory was only the beginning for the 78th, as they were transferred to the veteran Eighth Army for the Sicily Campaign. The division was present during the savage close street quarters fighting for the hill town of Centuripe in early August 1943 against elite German Fallschirmjaeger troops. Fighting over the course of several attacks and counterattacks, the division's 38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade successful seized the town and the heights beyond. Once again, the 78th saw themselves present at a conclusion of yet another campaign, as the capture of Centuripe quickly resulted in the Axis withdrawal from Sicily. When Field Marshal Montgomery scaled the same hills that the 38th Irish had captured after the battle, he simply remarked "Impossible!"
From here, there were not more lightning campaigns for the 78th Division, as they fought their way up the Italian Peninsula after transferring back to V Corps. Fighting through the Viktor Line, Moro River, Barbara Line, Winter Line and Monte Cassino exacted a heavy toll on the division. Despite the unit's reputation as elite desert fighters, the mountainous and muddy Italian terrain proved by be a foreign experience. By July 1944, the unit was spent force with many of the original officers and NCOs of the pre-war professional army having been killed, wounded or otherwise invalidated for further action. Among them was "Jock" Anderson VC, who was killed at Termoli in October 1943, aged only 25. An urgent need for re-fitting and re-training was needed, and the entire division was rotated off the front lines to the Middle East. Due to the continued Allied attrition in Italy, the division's rest was cut short as it was sent back to Italy under the command of the US Army's Fifth Army for fighting on the Gothic Line. Though the men of the 78th had proven themselves as effective mountain fighters, the winter of 1944 spent in the Apienne Mountains was a bitter. Subserviently to American higher command, the cold mountain conditions, and ingloriously fighting a static war in Italy while the Northwestern Europe campaign scored all the headlines, the morale of the 78th Division dropped and desertions were rampant. The 78th were shaken out of this melancholy in January 1945, when they returned to their traditional British V Corps, and the Eighth Army in time for the final Spring offensive in 1945, ending their war in Austria.
Not unlike many legendary British formations of the Second World War, the 78th Infantry Division was disbanded in 1946, shortly after the conclusion of the war. Despite the difficult winter of 1944, the division would still cement their legacy as one of the most effective of the war. British V Corps Commander Lieutenant General Charles Allfrey, who had been present at so many of the unit's famous actions remarked at it was the "finest fighting division of any that I had the privilege to serve with in "V" Corps".
These reproduced battle slip-on epaulettes are based of original wartime examples, and intended to be worn with our reproduction British khaki-drill (KD) Aertex shirts. These battle slip-ons would allow for the individually soldier to quickly attach or remove identifying markers of their parent division, while in the field. The difficult nature of the Italy Campaign especially necessitated the wear of these quickly interchangeable slip-ons for reasons of operational security, and the somewhat ad hoc nature of certain British Army brigade organization resulting in the need for regular "re-badging" among individual soldiers.
Sold as a pair, with the distinctive yellow "Battleaxe" facing left.
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