The 3rd North Midland Brigade, Royal Field Artillery was a volunteer unit of the British Territorial Force formed in 1908. It served in some of the bloodiest battles on the Western Front during World War I
Origin When the Territorial Force (TF) was created from the former Volunteer Force by the Haldane Reforms in 1908,Dunlop, Chapter 14.Spiers, Chapter 10. it was organised into regional infantry divisions, each with a full establishment of Royal Field Artillery (RFA) brigades. Where there were no suitable artillery volunteer units in the region, these brigades had to be created from scratch. This was the case for the North Midland Division, for which a new III (or 3rd) Brigade was raised in Staffordshire with the following composition:Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 61–67.Conrad, British Army, 1914.Frederick, p. 680.Litchfield, pp. 211–212.46th (NM) Division at Long, Long Trail.Monthly Army List.Osborne, p. 1261.RFA Btys (TF) at Regimental Warpath.
III North Midland Brigade, RFA HQ at Riding School Drill Hall, Park Road East, WolverhamptonMacdonald, p. 6.Staffordshire at Great War Centenary Dill Halls. 4th Staffordshire Battery at Wolverhampton 5th Staffordshire Battery at Drill Hall, Carter's Green, West BromwichWest Bromwich at Drill Hall Project. 6th Staffordshire Battery at Friars' Walk drill hall, StaffordStafford at Drill Hall Project. III North Midland Ammunition Column at Wolverhampton
On the outbreak of World War I, the Commanding Officer (CO) was Lieutenant-Colonel C.C. Leveson-Gore, a retired Major in the Indian Army, appointed on 1 April 1909.
World War I
Mobilisation The order to mobilise was received on 4 August 1914. Shortly afterwards, the men were invited to volunteer for overseas service, and the majority having accepted this liability, the North Midland Division concentrated at Luton. In November it moved to the area round Bishop's Stortford where it completed its war training. At the time of mobilisation, the batteries of III North Midland Bde were each equipped with four 15-pounder guns.Farndale, p. 86.
The formation of reserve or 2nd Line TF units was authorised by the War Office on 31 August 1914. They began to form in September 1914 as a duplicate of the 1st: the units took a '2/' prefix to distinguish them from the 1st Line unit. The unit therefore became the 1/III and 2/III North Midland Brigade RFA (TF), the latter forming part of 2nd North Midland Division.Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 17–23.
1/III North Midland Brigade
The North Midland Division began embarking for France on 25 February 1915 and, by 8 March, had completed its concentration at Ploegsteert in Belgium – the first complete TF division to deploy to the Western Front with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). It was numbered the 46th (North Midland) Division shortly afterwards.MacDonald, p. 32.
Hooge Over the following months, the artillery supported the infantry in routine trench warfare in the Ypres Salient. On 19 July, the Royal Engineers exploded a mine under the German positions at Hooge, but the infantry of 3rd Division tasked with seizing the crater had not been given a supporting artillery fireplan. As the infantry were being driven out by German artillery, counter-battery fire from 46th Division's guns and other neighbouring artillery helped to rectify the situation. When the Germans attacked the Hooge crater with flamethrowers on 30 July, 139th (Sherwood Foresters) Brigade of 46th Division was able to stabilise the line with the help of the divisional artillery.Farndale, p. 113.MacDonald, pp. 33–35.
Hohenzollern Redoubt
46th Division's first offensive operation was the Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt. This was an attempt to restart the failed Battle of Loos, and the division was moved down from Ypres on 1 October for the purpose. The Germans recaptured the Hohenzollern trench system on 3 October, and the new attack was aimed at this point. The artillery bombardment (by the field guns of 46th and 28th Division, backed by heavy batteries) began at 12.00 on 13 October and the infantry went in at 14.00 behind a gas cloud. The attack was a disaster, most of the leading waves being cut down by machine gun and shell fire from German positions that had not been suppressed by the bombardment.Cherry, pp. 269–297.MacDonald, pp. 39–46.Rawson, pp. 120–128. 1/III NM Brigade was re-equipped with 18-pounder guns in November. On 23 December, the 46th (NM) Division was ordered to embark for Egypt. It entrained for Marseille, and some of the infantry had actually reached Egypt before the order was rescinded on 21 January 1916. The artillery returned from Marseille and the whole division reassembled on the Western Front near Amiens by 14 February.
Gommecourt On 1 May 1916, the division was ordered into the line facing Gommecourt in preparation for the forthcoming Somme Offensive. Over the first ten days of the month, the divisional artillery took over the existing battery positions along this front and began digging additional gun pits, observation posts (OPs) and dugouts to new designs.MacDonald, pp. 69, 80, 86. During this period, the field brigades of the BEF were reorganised. On 4 May 1916, an extra battery of four 18-pounders was formed and, on 13 May, the brigade was assigned a number as CCXXXII (232) Brigade, RFA, the batteries being redesignated A, B, C and D. Then, on 23 May, the new D Bty was exchanged for the former 2nd Derbyshire Howitzer Bty of CCXXXIII (4th NM) Bde, equipped with 4.5-inch howitzers, which became D (H) Bty. Lastly, the Brigade Ammunition Columns were merged into the Divisional Ammunition Column.Frederick, p. 692.MacDonald, pp. 86, 108.
Preparations were under way for the 46th and 56th (1st London) Divisions to carry out an Attack on the Gommecourt Salient as a diversion from the main offensive further south. 46th Division would attack from the north west, converging with 56th from the south west.Edmonds, pp. 456–462. On 18 June, 46th Divisional artillery was allocated its tasks for wire-cutting and registration of targets ahead of the attack. It was divided into two groups: CCXXXII and CCXXXI (2nd NM) Brigades formed the Left group, under the command of Lt-Col Sir Smith Hill Child, 2nd Baronet, of CCXXXI. This group supported the attack of 139th Brigade, which was to be made by two battalions (1/5th and 1/7th (Robin Hoods) Sherwood Foresters) over a frontage of 520 yards into an area of dead ground in front of Gommecourt Wood where the German wire entanglements could not be seen by artillery observers.MacDonald, pp. 165–168.
46th Division used a high proportion of its 18-pounder ammunition to bombard enemy trenches and lines of communication, and a smaller proportion (about 27 per cent) of shrapnel shells to cut the German wire. The results of this bombardment were patchy.MacDonald, pp. 208–209, 214–215, 277. The Germans reported that in this area their 'front trenches were levelled and the wire shot away' but their casualties had been few because of their deep dugouts, and when the attack went in on 1 July their men emerged to receive the attack with heavy machine-gun and rifle fire.Edmonds, 1916, pp. 474–475.
Apart from the wire-cutting batteries, the divisional artillery was under the direction of VII Corps during the preliminary bombardment, which began on 24 June, but at zero hour it reverted to divisional control. Once the infantry went 'over the top', the field guns were to make a series of short 'lifts', almost amounting to a 'creeping barrage'.Edmonds, pp. 460–461.Farndale, p. 147.MacDonald, pp 296. 302–3.
A final 'whirlwind' bombardment by all the guns began at 06.25 on 1 July and at zero hour (07.30) 139th Bde made its attack. The men broke into the first German trench and some parties reached the second, but overall the attack was a bloody failure, as was the whole Gommecourt action.Edmonds, 1916, pp. 467–468.MacDonald, pp. 358–417.Anon, Robin Hoods, pp. 202–207. Attempts to reinforce 139th Brigade during the afternoon broke down and the Germans retook the positions lost.Edmonds, 1916, pp. 469–470.MacDonald, pp. 418–463.
Reorganisation The Gommecourt attack had been a diversion, and it was not renewed after the first day's disaster. 46th Division remained in position while the Somme offensive continued further south throughout the summer and autumn.MacDonald, pp. 555–556. There was further reorganisation amongst divisional artillery, resulting in C Bty being broken up on 28 August 1916, with Right Section going to A Bty and Left Section to B Bty to bring them up to six guns each. On 27 October, 512 (H) Bty joined from England and became C (H) Bty. A final round of reorganisation came in the new year, when the brigade left 46th Division and became an Army Field Brigade. Before it left on 3 January 1917, the former 512 (H) Bty was broken up among the other North Midland brigades and was replaced by a battery from CCXLVII Brigade (of 49th (West Riding) Division, TF) that was also being broken up. At the same time a half-battery of howitzers came from the same brigade, although it had originally been a Kitchener's Army battery raised in Huddersfield. For the remainder of the war the brigade had the following organisation.Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 11–29.
A/CCXXXII (4th Staffordshire Bty + Right Section 6th Staffordshire Bty) 6 x 18-pdrs B/CCXXXII (5th Staffordshire Bty + Left Section 6th Staffordshire Bty) 6 x 18-pdrs C/CCXXXII (9th West Riding Bty + Section 8th West Riding Bty) 6 x 18-pdrs D (H)/CCXXXII (2nd Derbyshire Bty + Section from Huddersfield) 6 x 4.5-inch howitzers
The role of an Army Field Artillery (AFA) brigade was to reinforce sectors of the front as required, without breaking up divisional artilleries.Farndale, Annex D. CCXXXII Brigade actually remained with 46th Division in early 1917 (with just a few days attached to 58th (2/1st London) Division), including the period following up the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line (Operation Alberich). On 19 March, it was transferred to 14th (Light) Division on the same operations. Then, on 13 April, it joined 50th (Northumbrian) Division for the capture of Wancourt Ridge during the Arras Offensive. As the offensive continued, it switched to 15th (Scottish) Division for the capture of Guémappe (23 April) and then to 56th (1st London) Division for the Third Battle of the Scarpe (3–4 May).'Allocations of Army Brigades, RH & RFA', The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 95/5494/2.Becke, Pt 3a, pp. 51 60.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 100, 147.
Messines