The 9th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, was one of the first British Army units recruited for 'Kitchener's Army' in the First World War. It served on the Western Front from 1915 to 1918, supporting different formations of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). It was overrun and lost its guns at the Chemin des Dames in May 1918 but, re-equipped, it participated in the final Allied Hundred Days Offensive.
Mobilisation & training
On 6 August 1914, less than 48 hours after Britain's declaration of war against Germany, 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'.Becke, Pt 3a, pp. 2, 8, 24, Appendix I. The establishment for each of these divisions included a heavy battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) to be equipped with 60-pounder guns.Farndale, Annex E.
One of these K1 divisions, 9th (Scottish) Division composed of New Army battalions of Scottish infantry regiments, began forming in August 1914, and its heavy battery was formed at Fort Brockhurst, Gosport, on 26 August from new recruits and ex-Regular non-commissioned officers (NCOs). The battery was initially under the command of Captain Osborn, shortly succeeded by Major Twiss. It moved to Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich, on 6 September, and at the end of October came under the command of Maj W.E. Castens who had been second-in-command of No 96 Company RGA on Malta when war broke out.Anon, 9th Heavy Battery, 'Battery Log'.Frederick, pp. 700–1.Becke, Pt 3a, pp. 3–9.9th Scottish Division at Long, Long TrailHeavy Batteries RGA at Long, Long Trail
The Kitchener units were desperately short of equipment: the battery was equipped with four 4.7-inch guns, an obsolescent pattern adopted after the Second Boer War, rather than the modern 60-pounder. On 3 December the battery moved to a tented camp at Charlton Park, Greenwich to continue its training, remaining under canvas until it moved to Odiham on 1 February 1915. During this winter it acted as a depot battery, so the officers and NCOs were constantly changing. At the end of March it moved to Bordon Camp, where the rest of 9th (Scottish) Division had assembled. Embarkation orders to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France arrived on 7 May. The battery and its ammunition column were brought up to full establishment and mobilised at Bordon on 9 May, receiving its gunsights the following day when it entrained for Southampton to embark.Allocations of Heavy Batteries RGA, TNA file WO 95/5494.
Western Front Armentières 9th Heavy Battery disembarked at Le Havre on 12 May and entrained the same night for Arques. It then marched to Helfaut, arriving on 16 May. Artillery policy in the BEF was to withdraw heavy batteries from the divisions and group them into dedicated heavy artillery formations, so 9th Hvy Bty left 9th (Scottish) Division on 16 May and joined the Heavy Artillery Reserve. It was ordered up to Pont de Nieppe, near Armentières, where it established its wagon lines on 18 May and where the men were billeted in local farms. The battery took over gun positions previously occupied by the Regular 31st Hvy Bty and immediately went into action, 'A' Sub-section firing its first round on the evening of 19 May.Anon, 9th Heavy Battery, 'Wagon Lines'.
9th Heavy Bty formed part of an ad hoc group under Colonel Currie ('Currie's Group') along with 1/1st Warwickshire and 114th Hvy Btys. It spent the first few days registering its guns, experiencing its first 'prematures' when Shrapnel shells detonated at or near the gun. The battery then bombarded 'Fort Bismarck' assisted by aircraft observation, using outdated Lyddite high explosive (HE) shells. It also used Shrapnel shells against enemy anti-aircraft guns. and observation posts (OPs), but had to cease fire when its shells fell short because the driving bands were stripping off after leaving the barrel (a recurrent problem with the old 4.7s). In June the battery moved its guns closer to the enemy's lines at Armentières.
On 11 June the battery (together with 1/1st Warwickshire and 14th Hvy Btys) became part of the recently arrived 16th Heavy Artillery Brigade, RGA.16th Bde War Diary May–December 1915, TNA file WO 95/216/5. The BEF was suffering a serious shell shortage, and 9th Hvy Bty was required to hand over most of its Lyddite ammunition for the heavy fighting elsewhere on the front. It continued firing a few rounds on most days when weather permitted, with a variety of ammunition including low explosive common pointed shell and timed or percussion shrapnel, at trenches, crossroads and bridges, enemy working parties and billets. It also conducted counter-battery (CB) fire, often in retaliation for German shelling of Armentières and Ploegsteert ('Plug Street'). The British lines were heavily shelled on 9 August while an operation was carried out in the Ypres sector. This work continued through the summer while the battery improved its positions with concrete platforms and overhead cover. In September it fired its first HE shell filled with Amatol in place of Lyddite, describing the smaller burst as 'disappointing'.Anon, 14th Heavy Battery, pp. 25–7.
At this time 16th Bde was supporting II Corps. Although it was not directly engaged in the Battle of Loos launched on 25 September, II Corps cooperated with bombardment of the trenches in front of Fromelles and a smokescreen to deceive the enemy. 9th Heavy Bty, supporting 50th (Northumbrian) Division, was allotted 50 extra HE shells for the task, but mainly fired shrapnel, finding the smokescreen a hindrance to observation. II Corps made another demonstration on 13 October, for which 9th Hvy Bty was not required. Most ammunition was being sent to the Loos sector, so 16th Bde's batteries had a quiet time.Anon, 14th Heavy Battery, p. 28.Becke, Pt 4, pp. 137–43.
Arras On 1 November 16th Bde transferred to Third Army south-west of Arras marching by way of Doullens. Right Section (RX) of 9th Hvy Bty went into prepared positions at Pommier on 6 November, while Left Section (LX) started work on new positions at Berles-au-Bois and 9th and 14th Hvy Btys shared wagon lines at Gaudiempré. 9th Heavy Bty began registering its guns next day, but firing was hampered for the rest of the year by bad weather and ammunition shortages. A little more ammunition became available at the end of December, when 9th Hvy fired battery salvoes at enemy positions that had shown the most activity. RX joined LX at Berles on 1 January 1916. However, the battery did little in early 1916: with 4.7inch ammunition being diverted to guns mounted on Merchant Navy ships, most of the firing was done by 16th Bde's 60-pdr batteries.16th Bde War Diary January–August 1916, TNA file WO 95/216/6.Anon, 14th Heavy Battery, pp. 29–34.
On 13 February 1916 9th Hvy Bty (now under the command of Maj J.N. Biggs Davison) was ordered to move out to positions near Basseux to cover a sector newly taken over by the BEF from the French. On 5 March the battery came under the command of 39th Heavy Brigade, RGA, a new HQ that had just arrived from England. The brigade's title was changed on 5 April to 39th Heavy Artillery Group (HAG) in line with a new policy that also moved batteries more frequently between the HAGs.39th HAG War Diary April 1916–December 1917, TNA file WO 95/391/1.Frederick, pp. 712, 718.
9th Heavy Bty participated in 39th HAG's counter-battery and retaliatory shoots. For example, it noted on 1 April: 'Carried out counter-battery work. This was reported by airmen as being a most successful shoot resulting in two tremendous explosions and a great flame of fire.' On 2 April it retaliated on the village of Ficheux: 'Our heavy guns ... fired 55 rounds in 3 minutes into the village (high explosive) 3 p.m. precisely'. However, the battery came under the command of 8th HAG from 10 May.8th HAG War Diary January–June 1916, TNA file WO 95/213/7.
Somme
On the night of 9/10 June the battery moved to Anzin-Saint-Aubin just north of Arras where it came under the 'Northern Heavy Artillery Group' while 8th HAG remained south of the city as the 'Southern' group. Only the southern part of Third Army (VII Corps) was to take place in that summer's 'Big Push' (the Battle of the Somme), but the batteries with VI Corps around Arras were to cooperate, and 9th Hvy Bty was given a special allowance of 700 shells for the bombardment period from U Day (24 June) to Z Day (29 June). The battery was only to use shrapnel shell in case of emergency, because of the frequent 'prematures'. The battery also provided some personnel to 'Scott's Battery', a provisional battery formed in Northern Group to man some borrowed French guns. During the bombardment (extended by Y1 and Y2 days) the enemy batteries were unusually quiet (many had moved south), so 9th Hvy Bty had few targets and did not fire on some days. The Arras sector remained quiet while the Somme Offensive raged on, 9th Hvy Bty's gunners being mainly used to prepare positions for incoming batteries, apart from one night shoot where LX moved to fire on an enemy battery near Neuville-Vitasse, then returned to its old position before dawn. The temporary 'Northern Group' was broken up on 27 July and 9th Hvy Bty came under the command of 54th HAG, newly arrived from the UK. However, the scarcity of 4.7-inch ammunition was such that the battery did not fire at all during August.
On 13 September the battery fired off 40 rounds of shrapnel at enemy batteries and then pulled out at dusk. Next day it came 'into action' at Hébuterne, as part of a large concentration of heavy guns with VII Corps supporting the left flank of the Somme offensive. Although the battery exchanged fire with enemy batteries (one of which blew in the officers' mess dugout, luckily without causing any casualties) it could do little because of the shortage of ammunition. Much of the available ammunition was faulty, and on 26 September No 1 gun suffered a premature that blew off the end of the muzzle, without casualties. On 1 October the battery was pulled out of the line and concentrated at the wagon lines at Gaudiempré, where it received a replacement for No 1 gun. It then marched to join 53rd HAG at Béthune with XI Corps of First Army on 4 October.'Headquarters Heavy Artillery Groups', TNA file WO 95/5494/1. 54th HAG War Diary June-December 1916, TNA file WO 95/392/1.53rd HAG War Diary, March 1916–June 1917, TNA file WO 95/226/1.
Winter 1916–17
9th Heavy Bty went into the line at Festubert but did not begin registering its guns until 15 October, when with aircraft observation it hit a German support trench and started a large fire. But the battery had little to do until 29 December when it collected four 60-pdr guns from the railhead at Béthune. The War Office had decided that all heavy batteries should be composed of six guns, and on 23 January 1917 9th Hvy Bty was joined by a section from 191st Hvy Bty, which had just arrived from England to join First Army. (191st Heavy Bty had been formed at Ewshot on 21 June; its other section was posted to 1/1st Essex Heavy Bty). The new arrivals became the battery's Centre Section (CX). The battery left 53rd HAG on 27 January for rest and to complete this reorganisation.