228th Brigade was created on 26 February 1917 as a formation of Army Troops within the British Salonika Army under Brigadier General W. C. Ross[1][2][3]
Although an independent formation, 228 Bde was always associated with 28th Division.[3] It was formed of garrison battalions, which were not normally expected to serve in the front line due to the men's age or low medical category.[10] One staff officer wrote: 'Physically the brigade was in a terrible state. They were splendid crocks ... Some were almost blind, some almost deaf, and the 22nd Rifle Brigade ... had more than sixty men over sixty years old'.[11] Because of its slow rate of marching, the 228th became known as the 'Too Too Late Brigade'.[12]
On 30 September 1918, during the final Allied offensive on the Salonika front, 228 Bde came under the command of the Greek Crete Division. 228 Bde was broken up on 4 October 1918.[3][8]
The Second World War brigade was formed (as228th Independent Infantry Brigade) in the Shetland Islands on 12 February 1942, by the redesignation of Headquarters Shetland Defences. Its commander was Brigadier the Hon William Fraser.[13]
Cyril Falls & Archibald Frank Becke, Military Operations: Macedonia, Volume 2, London: HM Stationery Office,
Joslen, H. F. (2003) [1960]. Orders of Battle: Second World War, 1939–1945. Uckfield, East Sussex: Naval and Military Press. ISBN978-1-84342-474-1.
Graham Nicol, Uncle George: Field Marshal Lord Milne of Salonika and Rubislaw, Reedminster, 1976, ISBN978-0-85945-004-1.
Alan Wakefield & Simon Moody, Under the Devil's Eye: Britain's Forgotten Army at Salonika 1915–1918, Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2004, ISBN0-7509-3537-5.
United Kingdom
British Army
