The 155th (West Yorkshire) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, was a New Army ('Kitchener's Army') unit raised from Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire during the First World War. It saw service on the Western Front, including the Battles of the Somme, Arras, Messines and Passchendaele, the German spring offensive and the final 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 'Pals battalions' under the auspices of mayors and corporations of towns up and down the country.See, for example, Middlebrook, Somme, pp. 9–11; Bilton, pp. 22–40; Jackson, pp. 14–7.
Recruitment The CLV (West Yorkshire) Brigade (155th Bde) Royal Field Artillery (RFA) was raised by the Leeds-based West Yorkshire Coal Owners' Association. It was therefore a 'Local Unit', raised under local initiative, not by the army mechanism like the early Kitchener 'New Armies', and therefore was comparable to the 'Pals Battalions' that formed the infantry of K5. Authority was given by the War Office (WO) on 1 February 1915,War Office Instructions July 1915, Appendix VI. and the unit was officially taken over by the military authorities on 25 July 1915War Office Instructions September 1915, Appendix VII.
The six K5 divisions were to be numbered 37th to 42nd, and CLV Bde was assigned to the 38th Division, composed of 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. All the division's RFA batteries and brigades were raised in Yorkshire towns. 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, pp. 11–9.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). 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. Towards the end of May and early June 1915 the division began to assemble at South Camp, Ripon, where more serious training could begin.Frederick, pp. 551–2. CLV Brigade was officially taken over by the military authorities from the recruiting committee on 25 July 1915, the rest of the divisional artillery on 1 September. In September the artillery moved to Fovant, where battle training was carried out on Salisbury Plain. The batteries were equipped with 18-pounder guns.
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.
Western Front Divisional Artillery 31st Divisional Artillery continued its training at Larkhill Camp for another month, and then went to France at the beginning of January 1916 to join 32nd Division. This was another Pals formation 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). The former 31st Divisional Artillery now became 32nd Divisional Artillery (32nd DA) for the rest of the war.
On 26 May 32nd DA was reorganised: D/CLV Battery left for CLXIV (Rotherham) Howitzer Brigade and was exchanged for A (H)/CLXIV Bty, which became D (H)/CLV. This battery was equipped with 4.5-inch howitzers. The brigade now consisted of 12 x 18-pdrs and 4 x 4.5s. At the same time the BACs were abolished and absorbed into the Divisional Ammunition Column (DAC).
Somme
32nd Division was assigned to X Corps in the newly formed Fourth Army for the forthcoming 'Big Push' (the Battle of the Somme).Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 38–9, 254. 32nd 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.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, p. 395–8.Farrar-Hockley, pp. 125–6.Middlebrook, p. 62.
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 wire-cutting began on 24 June (U Day). After three days the intensity of wire-cutting fire was increased to 4–500 shell per gun per day. Z day was put back by two days because of bad weather, but 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 Bde failed to get through the wire north of the Leipzig Redoubt and were shot down.
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, Brigadier J.B. Jardine, commanding 97th Brigade of 32nd Division, ordered his men to creep up to within of the barrage before attacking the German front line trenches.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 299–307, 398.Farndale, pp. 142–8.
When the attack went in at 07.30 on 1 July (the First day on the Somme), 97th Brigade had already crept out into No man's land. It found the wire adequately cut and keeping close to the barrage was able to overrun the Leipzig Redoubt, taking its defenders prisoner. However, 96th Brigade met with disaster, being cut down in No man's land by the machine guns in Thiepval and making no progress, the support companies being halted before going over. The first lift of the barrage was from the German front line to the reserve line (the Wonder Work etc), but the troops could not keep up and lost its benefits. The advancing 97th Brigade was shot down by machine guns in the Wonder Work and was obliged to withdraw to the Leipzig Redoubt. Strict orders for the barrage meant that it could not be brought back without higher authority, although Brigadier Jardine did take responsibility to order two batteries to come back to cover the withdrawal to the Leipzig Redoubt. After midday individual batteries fired at targets such as machine gun posts requested by the infantry, but there were few Forward Observation Officers (FOOs) with the infantry, and shellfire cut telephone lines, so fire control was poor. A new bombardment of the Wonder Work was arranged, but it was too diffuse to be effective. Erroneous reports that some of 32nd Division had got into Thiepval meant that the village was not fired on until the evening, and its defenders were able to mount counter-attacks against a break-through by the neighbouring 36th (Ulster) Division and to cause heavy casualties to the reserves coming up (49th (West Riding) Division). By the end of the day X Corps' only remaining gain was the Leipzig Redoubt. That night and for the next two days the gunners helped to evacuate the thousands of wounded infantrymen.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 398–403, 410–17, 420.Farndale, p. 147.Farrar-Hockley, pp. 126–30, 136–7.Middlebrook, pp. 136, 175, 198, 209–10, 224.
32nd Division was in action again at the Battle of Bazentin Ridge, on 14 July. This time the wire-cutting was more carefully controlled, with FOOs within of the German trenches to ensure accuracy. The attack went in before dawn, and the intense final bombardment of the enemy line before Zero was cut from 30 minutes to just 5 minutes to ensure surprise. The 18-pdrs and 4.5s firing the barrage used delayed-action fuses to avoid air-bursts in the trees above the troops forming up for the attack. 32nd Division made a subsidiary attack towards Ovillers. The bombardment was accurate and the infantry followed the barrage closely, so the opening of the attack was a great success, but it was not exploited.Farndale, p. 149.Farrar-Hockley, pp. 187–92.Miles, 1916, Vol II, pp. 66, 76. Afterwards the division was relieved and moved to the quieter Bethune area for the summer.Grice-Hutchinson, pp. 105–29.
In mid-September CLV Bde was reorganised again: A Bty was split between B and C to give each six guns, and C Bty was redesignated A Bty.Grice-Hutchinson, pp. 114, 122. Then on 10 October the brigade was joined by 536 (2/1st Suffolk) Howitzer Bty, a 2nd Line TF unit equipped with four 4.5-inch howitzers that had just arrived in France and now became C (H)/CLV Bty.Grice-Hutchinson, pp. 129, 131.
After the BEF's successful advance at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, the division was ordered back to the Somme sector, though the move did not begin until 16 October.Grice-Hutchinson, pp. 122, 127–8. 32nd Division was in reserve during the Battle of the Ancre Heights (23 October to 11 November). The Battle of the Ancre, delayed until 13 November by bad weather, was the final phase of the Somme Offensive. A mass of artillery was assembled, including 32nd Division's, to support an attack by V Corps. CLV Brigade was deployed around the position known as 'White City', where it suffered some casualties from counter-battery (CB) fire. Seven days of bombardment and wire-cutting preceded the attack. This time a full creeping barrage was employed, starting on the German front line with a quarter of the 18-pounders deliberately firing 50 yards short of the rest, into No man's land, to cover the advancing infantry. Then after six minutes the barrage began advancing at in 5 minutes. The barrage was to halt for an hour on the first objective, and then move on. The initial pre-dawn attack was a partial success, and attacks continued over succeeding days. 32nd Division's infantry came into the line on 17 November and attacked 'Munich Trench' the following day, though they were quickly stopped by machine gun fire. The battle ended on 18 November, with minor operations continuing through the winter. CLV Brigade was pulled out of White City to safer positions by 21 November, and the divisional artillery was relieved on 6 December. It moved to the St Ouen area, with CLV Bde billeted in nearby village of St LégerFarndale, pp. 154–6.Grice-Hutchinson, pp. 135–47.Miles, 1916, Vol II, pp. 478–9.
CLV Army Field Artillery Brigade