The 32nd Divisional Artillery (32nd DA) was a Royal Artillery force raised as part of 'Kitchener's Army' in early 1915. Recruited in Yorkshire, originally for the 31st Division, the units served with the 'Pals battalions' of the 32nd Division on the Western Front for three years. They saw action at the Somme, the pursuit to the Hindenburg Line, the German spring offensive, and the Allied Hundred Days Offensive.
Background 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 British Army, and 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'.Becke, Pt 3a, pp. 2 & 8. The flood of volunteers overwhelmed the ability of the army to absorb and organise them, and by the time the Fifth New Army (K5) was authorised on 10 December 1914, many of the units were being organised as 'local units' or 'Pals battalions' under the auspices of mayors and recruiting committees at towns up and down the country.See, for example, Bilton, Jackson, and Middlebrook, Somme, pp. 9–11.
Recruitment The six K5 divisions were to be numbered 37th to 42nd,Becke, Pt 3b, Appendix 2. and the 38th Division was formed from Pals battalions raised in the North of England such as the Accrington Pals,Jackson. the Sheffield City Battalion, and a whole brigade of Hull Pals.Bilton. The first artillery unit assigned to the division was the CLV (West Yorkshire) Brigade (155th Bde) of the Royal Field Artillery (RFA), raised by the Leeds-based West Yorkshire Coal Owners' Association for which authority was given by the War Office (WO) on 1 February 1915.War Office Instructions July 1915, Appendix VI. Shortly afterwards the other RFA brigades for this division were raised from Yorkshire towns by Major Ernest Meysey-Thompson, MP:Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 11–19.War Office Instructions September 1915, Appendix VII. CLXI (or 161st) (Yorkshire) Brigade, RFA, authorised 10 March 1915, recruited from York, Scarborough and Wakefield CLXIV (or 164th) (Rotherham) Howitzer Brigade, RFA, authorised 9 April 1915 CLXVIII (or 168th) (Huddersfield) Brigade, RFA, authorised 20 April 1915
The Divisional Ammunition Column (DAC) was recruited from the Hull City Police and Hull Corporation Tramways Depot by Lord Nunburnholme, Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire and Chairman of the East Riding Territorial Association, who had already raised the Hull Pals battalions and the 11th (Hull) Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) in September 1914. The same WO authorisation (3 February) also included the 124th (Hull) Heavy Battery, RGA, for the division.Bilton, pp. 26–40.The artillery, at Hull War Memorial.
The WO then decided to convert the earlier K4 battalions into reserve units to train reinforcements for the K1–K3 units, and on 27 April 1915 the K5 divisions were renumbered to take up the vacant designations of the K4 formations. The short-lived 38th Division thus became 31st Division.Becke, Pt 3b, Appendix I.
Training The New Army brigades of the RFA were organised into four 4-gun batteries, designated A, B, C and D, with a Brigade Ammunition Column (BAC).Frederick, pp. 551–2. To start with, the men were billeted in their own homes and training was carried out locally, hampered by an almost total lack of equipment and instructors. Brigadier-General S.E.G. Lawless was appointed Commander, Royal Artillery (CRA) for the new division on 7 May 1915 and towards the end of May and early June the division began to assemble at South Camp, Ripon, where more serious training could begin. CLV Brigade was officially taken over by the military authorities from the recruiting committee on 25 July 1915, 124th (Hull) Heavy Bty on 12 August, and the rest of the divisional artillery and DAC on 1 September. In September the divisional artillery moved to Fovant, where battle training was carried out on Salisbury Plain. The batteries were equipped with 18-pounder guns and 4.5-inch howitzers. Brigadier-General J.A. Tyler took over as CRA on 16 November.
On 29 November the division was warned that it would embark for the Western Front on 6 December. Advance parties left for the embarkation ports, but on 2 December the orders were changed: the infantry would instead sail for Egypt with 32nd Division's artillery, leaving its own artillery behind.Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 21–9.31st Division at Long, Long Trail.32nd Division at Long, Long Trail.
31st Divisional Artillery continued its training at Larkhill Camp for another month, and then went to France at the end of the year to join 32nd Division. The former 31st Divisional Artillery became 32nd Divisional Artillery (32nd DA) for the rest of the war.
By the time 32nd DA embarked for France, the policy was to remove heavy batteries from infantry divisions and concentrate them into heavy artillery groups (HAGs), so 124th (Hull) Heavy Bty did not go with it, landing independently in France in April 1916.Farndale, Annex E, pp. 355–8.'Allocation of Heavy Batteries RGA', The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 95/5494/2.
Western Front
The Divisional Artillery joined 32nd Division between 31 December 1915 and 3 January 1916. This was another division of Pals battalions recruited largely in Birmingham, Salford and Glasgow. It had been in France since late November 1915, temporarily supported by the Divisional Artillery of 53rd (Welsh) Division of the Territorial Force (TF).
Most howitzer brigades in the BEF had three batteries, but the TF only had two and the New Army had four, so on 16 February D (H) Bty of CLXIV (H) Bde was transferred to IV West Riding Howitzer Bde (recruited from Otley) in 49th (West Riding) Division.
In March and April, the division's infantry brigades formed light trench mortar batteries (TMBs). Then a brigade of medium and heavy trench mortars was formed by the divisional artillery. The establishment was one heavy and three medium TMBs per division, but 32nd Division was allotted two heavy and five medium to increase its firepower for the planned 'Big Push' (the Battle of the Somme).Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 61–2.Farndale, Annex G.A.B. Scott, 'Diary', in Whinyates, p. 20. In April the 32nd (Hull) Heavy Trench Mortar Battery was formed with men drawn from 32nd (Hull) DAC, together with a few RGA men, and moved to Aveluy for training. It was designated V/32 Heavy TMB and was joined in May by W/32 Heavy TMB, formed by men drawn from 32nd DAC and CLXI, CLXIV and CLXVIII BACs. These batteries were equipped with French 9.45-inch Heavy Mortars (known as 'flying pigs'). The five Medium TMBs (A, B, X, Y and Z, each equipped with four 2-inch Medium Mortars) were formed by the end of May with personnel drawn from the DAC and various batteries and HQs in 32nd DA. V/32 and W/32 Heavy TMBs joined the division from the TM School by the end of June.J.E., 'Reminiscences of "Tock-Emma" Days', in Whinyates, pp. 661–72.S.A. Cooper, 'Memories of V and W Batteries', in Whinyates, pp. 673–5.
On 26 May the field brigades of 32nd DA were reorganised so that the three senior brigades each had three 18-pdr batteries and one of 4.5inch howitzers:
CLV (West Yorkshire) Brigade A, B, C Btys D (H) Bty (former A (H)/CLXIV Bty) CLXI (Yorkshire) Brigade A, B, C Btys D (H) Bty (former B (H)/CLXIV Bty) CLXIV (Rotherham) Brigade A Bty (former D/CLV Bty) B Bty (former D/CLXI Bty) C Bty (former D/CLXVIII Bty) D (H) Bty (former C (H)/CLXIV Bty) CLXVIII (Huddersfield) Brigade A, B, C Btys 32nd Trench Mortar Brigade A/32, B/32, X/32, Y/32, Z/32 Medium TMBs V/32, W/32 Heavy TMBs 32nd (Hull) DAC
At the same time the BACs were abolished and absorbed into the DAC, which was organised in two echelons: A echelon up with the division (one section with each field brigade); B echelon back with the corps.
Somme 32nd Division was assigned to X Corps in the newly formed Fourth Army for the Somme Offensive.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 38–9, 254. The division was tasked with attacking out of the valley of the Ancre onto a spur of the Thiepval Plateau to capture the fortified village of Thiepval and the redoubt at the angle of the 'Leipzig Salient'. The division was then to go on to capture a series of strongpoints (including the Wundtwerke or 'Wonder Work') on the reverse slope of the spur. The preparations involved the division digging tens of miles of cable trenches for the artillery communications, while the gunners dug gun emplacements and prepared ammunition dumps. The high proportion of ex-miners among 32nd DA's men aided this work considerably.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, p. 395–8.Farrar-Hockley, pp. 125–6.Middlebrook, p. 62.Mitchell, pp. 51–2, 55–8.
Fourth Army planned five days (U, V, W, X and Y) of bombardment before Zero or Z Day, with the 18-pdrs assigned to cutting the barbed wire and 'searching' trenches, villages, woods and hollows, and the 4.5-inch howitzers to destroying communication trenches, machine gun positions, and assisting in bombardment of woods and villages. Both classes of gun were also to interrupt communications, particularly at night, and prevent the enemy from repairing damage to their defences. The heavy trench mortars were directed at villages and strongpoints, while the mediums were to assist in wire-cutting and bombarding the front trenches. On 32nd Division's front the medium mortars were emplaced in saps dug right up to the German wire, to put them in range of the support line on Z day, but this led to a steady trickle of casualties over the preceding days while the mortars were being registered on their targets. The wire-cutting began on 24 June (U Day). After three days the intensity of wire-cutting fire was increased to 4–500 shells per gun per day. Z day was put back by two days because of bad weather, and the bombardment was weaker on the extra days (Y1 and Y2) because of ammunition shortages. Reports on the effect of the wire-cutting varied: a night patrol from 97th Brigade of 32nd Division failed to get through the wire north of the Leipzig Redoubt and were shot down. 32nd Division's heavy trench mortars were stationed at 'Rock Street' and 'Oban Avenue'. The Oban Avenue mortar fired one round every 15 minutes during the night of 30 June, that at Rock Creek was trying to hit an enemy Minenwerfer. They then fired at high intensity from 06.00 to 07.00.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 299–307, 398.Farndale, pp. 142–4.T. Slane, 'Memories of Y Battery (2-in)', in Whinyates, pp. 681–4.
When the infantry went 'over the top' the field guns were to lay down a barrage in front of them. Some artillery commanders tried out a 'Creeping barrage', but in X Corps the 18-pdrs were simply ordered to 'lift' their barrage from one enemy trench to the next as the infantry advanced behind it, while the howitzers concentrated on selected strongpoints along the line of the barrage. Nevertheless, Brig-Gen J.B. Jardine, commanding 97th Bde, ordered his men to creep out into No man's land up to within of the barrage before attacking the German front line trenches.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 398–400.Farndale, pp. 146–7.Mitchell, pp. 59–61.