1st Siege Artillery Battery was formed in Victoria during April 1915. The battery departed Melbourne on 17 July 1915 and served on the Western Front during World War I. The battery along with the 2nd Siege Artillery Battery made up the 1st Siege Artillery Brigade. 1st Siege Artillery Battery was renamed the 54th Siege Artillery Battery on 28 September 1915. The battery was equipped first with four 8 inch howitzers and then 6 from July 1917. In March 1918 the battery was assigned to the Australian Corps Heavy Artillery and resumed its original title.
The Western Front was the main theatre of war during the First World War. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France, which changed little except during early 1917 and in 1918.
World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the resulting 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.
The Australian Corps was a World War I army corps that contained all five Australian infantry divisions serving on the Western Front. It was the largest corps fielded by the British Empire in France. At its peak the Australian Corps numbered 109,881 men. By 1918 the headquarters consisted of more than 300 personnel of all ranks, including senior staff officers, as well as supporting personnel such as clerks, drivers and batmen. Formed on 1 November 1917, the corps replaced I Anzac Corps while II Anzac Corps, which contained the New Zealand Division, became the British XXII Corps. While its structure varied it usually included 4–5 infantry divisions, corps artillery and heavy artillery, a corps flying squadron and captive balloon sections, anti-aircraft batteries, corps engineers, corps mounted troops, ordnance workshops, medical and dental units, transport, salvage and an employment company.
The BL 8-inch howitzer Marks VI, VII and VIII were a series of British artillery siege howitzers on mobile carriages of a new design introduced in World War I. They were designed by Vickers in Britain and produced by all four British artillery manufacturers, but mainly by Armstrong, and one American company. They were the equivalents of the German 21 cm Morser 16 and in British service were used similarly to the BL 9.2-inch howitzer, but were quicker to manufacture, and more mobile. They delivered a 200 lb shell to 12,300 yards. They had limited service in the British Army in World War II before being converted to the new 7.2-inch calibre. They also equipped a small number of Australian and Canadian batteries in World War I and by the US Army in that war. They were used in small numbers by other European armies.
The Ordnance BL 6 inch 26cwt howitzer was a British howitzer used during World War I and World War II. The qualifier "26cwt" refers to the weight of the barrel and breech together which weighed 26 long hundredweight (1.3 t).
2nd Siege Artillery Battery was formed in Victoria during April 1915. The battery departed Melbourne on 17 July 1915 and served on the Western Front during World War I. The battery along with the 1st Siege Artillery Battery made up the 1st Siege Artillery Brigade. 2nd Siege Artillery Battery was renamed the 55th Siege Artillery Battery on 28 September 1915. The battery was equipped first with four BL 9.2 inch Howitzers and then 6 from July 1917. In March 1918 the battery was assigned to the Australian Corps Heavy Artillery and resumed its original title.
The Ordnance BL 6 inch 30cwt howitzer was a British medium howitzer used in the Second Boer War and early in World War I. The qualifier "30cwt" refers to the weight of the barrel and breech together which weighed 30 hundredweight (cwt) : 30 x 112 lb = 3360 lb. It can be identified by the slightly flared shape of the muzzle and large recuperator springs below the barrel.
The Ordnance BL 9.2-inch howitzer was a heavy siege howitzer that formed the principal counter-battery equipment of British forces in France in World War I. It equipped a substantial number of siege batteries of the Royal Garrison Artillery. It remained in service until about the middle of World War II.
The Ordnance BL 15-inch howitzer was developed by the Coventry Ordnance Works late in 1914 in response to the success of its design of the 9.2-inch siege howitzer.
The 359th Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) raised during World War I. It manned heavy railway howitzers on the Western Front in 1917 and 1918,
The West Riding Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery was a part-time unit of Britain's Territorial Force formed in 1908 in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It fought on the Western Front during World War I, and served on in the Territorial Army until the eve of World War II.
The 1st Hull Heavy Battery was a unit of the British Army in World War I recruited from Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It was the first unit of the Royal Garrison Artillery raised for 'Kitchener's Army' and it went on to serve as a howitzer battery in the East African Campaign and as a siege battery on the Western Front.
The 96th Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) raised during World War I. It manned heavy howitzers on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918, beginning with the Attack on the Gommecourt Salient on the First day on the Somme.
The 172nd Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) raised during World War I. It manned heavy howitzers on the Western Front and Italian Front from 1916 to 1918.
105th Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery formed during World War I. It served on both the Western Front, including the Battles of the Somme, Arras and Passchendaele, and the Italian Front, where it participated in the repulse of the Austrian Summer Offensive of 1918 and the crushing victory at Vittorio Veneto.
68th Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) formed in Wales during World War I. It served on the Western Front, including the Battles of the Somme and Passchendaele, and the crushing victories of the Allied Hundred Days Offensive in 1918.
171st Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) formed during World War I. It served on both the Western Front, including the Battles of Arras and Passchendaele, and the Italian Front, where it participated in the repulse of the Austrian Summer Offensive of 1918 and the crushing victory at Vittorio Veneto.
110th Siege Battery was a heavy howitzer unit of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) formed during World War I. It saw active service on the Western Front at the Somme and Cambrai, against the German Spring Offensive, and in the final Hundred Days Offensive.
The Forth Royal Garrison Artillery and its successors were Scottish part-time coast defence units of the British Army from 1908 to 1956. Although they saw no active service, they supplied trained gunners to siege batteries engaged on the Western Front during World War I.
174th Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) formed during World War I. It served on the Western Front, including the Battles of Arras, Messines and Passchendaele, and the crushing victories of the Allied Hundred Days Offensive in 1918.
The 134th (Cornwall) Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, was a howitzer battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) formed during World War I from a coast defence unit of the Territorial Force in Cornwall. It served in the East African Campaign in 1916–17.
93rd Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) formed during World War I. It served on the Western Front, including the Attack on the Gommecourt Salient, the Battle of Passchendaele, and the crushing victories of the Allied Hundred Days Offensive in 1918.
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