Tirah Campaign in 1897 and the Second Boer War in 1899. The 2nd Battalion fought in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, the Anglo-Ashanti wars and the Second Boer War. In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve; the regiment now had one Reserve and four Territorial battalions. First World War Regular Army The 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment was a Regular Army unit and, after absorbing some 500 reservists, departed for France, landing at Le Havre on 21 August 1914, just 17 days since Britain's entry into the war, as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The battalion joined the 8th Brigade of the 3rd Division in early September 1914, and then transferred to the 14th Brigade of the 5th Division later in the month. The battalion served on the Western Front throughout the war, seeing action first during the Battle of La Bassée in October where they helped in the capture of Givenchy Ridge, followed by the First Battle of Ypres, where the battalion, in common with most of the rest of the British Regular Army, sustained very heavy casualties. The 1st Devons lost in the battle two thirds of their officers and a third of the other ranks. The battalion then took part in the Winter operations 1914–1915, occupying trenches in deep mud and snow before, in April 1915, suffering 200 casualties from shelling and German counterattacks after holding Hill 60 after its capture a few days before. The 2nd Battalion, assigned to the 23rd Brigade, 8th Division, was another Regular Army unit, that was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for holding up the massive final German advance of the war at the Bois des Buttes on 27 May 1918, the first day of the Third Battle of the Aisne. General Henri Berthelot, General Office Commanding the French 5th Army in his Order of the Day of 20 August 1918 said: "Thus the whole battalion, colonel, 28 officers and 552 non-commissioned officers and men, responded with one accord and offered their lives in ungrudging sacrifice to the sacred cause of the Allies." The 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion (formerly part of the Militia) was mobilised upon the outbreak of war to serve mainly in a training capacity, holding and training officers and men before sending them overseas to active battalions of the regiment throughout the