1st Hull Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
1st Hull Heavy Battery, RGA 11th (Hull) Heavy Battery, RGA 158th (Hull) Heavy Battery, RGA 545th Siege Battery, RGA | |
---|---|
Active | 7 September 1914–31 July 1919 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Branch | New Army |
Role | Heavy Artillery |
Part of | Royal Garrison Artillery |
Garrison/HQ | Kingston upon Hull |
Engagements | World War I
|
The 1st Hull Heavy Battery was a unit of the
Recruitment
On 6 August 1914, less than 48 hours after Britain's declaration of war, Parliament sanctioned an increase of 500,000 men for the Regular Army, and on 11 August the newly appointed Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum issued his famous call to arms: 'Your King and Country Need You', urging the first 100,000 volunteers to come forward. This group of six divisions with supporting arms became known as Kitchener's First New Army, or 'K1'.[1]
The establishment for each of these divisions included a heavy battery of the
Authority for the new battery – the first heavy artillery formed for Kitchener's Army – was given by the War Office on 7 September 1914. It was to be administered by the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, who was responsible for all the units that would form the 11th (Northern) Division,[4] but for the first few months the battery was left largely to the resources and initiative of Lord Nunburnholme and the civic authorities in Hull. John Claybourn Williams, a ship's captain in Lord Nunburnhome's family shipping line (Thomas Wilson Sons & Co.) and an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR), was appointed as the battery's temporary Commanding Officer (CO). By 15 September, 80 men had been enrolled for the battery, many drawn from the shipbuilding and engineering firms in Hull, while drivers came from the rural villages of the East Riding. It reached its full war establishment by mid-December, when it was authorised to recruit an additional depot section to supply reinforcements.[7][10][11]
Training
The recruits began training at East Hull Barracks on Holderness Road,
On 5 November, Captain Williams handed over command and reverted to the RNR (he commanded armed merchant vessels later in the war). The new CO was Temporary Captain John McCracken, who had been an RGA Battery Serjeant-Major with 23 years' experience at the outbreak of war.[14]
As part of 11th Division, the battery was formally designated 11th (Hull) Heavy Battery on 1 May 1915, when it established its headquarters outside the city at the former
Captain McCracken left on 25 May 1915 to become adjutant of the Humber Garrison and was replaced as CO by Lieutenant-Colonel H.M. Slater, RGA, who commanded the training brigade at Hedon. Slater in turn was replaced due to ill-health by T/Capt Basil Floyd, who took over as CO on 9 September. Floyd had already seen action with the RGA on the Western Front; he remained CO of the Hull Battery for the rest of the war.[16]
The battery was formally taken over by the military authorities on 12 August 1915.
XXXVIII Brigade, RGA
- 11th (Hull) Heavy Battery
- 158th (Hull) Heavy Battery
- XXXVIII Brigade Ammunition Column
- Depot Company
The guns were eight obsolete
East Africa
XXXVIII Brigade embarked some of its lorries and stores aboard SS Anselma da Larrinaga at Avonmouth Docks and the rest of men, lorries and guns aboard HM Transport Huntsgreen (formerly the German Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping line's Derfflinger) at Devonport Dockyard on 7–8 February. It disembarked at Mombasa on 14 March 1916.[2][3][11][21][22][27][28][29] The brigade arrived in the rainy season, and suffered a great deal of sickness in its tented camp outside Mombasa. It was not until 3 May that 11th (Hull) Bty entrained for Voi and then went by road to Mbuyuni, arriving on 5 May, followed two days later by 158th Bty. At Mbyuni the batteries calibrated their guns and practised observation and field firing.[30][31]
Before resuming the offensive after the rains, the commander of the
Kondoa Irangi
Smuts's advance began on 21 May and the Hull batteries were sent up to join the offensive. 11th (H) Bty reinforced 2nd Division at Kondoa Irangi on 3 June after a long march through rough country, crossing the Pienaar Heights and several rivers where motor vehicles had to be towed through the water. At Kondoa Irangi the battery was grouped with 10th Heavy Bty, consisting of guns taken from HMS Pegasus and manned by Royal Navy personnel, and 12th (H) Bty, a mule-drawn unit manned by RGA personnel from Cape Town, which had just lost one of its howitzers to a premature burst. 11th (H) Bty went straight into action alongside 12th (H) Bty on 'Battery Hill' to protect Deventer's left flank from German incursions. 12th (H) Battery's mules were employed to get the guns into position silently at night, under shellfire[21][22][34][36]
The battery began exchanging fire with German gun positions and observation posts (OPs) on 'Black Rock'. From 6 June the fire was directed by newly arrived Voisin aircraft from No 7 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service. This firing continued until 25 June, when an infantry attack took Black Rock. The German then retired from the area and the British troops followed them down to the Central Railway. 11th (H) Battery left Kondoa Irangi on 20 July and reached Dodoma on the railway on 6 August. The battery had deployed for action at Meia Meia waterhole on 27 July, but had no targets during the short action.[11][37]
Deventer continued the advance from the railway on 10 August, the artillery heading eastward on a congested single-track road. The single mule-drawn gun of 12th Bty, reinforced with gunners from 11th Bty, pushed on with the infantry who fought their way into Mpwapwa on 12 August. The rest of 11th (H) Bty reached Mpwapwa on 18 August, but was held up there by lack of petrol and the damage done to its vehicles by the bad roads. The force fought its way through Kidete Station to Kilosa by 1 September.[11][38][39][40][41][42]
Wami River
Meanwhile, in the eastern sector, 13th (H) Bty did not move up from Mbuyuni until mid-June, escorted by 7th South African Light Horse. The two guns were towed by FWD lorries, but the ammunition column was drawn by oxen and manned by
Another forward thrust began in August. For this operation, 13th (H) Bty was attached to 3rd Division, which was cooperating with 1st Division, while 14th (H) Bty remained with Army Troops. However, 13th (H) Bty found the route impassable and had to return to the Lukiguri. It then followed 1st Division down the main road and supported an attack along the
The offensive was halted by rain, exhaustion and German defences in mid-September. 11th (H) Battery remained in camp at Kilosa throughout October, while 13th (H) Bty was finally able to cross the Ruvu on 11 October and join the front line at the Mgeta River on 14 October, where for the next few weeks it exchanged occasional shots with the enemy.[48][49][50][51]
Kilwa
Meanwhile, 14th (H) Bty remained at Mbyuni until August when it went by train to
The campaign having been halted, reorganisation took place. A serious shortage of howitzers for training in the UK led to four of 38th Bde's eight guns being repatriated by sea. Sickness had also reduced the number of men available. 12th (H) Battery was reduced to just four men and was amalgamated into 11th (H) Bty, which returned from Kilosa to Dodoma and joined the remaining men of 13th (H) Bty, which had left one howitzer and stores, guarded by three men, in case they were needed on the Rufiji River. Captain Floyd successfully argued for the batteries to be recombined, and in April 1917 11th (Hull) Heavy Bty consisting of four howitzers was reformed, the temporary titles and those of 38th Bde and 158th Heavy Bty being discontinued.[56][57]
Flying columns
Apart from the section at Kilwa, the whole battery was at Morogoro. Having handed its remaining guns over to 134th (Cornwall) Bty, it had two of that battery's Indian-pattern
The advance began on 4 July, the columns pursuing the German commander Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his small force, which engaged them with rearguards, but never stayed long enough for the battery to get into action. Mobility was improved in mid-July when the Napier and FWD vehicles arrived, and the battery crossed over to No 1 Column, which was spearheading the pursuit. Roads were bad, necessitating the use of porters to help the vehicles, and the battery remained inactive at Mssindy throughout August while the infantry cleared the surrounding area. No 2 Column was reinforced in mid-September, and renewed the advance, with 11th (Hull) Bty in attendance. It now had wireless-equipped aircraft spotting for the guns. The Hull battery went into action supporting infantry attacks on Ndessa Kati and Ndessa Juu on 20 September, and against German machine gun positions on high ground near Nahungu on 1 October. It then switched to support an attack by No 1 Column on 4 and 5 October.[59][60][61]
Von Lettow-Vorbeck was now in danger of being encircled by the columns and fighting became bitter. The Hull battery broke up one counterattack with shrapnel and high explosive shells on 21 October. On 11 November the battery supported an infantry attack on Chiwata Hill and then shelled German positions over succeeding days. Serjeant Arthur Cowbourne was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal for maintaining the telephone line between the OP and the column.[62][63][64][65]
Deventer had now linked up with troops from
545th Siege Battery
The battery returned to England aboard RMS Durham Castle, landing at Plymouth on 31 January 1918. On 1 March at Aldershot it was redesignated 545th Siege Battery, RGA, under the command of Captain (now Major) Floyd, who set out to get back as many veterans of the 1st Hull Bty as he could from other RGA units where they had been posted from convalescence hospitals. The battery was joined by newly trained signallers from Catterick Camp, and on 2 April it moved to Lydd for training.[2][3][28][68]
Lord Nunburnholme, who had originally raised the battery in 1914, now joined it as an active officer. Although he was a former Major in the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, and was
The battery moved to
Western Front
545th Siege Battery had arrived on the Western Front in time for the Allied
St Quentin Canal
At
- Fourth Army stormed across the St Quentin Canal, in large part because (in Sir Douglas Haig's words), 'The intensity of our fire drove the enemy's garrisons to take refuge in their deep dugouts and tunnels, and made it impossible for his carrying parties to bring food and ammunition'.[84]
- The modern historian of II US Corps concurs: 'Much of the success of the American 30th Division came from the work the British artillery began the day before the attack and continued until the jump-off. With trench bombardment, counter-battery fire, and a barrage that cut the wire, the artillery caught the Germans in their dugouts and caused numerous casualties among their units. German prisoners captured by units of the 30th Division substantiated this fact by telling their interrogators that the barrage caused heavy casualties'[85]
Beaurevoir Line
The firing continued on 1 October, as III Corps was relieved by XIII Corps to continue the offensive. The battery targeted Usigny Dump, a German stores depot masked in a dip in the ground some 6 miles (9.7 km) away. It also fired on strongpoints at Villers Farm, Élincourt and Serain, and roads around Villers-Outréaux and Malincourt. The battery then moved up to Ronssoy to join the howitzers of 47th Bde to support XIII and Australian Corps' attack on the Hindenburg Support Line (the Beaurevoir Line) on 3–5 October.[86][87][88][89]
Getting the artillery forward following these victories proved difficult, but 545th Siege Bty's Right Section was attached to 'Roberts Brigade', an ad hoc formation organised for the pursuit, and continued its bombardment on 10 October from Maurois railway station. Left Section suffered from a German air raid on the night of 9/10 October, without casualties. While Right Section followed the advance, Left Section manned a brigade ammunition dump at Maretz.[90]
Selle
The pursuit ended at the
545th Siege Battery's guns had now fired so many rounds that their barrels required re-lining, and were sent to the Ordnance depot at Amiens on 27 October, thereby missing the Battle of the Sambre. Meanwhile, the personnel and the ammunition column moved forward to Le Cateau. During the night of 27/28 October their position came under heavy fire from German artillery, and ammunition lorries were set alight. Serjeant Goodwin (ASC) and Lance-Bombardier Frank Dickens (545th Bty) were awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for their gallantry in throwing shells from a burning lorry. In the confused pursuit, one of the ammunition lorries was accidentally driven into No man's land and had to be abandoned until the enemy retreated.[94]
Disbandment
On 5 November, all heavy artillery batteries in XIII Corps' area were stood down and the men
Footnotes
- ^ Now occupied by 152 (City of Hull) Squadron, Air Training Corps[12]
- ^ The temporary camp at Denham later became RAF Uxbridge.[19]
- III Indian Corps Heavy Artillery.[23]
- ^ These local designations as 'Howitzer Batteries, RGA', were adopted on 28 May and only applied in East Africa.[3]
Notes
- ^ Becke, Pt 3a, pp. 2, 8, 24, Appendix I.
- ^ a b c d e f Becke, Pt 3a, pp. 19–25.
- ^ a b c d e f Frederick, pp. 699–705.
- ^ a b c War Office Instructions July 1915, Appendix VI.
- ^ War Office Instruction No. 183, September 1915.
- ^ Bilton, Hull Pals.
- ^ a b c Bilton, Hull in the Great War, pp. 38–9.
- ^ Drake, pp. 44–7.
- ^ East Riding Regiment at Long, Long Trail.
- ^ Drake, pp. 47–54.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Record of service of 11th Hull Heavy Battery, RGA, at First World War Digital Poetry Archive (John Edward Burnham enlisted December 1914).
- ^ 152 (City of Hull) Squadron, ATC.
- ^ Drake, pp. 54–6.
- ^ Drake, pp. 47, 53.
- ^ Drake, pp. 58–62.
- ^ Drake, pp. 60–3.
- ^ War Office Instructions September 1915, Appendix VII.
- ^ Drake, pp. 64–7.
- ^ Drake, pp. 72–3.
- ^ Drake, pp. 67–73.
- ^ a b c d Farndale, Forgotten Fronts, p. 318.
- ^ a b c Hordern, p. 221.
- ^ Frederick, p. 711.
- ^ Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 75–82.
- ^ Drake, pp. 73–4, 102.
- ^ Young, Annex Q.
- ^ Drake, pp. 75–85, 91.
- ^ a b c 'Allocation of Heavy Batteries RGA', The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 95/5494/2.
- ^ Embarkation dates, TNA file WO 162/7.
- ^ Drake, pp. 94–101, 106.
- ^ a b 14 Howitzer Bty War Diary May–October 1916, TNA file WO 95/5314/10.
- ^ Anderson, pp. 116–7, 23.
- ^ Drake, pp. 115–7.
- ^ a b Hordern, pp. 285, 288–9.
- ^ Sibley, pp. 62–3.
- ^ Drake, pp. 118–33.
- ^ Drake, pp. 133–50.
- ^ Anderson, p. 135.
- ^ Drake, pp. 151–5.
- ^ a b Farndale, Forgotten Fronts, pp. 325–6.
- ^ Hordern, p. 353.
- ^ Sibley, pp. 96–8.
- ^ Drake, pp. 165–73.
- ^ Anderson, pp. 143–5.
- ^ Drake, pp. 174–8.
- ^ Hordern, pp. 348, 361.
- ^ Sibley, pp. 98, 104–6.
- ^ Anderson, pp. 147–8.
- ^ Drake, pp. 155–6, 179–89.
- ^ Farndale, Forgotten Fronts, pp. 328–30, 339.
- ^ Sibley, pp. 109–13.
- ^ Anderson pp. 162–9.
- ^ Drake, pp. 191, 195–8.
- ^ Farndale, pp. 333–5.
- ^ Sibley, p. 116.
- ^ Anderson, p. 179.
- ^ Drake, pp. 157, 193–4, 199–204, 207–9.
- ^ Drake, pp. 209–23.
- ^ Anderson, pp. 225–6, 238–42.
- ^ Drake, pp. 224–30.
- ^ Sibley, p. 130.
- ^ Anderson, pp. 253–5.
- ^ Drake, pp. 231–3.
- ^ Sibley, pp. 134–5.
- ^ London Gazette, 3 October 1918.
- ^ Anderson, pp. 255–7.
- ^ Drake, pp. 234–5, 246.
- ^ Drake, pp. 248, 256–60.
- ^ Army List.
- ^ Burke's, 'Nunburnholme'.
- ^ Who was Who.
- ^ Drake, pp. 55, 260–1, 274, 306.
- ^ London Gazette, 15 December 1917.
- ^ London Gazette, 19 December 1917.
- ^ London Gazette, 10 May 1918.
- ^ London Gazette, 15 October 1919.
- ^ Drake, pp. 262–73.
- ^ a b Farndale, Western Front, Annex M.
- ^ Drake, pp. 273–5.
- ^ Drake, pp. 276–82.
- ^ Edmonds & Maxwell-Hyslop, pp. 97–101, 106–7, 110–11.
- ^ Farndale, Western Front, p. 298.
- ^ Yockelson, pp. 160–182.
- ^ Quoted in Drake, p. 282.
- ^ Yockelson, p. 182.
- ^ Drake, pp. 282–3.
- ^ Edmonds & Maxwell-Hyslop, pp. 164–8, 174–8.
- ^ Farndale, Western Front, pp. 301–2.
- ^ Yockelson, pp. 191–3.
- ^ Drake, p. 284–7.
- ^ Drake, pp. 287–8.
- ^ Edmonds & Maxwell-Hyslop, pp. 295–315.
- ^ Farndale, Western Front, pp. 307–9.
- ^ Drake, p. 289.
- ^ Drake, pp. 290–6.
References
- Lt-Col Ross Anderson, The Forgotten Front: The East African Campaign, Stroud: Tempus, 2004, ISBN 0-7524-2344-4.
- Maj A.F. Becke, History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 2b: The 2nd-Line Territorial Force Divisions (57th–69th), with the Home-Service Divisions (71st–73rd) and 74th and 75th Divisions, London: HM Stationery Office, 1937/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2007, ISBN 1-847347-39-8.
- Maj A.F. Becke, History of the Great War: Order of Battle of Divisions, Part 3a: New Army Divisions (9–26), London: HM Stationery Office, 1938/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2007, ISBN 1-847347-41-X.
- David Bilton, Hull in the Great War 1914–1919, Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2015, ISBN 978-1-47382-314-3.
- David Bilton, Hull Pals, 10th, 11th 12th and 13th Battalions East Yorkshire Regiment – A History of 92 Infantry Brigade, 31st Division, Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2014, ISBN 978-1-78346-185-1.
- Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 100th Edn, London, 1953.
- Rupert Drake, The Road to Lindi: Hull Boys in Africa: The 1st (Hull) Heavy Battery Royal Garrison Artillery in East Africa and France 1914–1919, Brighton: Reveille Press, 2013, ISBN 978-1-908336-56-9.
- Brig-Gen Sir ISBN 1-870423-06-2.
- Gen Sir ISBN 1-870114-00-0.
- Gen Sir Martin Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: The Forgotten Fronts and the Home Base 1914–18, Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institution, 1988, ISBN 1-870114-05-1.
- J.B.M. Frederick, Lineage Book of British Land Forces 1660–1978, Vol II, Wakefield: Microform Academic, 1984, ISBN 1-85117-009-X.
- Lt-Col Charles Hordern, History of the Great War: Military Operations, East Africa, Vol I, August 1914 – September 1916, London: HM Stationery Office, 1941/Imperial War Museum and Battery Press, 1990, ISBN 978-089839158-9.
- Maj J.R. Sibley, Tanganyikan Guerilla: East African Campaign 1914–18, London: Pan/Ballantyne, 1971, ISBN 0-345-09801-3.
- ISBN 978-0-8061-5349-0.
- Instructions Issued by The War Office During July, 1915, London: HM Stationery Office.
- Instructions Issued by The War Office During September, 1915, London: HM Stationery Office.
- Who was Who, Vol II, 1916–1928, London: Bloomsbury, 2014, ISBN 978-1-40819336-5.
- Lt-Col Michael Young, Army Service Corps 1902–1918, Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2000, ISBN 0-85052-730-9.