41st Siege Battery, was a heavy howitzer unit of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) formed at Plymouth, during World War I. Half its personnel were Regular Army gunners returned from colonial garrisons in Asia, the remainder were Territorials from County Durham. It saw active service on the Western Front at the Battle of the Somme, where it suffered heavy casualties, at Vimy Ridge, Messines (where it again sustained heavy casualties) and Ypres. Several of its guns were overrun in the fighting against the German Spring Offensive, but it was refitted and participated in the Allies' final Hundred Days Offensive. It remained in the Regular Army after the war until it was absorbed into another unit in 1920.
Mobilisation and training On the outbreak of war in August 1914, much of the British Army was scattered in colonial garrisons and it took some time to bring them back to Europe to fight on the Western Front. In the meantime units of the part-time Territorial Force (TF) were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service, and most did so.Becke, Pt 2b, p. 6. By October 1914, the Western Front campaign was bogging down into Trench warfare and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had an urgent need for batteries of siege artillery. Soon the TF RGA companies that had volunteered for overseas service were supplying trained gunners to RGA units serving overseas.Maurice-Jones, pp. 200–1.
41st Siege Battery was formed in Plymouth on 2 July 1915, half the strength being Regular troops returned from the garrisons of Hong Kong and Singapore and half from Territorials of the Durham RGA.Frederick, pp. 702–7.41st Siege Bty War Diary July 1915–January 1918, The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 95/470/3.Army List, August 1914.
The Hong Kong–Singapore Royal Garrison Artillery (HKSRGA) dated from 1845 when gunners had been recruited from India to join the RGA company in garrison in Hong Kong. This had expanded to a full battalion manning the coastal defences of the colonies of Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon and Mauritius. The companies had a few British officers and senior non-commissioned officers. In addition, there were three Regular RGA companies in Hong Kong (Nos 83, 87 and 88) and two in Singapore (Nos 78 and 80).Frederick, pp. 886–7.Maurice-Jones, pp. 135, 160, 191.
The Durham RGA dated back to 1860. It was responsible for manning batteries of fixed coastal guns on the River Tees and at Hartlepool. It had already seen action when a German naval force had mounted a Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914.Frederick, pp. 656, 697.Litchfield, pp. 58–60, Appendix I.
Major H.C. Hall, who had been commanding No 83 Company, RGA, in Hong Kong on the outbreak of war, was appointed Officer Commanding (OC) of the new battery. The rest of the original officers were Territorials, including the second-in-command, Captain O.L. Trechmann, previously commanding No 4 Company of the Durham RGA at Hartlepool.
On 28 July the battery went to the RGA camp at Lydd for training, and then on 5 October it moved to Portsmouth for mobilisation. Here, (together with 40th Siege Bty) it formed 34th Siege Brigade. Equipment was short, so mobilisation was slow and the battery continued training. Early on it received one of the new Vickers BL 6-inch 26 cwt howitzers, which the battery took to Salisbury Plain for practice firing and to test the new design of gun carriage. The battery's other three guns did not arrive until the end of November.Frederick, p. 711.34th HAG War Diary, October 1915–December 1917, TNA file WO 95/222/1.
Service
The battery sailed from Portsmouth for France with 34th Brigade on 9 December 1915, arriving at Le Havre next day. The guns and motor transport (including FWD Model B gun tractors) arrived aboard the SS Blackwall from Avonmouth Docks five days later. 34th Brigade was assigned to II Corps at Hazebrouck. The battery personnel went by train while the guns followed by road. They were positioned at Lameron Farm, near Pont-de-Nieppe, on 24 December. These were the first 26-cwt 6-inch howitzers to arrive in France, and Staff-Sergeant Moore from Vickers was attached to the battery for two months while they were assessed. The battery had numerous visitors curious to see the new guns in action. After completing the gun positions, the battery began registering its guns on 'the Blanchisserie' on 30 December.'Allocation of Siege Batteries RGA', TNA file WO 95/5494/4.
The battery continued registration and practice shoots on various targets during January 1916. From its position it was able to cover the whole of II Corps' front. On 24 January it supported a minor operation by 21st Division, firing 50 rounds each at a farm and some buildings at Frelinghien, achieving a high proportion of direct hits. Over the following weeks the battery fired a few rounds most days, on a variety of targets, such as 'Fort Bismarck', 'Crown Prince Farm' and 'The Birdcage'. On one occasion an observation aircraft made a 'ZZ' call requesting urgent fire, the target of which turned out to be an active anti-aircraft battery. On another, a field artillery battery requested fire on a hostile battery it could see shelling British positions: this was successfully silenced. For long periods from mid March to late April the battery was forbidden to fire because of the shortage of ammunition. Supply improved in May, and the battery was increasingly used for counter-battery (CB) fire.
RGA brigades were redesignated Heavy Artillery Groups (HAGs) in April 1916, and the policy now was to move batteries between them as required.Farndale, AnnexE.Frederick, p. 718. Left Section (LX) of 41st Siege Bty and a section of 40th Siege Bty were detached to 32nd HAG with IV Corps at Pont d'Achelles from 19 May. On 31 May LX moved into Bouvigny Wood under cover of darkness, and carried out CB fire on 1 June. Next day it carried out a 'trench Strafe' against Vimy Ridge, where fighting had flared up on 21 May. While Left Section was away, Right Section (RX) did very little firing.Becke, Pt 4, pp. 153–60.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 216–24.32nd Bde War Diary, April 1916–July 1916, TNA file WO 95/389/2.
Somme 34th HAG and its batteries were now sent south. 41st Siege Bty was transferred to 25th HAG on 5 June, joining it at Albert on 15 June, with its two sections arriving separately and taking over emplacements from 17th Siege Bty on the next two days. As the battery began registering its guns on 20 June Maj Hall was posted to command 10th HAG and Capt M. Sykes was promoted from 27th Siege Bty to take command of 41st Siege Bty.25th Bde War Diary February 1915–June 1916, TNA file WO 95/303/1.
25th HAG was attached to X Corps in Fourth Army, which was preparing for that summer's 'Big Push' (the Battle of the Somme), with the group preparing new observation posts (OPs) and gun positions. X Corps' task was to advance astride the River Ancre to capture the high ground in front, with 36th (Ulster) Division attacking up the river valley towards the Schwaben Redoubt and 32nd Division assaulting Thiepval and the Leipzig Redoubt before advancing to Mouquet Farm ('Mucky Farm').Becke, Pt 4, pp. 99–109.Becke, Pt 4, pp. 193–7.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 394–9, Sketch 22. The bombardment programme was to extend over five days, U, V, W, X and Y, before the assault was launched on Z day. The strenuous work of firing the heavy guns was divided into 2-hour periods to allow the gunners to rest, Forward Observation Officers (FOOs) to be relieved, and the guns to cool. The bombardment began on 24 June, 41st Siege Bty firing 800 rounds per day on its assigned tasks against front, support and communication trenches in the Thiepval Salient, observed from an OP in Mesnil-Martinsart. The firing was so intense that on 29 June three of the battery's guns were out of action at various times with leaking hydro-pneumatic recuperators. Poor quality 6-inch ammunition was also causing problems, with frequent misfires and 'blinds' that failed to explode. But on several days the weather was too bad for good air or ground observation and the programme was extended by two days (Y1 and Y2), when the battery only fired 400 rounds per day.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 299–305.Farndale, Western Front, pp. 144–9, Map 21.
At 06.25 on Z Day (1 July) the final bombardment began. When the infantry launched their assault at 07.30, 36th (Ulster) Division captured most of the German front and support positions without difficulty, and advanced nearly a mile onto the ridge in the first hour, including the front part of the Schwaben Redoubt. However, St Pierre Divion had been hardly touched by the bombardment and machine guns in the village fired into the flank of the brigade trying to advance up the valley. 32nd Division found the barbed wire well cut and seized the front face of the Leipzig Redoubt, but it too was caught in enfilade while trying to advance further. The corps artillery plan was also too rigid: the heavy guns 'lifted' at set times from one objective to the next, and got away from the infantry, who received no benefit from their fire. By 09.40 41st Siege Bty was firing on a trench line north of Goat Redoubt when it got word that the infantry were held up, and it was ordered to stay on this target until 11.00, when it lifted onto the village of Courcelette. Then at 12.30 it was ordered to return to the German support trenches, which the infantry had still not captured. By 14.45 the battery only had one gun still in action because of overheating, and it was realised that 'the attack on Thiepval had been a complete failure'. At nightfall the 36th Division had been forced out of the Schwaben redoubt, and 32nd Division was left clinging onto the edge of the Thipeval spur and the front face of the Leipzig Redoubt. Over the next two days the gunners helped to collect the thousands of wounded left after the failed assault.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 399–421, Sketch 22.Miles, 1916, Vol II, p. 3.25th Bde War Diary July–August 1916, TNA file WO 95/303/2.
Reserve Army now took over this sector of the front, and X Corps continued attacking south of the Ancre, including the fighting round Ovillers, supported by 41st Siege Bty. On 14 July a party unloading ammunition at RX's position were caught by a single German 'Five-Nine' shell: one officer and 12 Other Ranks (ORs) of the battery were killed or died of wounds and another seven ORs wounded, as well as casualties among the Army Service Corps and an infantry working party. Another unlucky shell on 17 July caught RX's billet at lunch time, resulting in another man dead and 15 wounded.Becke, Pt 4, pp. 111–120.Miles, 1916, Vol II, pp. 8–10, 13–5, 22, 34–6, 58–9, 74–5, 101, 115.