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16th Airborne Division

Field	Value
unit_name	16th Airborne Division
image	16th Airborne Division 1953.jpg
image_size	300
caption	Divisional parachute drop during Exercise King's Joker at the Stanford Parachute Training Area in Kent
dates	1947–1956
country	United Kingdom
branch
type	Infantry
role	Airborne forces
size	Division
garrison	London
nickname	Red Devils
identification_symbol	[[File:British Airborne Units.svg	200px]]
identification_symbol_label	Emblem of the British Airborne Forces

The 16th Airborne Division was an airborne infantry division of the British Territorial Army. It was first commanded by Major-General Roy Urquhart, and had its divisional headquarters in London.

It was raised in 1947, to compensate for the loss of the 1st Airborne Division, which had been disbanded in 1945 and the 6th Airborne Division which was to be disbanded in 1948. The number "16" was used in recognition of the two wartime airborne divisions.

The division had three parachute brigades, the 4th, 5th and the 6th, each with three Territorial battalions of the Parachute Regiment. The brigades were renumbered the 44th, 45th and 46th in 1950. Then in December 1955, the British Secretary of State for War in an announcement on the future of the Territorial Army, proposed cutting the Territorial Battalion, The Parachute Regiments by five. The reduction in strength led to the disbandment of the division in 1956, leaving the 44th Independent Parachute Group as the only British reserve parachute formation.

299 Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers

Units pre-1950

16th Airborne Divisional Signal Regiment (Middlesex Yeomanry), Royal Corps of Signals
16th Airborne Division Field Security Section, Intelligence Corps
North Somerset Yeomanry (Royal Armoured Corps)
16th Airborne Divisional (Lincoln) Independent Company
21st Special Air Service Regiment
16th Airborne Division Ordnance Field Park, Royal Army Ordnance Corps
16th Airborne Division Provost Company, Royal Military Police
4th Parachute Brigade
5th Parachute Brigade
6th Parachute Brigade
16th Airborne Division Royal Artillery
- 880 Forward Observation Battery, Royal Artillery
- 285th (Essex) Airborne Light Regiment, Royal Artillery
- 291st (4th London) Airborne Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
- 292nd (5th London) Airborne Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
- 629th (Cambridgeshire Regiment) Airborne Light Regiment, Royal Artillery
- 446th (Royal Welch) Airborne Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery
16th Airborne Division Royal Engineers
- 131st Airborne Engineer Regiment
16th Airborne Division Royal Army Medical Corps
- 4th Parachute Field Ambulance (44th Parachute Field Ambulance from 1950)
- 5th Parachute Field Ambulance (45th Parachute Field Ambulance from 1950)
- 6th Parachute Field Ambulance (46th Parachute Field Ambulance from 1950)
- 1 x Reserve Medical Section
16th Airborne Divisional Column Royal Army Service Corps
- 1560 Company RASC
- 1561 Company RASC
- 1562 Company RASC
16th Airborne Division Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
- 4th Airborne Workshop REME (44th Airborne Workshop REME from 1950)
- 5th Airborne Workshop REME (45th Airborne Workshop REME from 1950)
- 6th Airborne Workshop REME (46th Airborne Workshop REME from 1950)

Commanders

January 1947 Major-General Roy UrquhartThe Paras - The Inside Story of Britain's Toughest Regiment By John Parker · 2012, John Blake, p167.
December 1948 Major-General Gerald Lathbury
October 1951 Major-General Geoffrey Bourne
1953 Major-General Francis Rome

References

Graham Watson. (10 March 2002). "United Kingdom: The Territorial Army 1947".
"16th Airborne Division (TA)". Paradata.
"16th Airborne Division". Paradata.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

military-units-and-formations-established-in-1947 military-units-and-formations-disestablished-in-1956 airborne-divisions-of-the-united-kingdom 1947-establishments-in-the-united-kingdom 1956-disestablishments-in-the-united-kingdom

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