XVI Corps (United Kingdom)

This article is about the United Kingdom Army unit. For other units of the same name, see XVI Corps.

The British XVI Corps was a British infantry corps during World War I. During World War II the identity was recreated for deceptive purposes.

XVI Corps
Active	World War I
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Field corps
Part of	British Salonika Army
Engagements	World War I[1] Balkans Campaign Battle of Doiran

History

British XVI Corps was formed in Salonika in January 1916 under Lieutenant General George Milne.^[1] Milne was starved of resources by Sir William Robertson who considered all operations outside the Western Front to be "side shows".^[2] The Corps Headquarters were at Kirechkoi to the east of Thessaloniki from January 1916 until the advance to the Struma in September 1916.^[3] From May 1916 it was one of two corps within the British Salonika Army. The campaign developed into a battle for position with trenches and emplacements from which the General Officer Commanding (Lieutenant-General Charles Briggs) undertook limited actions to capture Bulgarian and Turkish positions in a river valley that was infested with mosquitos.^[4] British operations in the Balkans Campaign were costly: the allies lost over 7,000 troops at the Battle of Doiran in September 1918 alone.^[5]

Component units

Component units included:^[6]

British XVI Corps

• 10th (Irish) Division
• British 27th Division
• British 28th Division
• 1/1st Surrey Yeomanry

Second World War

In World War II the British XVI Corps was notionally reformed as part of the British Twelfth Army, a fictitious formation created under Operation Cascade. The formation insignia was a phoenix arising from red flames and bearing a flaming torch in its mouth, on a white ground.^[7]

Subordinate units

As initially created, the corps contained the following divisions in addition to the usual supporting troops:^[7]

• British 8th Armored Division (fictional)
• British 15th Motorized Division (fictional)
• British 34th Infantry Division (fictional)

General Officers Commanding

Commanders included:

• January 1916 – May 1916 Lieutenant-General George Milne^[2]
• May 1916 – November 1918 Lieutenant-General Charles Briggs^[8]