23rd Brigade Royal Field Artillery

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XXIII Brigade, Royal Field Artillery was a brigade [lower-alpha 1] of the Royal Field Artillery which served in the First World War.

Royal Field Artillery unit of the British Army from 1899 to 1924

The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, and was re-amalgamated back into the regiment proper, along with the Royal Garrison Artillery, in 1924. The Royal Field Artillery was the largest arm of the artillery. It was responsible for the medium calibre guns and howitzers deployed close to the front line and was reasonably mobile. It was organised into brigades, attached to divisions or higher formations.

Contents

It was originally formed with 107th, 108th and 109th Batteries, and attached to 3rd Division. In August 1914 it mobilised and was sent to the Continent with the British Expeditionary Force, where it saw service with 3rd Division until 1917. [3] 109th Battery left the brigade in mid-1916 to join CCLXXXI Brigade in 56th (London) Division. [4]

The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the British Army sent to the Western Front during the First World War. Planning for a British Expeditionary Force began with the Haldane reforms of the British Army carried out by the Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following the Second Boer War (1899–1902).

The 3rd Kent Artillery Volunteers was a unit of the British Volunteer Force from 1860 to 1920. Originally raised from the workers of Woolwich Arsenal, near London, it later became a London unit of the Territorial Force and served on the Western Front. during World War I.

In 1917 it was withdrawn from 3rd Division, to operate under higher unit control, and served out the rest of the war in this role.

Notes

  1. The basic organic unit of the Royal Artillery was, and is, the Battery. [1] 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 World War I, a field artillery brigade of headquarters (4 officers, 37 other ranks), three batteries (5 and 193 each), and a brigade ammunition column (4 and 154) [2] 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. Artillery brigades were redesignated as regiments in 1938.

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References

  1. "The Royal Artillery". Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom). Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  2. Baker, Chris. "What was an artillery brigade?". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  3. Becke Pt 1, pp. 49–55.
  4. Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 141–7.

Sources

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