Mobilisation On the outbreak of war, the Dorsetshire RGA mobilised in Southern Coast Defences under the command of
Major M.J. Raymond. By October 1914, the campaign on the
Western Front was bogging down into
Trench warfare and there was an urgent need for batteries of
Siege artillery to be sent to France. The WO decided that the TF coastal gunners were well enough trained to take over many of the duties in the coastal defences, releasing Regular RGA gunners for service in the field, and 1st line RGA companies that had volunteered for overseas service had been authorised to increase their strength by 50 per cent. Although complete defended ports units never left the UK, they did supply drafts of trained gunners to RGA units serving overseas. They also provided
cadres as the basis on which to form complete new units for front line service.
52nd Siege Battery, RGA, was formed on 30 July 1915 at Weymouth with a nucleus from the Dorsetshire RGA. Equipped with two
12-inch howitzers on railway mountings it went out to the Western Front in December 1915 and served there for the rest of the war, latterly supporting
First Army. Similarly, the cadres of 123rd and 174th Siege Batteries formed in 1916 (
see below) were provided by the Dorsetshire RGA, while a large number of other siege batteries formed at Portland (87th, 116th, 129th, 136th, 145th, 177th, 183rd, 209th, 216th, 241st, 277th, 285th, 305th) and Weymouth (106th, 111th, 200th, 226th, 249th, 291st, 304th) may have included trained men from the unit among the recruits, although the Army Council Instructions did not specifically order this. Under Army Council Instruction 686 of April 1917, the coastal defence companies of the RGA (TF) were reorganised. The Dorsetshire RGA serving in the Portland garrison was reduced from six to just two companies, which were to be kept up to strength with non-TF recruits. In April 1918 the Portland Garrison comprised the following batteries (manned by the two Dorsetshire RGA companies and Nos 16, 28 and 30 Companies, RGA) under the control of No 5 Coastal Fire Command: •
Blacknor Battery – 2 × 9.2-inch Mk X guns •
East Weare Battery – 2 × 9.2-inch Mk X •
Breakwater Fort Top – 2 × 12-pdr QF guns • Breakwater Fort Jetty – 2 × 12-pdr QF • New Breakwater Pier A – 2 × 12-pdr QF • New Breakwater Pier B – 3 × 12-pdr QF • New Breakwater Pier C – 1 × 6-inch Mk VII gun • Upton Battery – 2 × 9.2-inch Mk X These defences never saw action during the war.
123rd Siege Battery 123rd Siege Battery, RGA, was raised at Portland on 22 March 1916 under Army Council Instruction 701 of 31 March 1916 with a cadre of 3 officers and 78 other ranks from the Dorsetshire RGA. It went out to the Western Front on 18 July 1916, manning four
6-inch howitzers, and joined
Third Army. Third Army was not engaged in any major operations during the second half of 1916, so this was a relatively quiet sector of the front. 123rd Siege Bty was assigned to 47th Heavy Artillery Group (HAG) but the policy was to transfer siege batteries from one HAG to another as the situation demanded, and 123rd regularly switched between 8th and 46th HAGs with Third Army during the winter of 1916–17.
1917 123rd Siege Bty served with Third Army at the
Battle of Arras and then in July it moved to
Fifth Army, whose heavy guns were engaged in a long artillery duel with the Germans in preparation for the
Third Ypres Offensive. Slowly the British got the upper hand, and a large proportion of German guns were out of action when the infantry attacked on 31 July. However, the offensive bogged down through the summer and autumn of 1917. 123rd Siege Bty was joined by a section from the newly-arrived 414th Siege Bty in August, in preparation for bringing the battery up to a strength of six 6-inch howitzers; however it does not appear that the additional guns arrived until 19 February 1918. On 13 November, the battery was transferred to 88th HAG; by now HAG allocations were becoming more fixed and, in December, the 88th was converted into a permanent RGA brigade. 123rd Siege Bty stayed with it until the Armistice a year later. 88th Brigade and 123rd Siege Bty were with Third Army for its surprise attack with tanks at the
Battle of Cambrai.
1918 When the
German spring offensive opened on 21 March 1918, 88th Bde was ordered to move to assist the hard-pressed
VI Corps. Over the next two weeks, VI Corps and Third Army fought a series of rearguard actions through the 'Great Retreat'. 88th Brigade was still with VI Corps when Third Army joined in the Allied
Hundred Days Offensive at the
Battle of Albert on 23 August. The artillery barrage was very good and the infantry were on their objective less than an hour after Zero. This was followed by the Battles of the
Scarpe (28 August), the
Drocourt-Quéant Switch Line (2 September),
Épehy (18 September), the
Canal du Nord (28 September) and the
Second Battle of Cambrai (8 October). The battery's last major operation was the
Battle of the Selle on 20 October. By the beginning of November 88th Bde was standing by for further operations, but the enemy was retiring so rapidly that it was difficult to get heavy guns forward into range. The brigade's batteries hardly fired another shot before the
Armistice with Germany came into force on 11 November. It went out to the Western Front in October 1916, equipped with four
6-inch howitzers, and soon joined Fifth Army which was engaged in the final stages of the
Somme Offensive. Like 123rd Siege Bty, 174th regularly switched between 8th and 46th HAGs during the winter of 1916–17. 174th Siege Bty took part in the Battle of Arras (
see above) in April 1917. Next, 174th Siege Bty moved to Fifth Army for the opening of the Third Ypres Offensive (
see above). An even greater concentration of guns was massed than for Messines, but the circumstances were less favourable. Gun batteries were packed into the Ypres Salient where they were under observation and CB fire from the Germans on the higher ground: casualties among guns and gunners were high. 174th Siege Bty was rested from 19 August to 4 September before returning for the final attacks. After the Passchendaele fighting the battery joined 79th HAG, which became a permanent RGA brigade the following February; 174th Siege Bty remained with it until the Armistice. The battery was joined by a section from the newly-formed 448th Siege Bty on 16 February, bringing it up to a strength of six howitzers. 79th Brigade had shifted to
First Army by 1 May, and on 28 June it supported
XI Corps in Operation Borderland, a limited counter-attack on La Becque and other fortified farms in front of the Forest of Nieppe, in what was described as 'a model operation' for artillery cooperation. 79th Brigade joined Fourth Army on 18 August, soon after the beginning of the final Hundred Days Offensive. IX Corps continued to attack, at the Beaurevoir Line on 8 October, and the
River Selle on 17 October. The first day of the battle went well, one German counter-attack being broken up when all available guns were turned onto it. Steady progress was also made on the second and third days as Fourth Army closed up to the
Sambre Canal. IX Corps renewed its advance on 23 October, with 79th Bde part of a massive corps artillery reserve. As the regimental historian relates, 'The guns of Fourth Army demonstrated, on 23 October, the crushing effect of well co-ordinated massed artillery. they simply swept away the opposition'. After a pause to regroup and reconnoitre, IX Corps stormed across the canal on 4 November (the
Battle of the Sambre). After that the campaign became a pursuit of a beaten enemy until the Armistice, in which the slow-moving siege guns could play no part. 174th Siege Battery was disbanded in 1919. ==Interwar==