Formation The basic organic unit of the
Royal Artillery was, and is, the
battery. Prior to May 1938, when grouped together they formed brigades, in the same way that
infantry battalions or
cavalry regiments were grouped together in brigades. At the outbreak of the
First World War, a field artillery brigade of
headquarters (four officers, 37
other ranks), three batteries (five and 193 each), and a brigade
ammunition column (four and 154) had a total strength just under 800 so was broadly comparable to an infantry battalion (just over 1,000) or a cavalry regiment (about 550). Like an infantry battalion, an artillery brigade was usually commanded by a
Lieutenant-Colonel. After May 1938, brigades were redesignated as regiments and on 27 August 1938,
III Brigade Royal Horse Artillery at
Abbassia, Egypt was redesignated as
3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery. Also in 1938, artillery brigades were reorganized from three six-gun batteries to two 12-gun batteries. Rather than disband existing batteries, they were instead linked in pairs. As a result,
D and
J Batteries formed D/J Battery on 11 May 1938 and
M and
P Batteries were linked as M/P Battery on the same date. This was the regiment's structure on formation but in the event the batteries were unlinked within months (in September 1939) and the regiment operated with four batteries.
Second World War . By the outbreak of the
Second World War, the regiment was still in Egypt and on 16 October 1939 was assigned to Headquarters Royal Artillery Group (Middle East Reserve) as an anti-tank regiment armed with
2 pounder guns. M Battery, however, was permanently attached to the
Armoured Division (Egypt) (later the 7th Armoured Division, the "Desert Rats"). In March 1941, P Battery left the regiment to join
6th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery in the United Kingdom. On 1 March 1941, the regiment joined M Battery in
7th Support Group and all three batteries were redesignated as anti-tank.notably the
Battle of Sidi Rezegh where Second Lieutenant
George Ward Gunn (J Battery) earned the
Victoria Cross for his bravery during an attack by 60 German Tanks. On 26 April 1954, J Battery was awarded the Honour Title "Sidi Rezegh" in recognition of this action. The regiment was rearmed with
25 pounders after Sidi Rezegh, and the batteries were redesignated as field artillery on 8 September 1942. It then took part in the
Tunisian campaign including the Battles of
Medenine (6 March 1943),
Mareth (1623 March),
Akarit (6 and 7 April),
Enfidaville (1929 April), and
Tunis (512 May). It next took part in the
Italian campaign: the
Salerno Landings (918 September 1943), the
Capture of Naples (22 September1 October), and the
Volturno Crossing (1215 October). In 1958, C Battery joined the regiment, and M Battery was placed in suspended animation. By 1975, M Battery was revived. In 1976, the regiment completed another tour of Northern Ireland, as part of
Operation Banner and later in 1978, the regiment was placed in suspended animation with batteries became independent
anti-tank batteries. By 1984, the regiment was reformed in
Paderborn,
Germany. M Battery was once again placed in suspended animation. The regiment also served in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. In December 2000 D Battery deployed as part of
NATO's
KFOR to Kosovo on Op Agricola. Under
Army 2020, the regiment will provide force support to the Adaptable Force. In 2013 it re-roled from
AS-90s to
L118 Light Guns. From 1 March 2015 to 1 July 2022, the
105th Regiment Royal Artillery was paired with this regiment. From 2020 to 2022, the Regiment deployed as part of the
NATO Enhanced Forward Presence on
Operation Cabrit (Poland and Estonia). Under the
Future Soldier Programme, the regiment merged with the
3rd Deep Reconnaissance Strike Brigade (a merger of
1st Armoured Infantry Brigade and
1st Artillery Brigade) in 1 July 2022. In March 2023, the regiment re-roled to the Deep Fires role losing its
L118 Light guns and replaced them with new
M270 MLR Systems. Two batteries (C & D) re-equipped with the M270, while J (Sidi Rezegh) Battery became the headquarters battery and M Battery was placed in suspended animation. ==Batteries==