Bolton Artillery

The Bolton Artillery, under various titles, has been a Volunteer unit of the British Army based in Bolton, Lancashire, since 1889. In World War I it served in Egypt and Gallipoli in 1915–17, and then on the Western Front for the rest of the war, including Passchendaele, the German Spring Offensive and the Allied Hundred Days Offensive. Just before the outbreak of World War II the regiment formed a duplicate unit. The parent regiment served in the Battle of France and was evacuated from Dunkirk. Both regiments served at the Battle of Alamein and in the Italian Campaign, while one of the regiments was involved in the intervention in Yugoslavia. The regiment was reformed postwar, and after a number of mergers its successors continue to serve in today's Army Reserve.

Volunteer Force

The 9th Lancashire Artillery Volunteers was raised in 1889 from Bolton personnel serving with the Blackburn-based 3rd Lancashire Artillery Volunteers. (In 1863 the 3rd Lancashire AV had absorbed an earlier 9th Lancashire AV raised at Kirkdale and the 18th Lancashire AV originally raised at Great Lever but which had relocated to Bolton).Frederick, p. 664.Lancashire Record Office Handlist 72
/ref>Litchfield & Westlake, pp. 107–13. The new unit formed part of the Lancashire Division of the Royal Artillery, then transferred to the Southern Division. Initially it had six batteries of garrison artillery, but it was soon converted to the new role of 'Position artillery', with three semi-mobile batteries to work alongside the Volunteer infantry brigades. Of the batteries, Nos 1 and 2 were based at Bolton, No 3 at Southport.Litchfield & Westlake, p. 6.''Army List'', various dates. The unit's first commanding officer (CO) was Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Winder, who had commanded the old 18th Lancashire AV and then served as second-in-command of the 3rd.

On 1 June 1899 all the Volunteer artillery units became part of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) and with the abolition of the divisional organisation on 1 January 1902, the unit became the 9th Lancashire Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers). From 1904 it was commanded by Lt-Col Robert Cecil Winder, son of the first CO. 'Position artillery' was redesignated 'heavy artillery' in May 1902.

Territorial Force

When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908, the unit became the III (or 3rd) East Lancashire Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, consisting of the 18th, 19th and 20th Lancashire Batteries and the III East Lancashire Brigade Ammunition Column (BAC). From March 1909 it was granted the subtitle 'The Bolton Artillery', alongside the Manchester Artillery (II East Lancs) and Cumberland Artillery (IV East Lancs). The brigade formed part of the TF's East Lancashire Division and was equipped with four 15-pounder field guns to each battery. On the outbreak of war the brigade was commanded by Lt-Col C.E. Walker, TD.Frederick, pp. 677, 689.Litchfield, pp. 119–20.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 35–41.42nd (EL) Division at Long, Long Trail.
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World War I

Mobilisation

Units of the East Lancashire Division had been on their annual training when war came: on 3 August they were recalled to their drill halls and at 17.30 next day the order to mobilise was received. The men were billeted close to their drill halls while the mobilisation process went on.

On 10 August, TF units were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service. The infantry brigades of the East Lancashire Division volunteered by 12 August and soon 90 per cent of the division had signed up. On 15 August 1914, the War Office issued instructions to separate those men who had opted for Home Service only, and form these into reserve units. On 31 August, the formation of a reserve or 2nd Line unit was authorised for each 1st Line unit where 60 per cent or more of the men had volunteered for Overseas Service. The titles of these 2nd Line units would be the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix and would absorb the flood of volunteers coming forwards. In this way duplicate batteries, brigades and divisions were created, mirroring those TF formations being sent overseas.

1/III East Lancashire Brigade

Egypt

On 20 August the East Lancashire Division moved into camps around Bolton, Bury and Rochdale, and on 5 September it received orders to go to Egypt to complete its training and relieve Regular units from the garrison for service on the Western Front. It embarked on a convoy of troopships from Southampton on 10 September, and landed at Alexandria on 25 September, the first complete TF division to go overseas. 1/III East Lancs Bde was commanded by Lt-Col Walker. Some units moved into the Suez Canal defences in October before war broke out with Turkey on 5 November. 1/III East Lancs Bde was sent to the Canal Zone on 20 January 1915 and its guns were concealed among trees on the west bank, with 1/18th Bty at Ferry Post, Ismailia, 1/19th at Serapeum West and 1/20th at El Ferdan. The Turks reconnoitred these positions on 2 February and 1/20th Bty at El Ferdan claimed the distinction of being the first battery of the division (and probably the first in the TF) to fire upon an enemy. 1/19th Battery under Major B.P. Dobson was also in action against skirmishing Turkish camel troops. In the early hours of 3 February the Turks attempted a crossing of the canal. 1/19th Battery hauled a 15-pdr through a wood to the canal bank and fired point-blank into the iron pontoons that the Turks were trying to launch. Another gun was hauled to a hill behind the wood and found good targets among the enemy approaching the canal. 1/18th Battery fired on enemy positions at ranges of to . The brigade's casualties were only five men wounded, four of these in 1/19th Bty. The Turks did not press home their attack and retired after Indian infantry counter-attacked. The brigade then resumed training.Gibbon, p. 243.

Gallipoli

On 1 May the division began embarking for the Gallipoli campaign. Only 24 of the division's guns were taken in the first lift; 1/III East Lancs Bde contributed 1/18th Bty. The guns began landing on 9 May at Cape Helles, where an assault landing had been carried out on 25 April and the division's infantry had already been in action for three days. The beachhead was so congested that only a few guns of 1/I East Lancs Bde got ashore while 1/18th Bty and the rest of the artillery was ordered to return to Egypt. The battery did not finally reach the peninsula until 27 July. On 7 August the division was called upon to make a diversionary attack against Krithia Vineyard to cover a new landing further up the coast. The bombardment, with British, French and naval guns contributing, began at 08.10 and increased in intensity at 09.00. Although the fire was accurate, the Turkish trenches suffered little damage. The infantry went forward at 09.40, wearing tin triangles on their backs so that the artillery observation posts (OPs) could track their progress. The attack was partially successful, the vineyard being captured, but casualties were heavy. However, the Turks had been pinned while the main attacks went ahead, and they in turn suffered heavy casualties in their counter-attacks.Aspinall-Oglander, pp. 392, 488.Farndale, ''Forgotten Fronts'', pp. 21, 39, 54.

After a short period in reserve, 42nd (EL) Division spent the following months engaged in Trench warfare, suffering from sickness, and then from bad weather as winter set in. 1/19th and 1/20th Batteries arrived at Helles on 24 September, but the BAC remained in Egypt. Between 27 and 31 December the exhausted infantry of 42nd (EL) Division were evacuated from Helles to Mudros, but the 42nd Divisional Artillery (42nd DA) stayed behind, supporting 13th (Western) Division. The last Turkish attack at Helles was beaten off on 7 January 1916, but a full evacuation was already under way. As 13th (W) Division's modern guns were withdrawn, they were replaced with the old ones of 42nd (EL) Division, so that fire was maintained without obvious slackening. Finally, those old guns that could not be got away were destroyed, and 13th (W) Division was evacuated to Mudros on the night of 8/9 January.

Egypt again

42nd (EL) Division was then sent from Mudros back to Egypt, the bulk of the RFA embarking on 14 January in a storm. The division concentrated at Mena Camp on 22 January before moving into southern sector of the Suez Canal defences. Once back in Egypt 1/III East Lancs Bde was reunited with its BAC and on 27 February 1916 was rearmed with modern 18-pounder guns handed over by 29th Division as it left for the Western Front. On 31 May 1916 1/III East Lancs Bde was numbered CCXII (212) Brigade, RFA, and the batteries were designated A, B and C.

The canal defences were now situated east of the waterway, with a string of self-contained posts, each garrisoned by an infantry battalion and an artillery battery. The division did much of the construction and then trained in the desert, the gunners carrying out field firing with their new guns. The gun wheels were fitted with 'ped-rails' to assist movement across soft sand, for which 12 rather than 6 horses were harnessed to gun-carriages and limbers. In late July the division was ordered north, where a Turkish force was advancing on the defences. On 30 July mobile columns were ordered forward, and one of these was formed by 127th (Manchester) Brigade accompanied by A Bty of CCXII Bde, which moved up to Hill 70. The Turkish force was defeated at the Battle of Romani near Pelusium on 4–5 August, after which 127th Bde set off in pursuit. The men and horses suffered badly from lack of water, A Bty struggling to keep up with the advance, but it finally came into action and the retreating Turks lost heavily. The division then returned to the Romani and Pelusium area by 15 August, the bulk of the artillery and ammunition columns at Kantara and Ballah, but with A/CCXII Bty at Romani.

For the next few months the division was part of the Desert Column covering the extension of the railway and water pipeline into the Sinai Desert to permit the Egyptian Expeditionary Force to mount an offensive into Palestine. The head of the Desert Column reached El Arish, near the Palestine frontier, on 22 December. On 25 December 1916 CCXII Bde was redesignated CCXI (211) Brigade, exchanging numbers with the former 1/II East Lancs (Manchester Artillery) Bde, which was broken up shortly afterwards. At the same time the Bolton brigade was reorganised: C Bty was split between A and B to bring them up to six guns each and A (Howitzer) Bty joined from CCXIII Bde (formerly 1/1st Cumberland (H) Bty in IV East Lancashire Howitzer Brigade (The Cumberland Artillery)) and became C (H) Bty, equipped with 4.5-inch howitzers. On 10 February 1917 C (H) Bty was redesignated D (H), and B/CCXII Bty joined as C Bty.

On 28 January 1917, after the division reached El Arish, orders arrived for it to be sent to the Western Front. By 12 February the division had withdrawn to Moascar, and on 22 February the division began embarking at Alexandria for Marseille.

France and Flanders

On 7 March trains from Marseille brought CCXI Bde to 42nd (EL) Lancashire Division's concentration point at Pont-Remy, near Abbeville. The Divisional Ammunition Column (DAC) had been left in Egypt (becoming the DAC for 74th (Yeomanry) Division) and on arrival in France, the BACs were abolished (this had been done long before in divisions on the Western Front) to reform a new 42nd DAC, to which CCXI BAC contributed No 2 Section, the rest of the men joining the batteries. The batteries drew their guns from the ordnance store and began training. An advance party from Egypt had already served some time in the line attached to units of 1st Division for familiarisation.211 Bde RFA War Diary March 1917–March 1919, The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 95/2649/2.
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From 8 April 42nd (EL) division moved into the line around Épehy in the Somme sector, which had just been abandoned by the Germans as they withdrew to the Hindenburg Line. It began taking over a sector from 48th (South Midland) Division, and CCXI Bde's batteries were attached to that formation for familiarisation. A considerable amount of work had to be done to repair the roads and prepare new positions. The artillery also supported small attacks to capture Hindenburg Line outposts, such as one on The Knoll and Guillemont Farm on 24 April, when Lt-Col Walker had tactical command of his own C Bty and one from 48th (SM) Division. 42nd DA then relieved 20th (Light) Division's artillery at Havrincourt Wood on 23 May.

D (H) Battery was finally made up to six howitzers on 19 June 1917 when a section joined from C (H) of CCXCVIII Bde in 59th (2nd North Midland) Division (this was a Kitchener's Army unit, originally 3 (H)/LIX Bty, from 11th (Northern) Division). The brigade's final organisation, therefore, was as follows:
* A Bty (1/18th Lancashire Bty + half 1/20th Lancashire Bty) – 6 x 18-pdr
* B Bty (1/19th Lancashire Bty + half 1/20th Lancashire Bty) – 6 x 18-pdr
* C Bty (1/17th Lancashire Bty + half 1/16th Lancashire Bty) – 6 x 18-pdr
* D (H) Bty (1/1st Cumberland (H) Bty + section C (H)/CCXCVIII Bty) – 6 x 4.5-inch

On 8 July 42nd (EL) Division was relieved by 58th (2/1st London) Division but the artillery remained at Havrincourt to support the newcomers, and later 9th (Scottish) Division when it took over the sector from the 58th. Its role was to fire concentrations into the enemy's rear areas at night, particularly on roads, patrol paths and where reliefs were suspected of being carried out, and to engage enemy batteries by day. Single guns were posted in camouflaged to carry out this fire, to avoid retaliation on battery positions; the brigade established seven of these, known as 'pirates'.

After the infantry of 42nd (EL) Division had completed their rest period the division was sent to the Ypres Salient where the Third Ypres Offensive was under way. CCXI Brigade marched back to Péronne on 25 August, where it entrained for Godeswersvelde and then marched to Watou. On 29 August it took over positions at Potijze Chateau east of Ypres. Here Lt-Col Walker assumed command of the Right Subgroup, comprising both brigades of 42nd DA and 14th Australian Field Artillery Bde. The salient was packed with guns and the 18-pdrs stood almost wheel to wheel in mud just behind the front line infantry, with the 4.5s in groups, also close to the front line. The subgroup was engaged in a continuous bombardment of German positions south of Zevenkote. On 6 September 125th (Lancashire Fusiliers) Brigade carried out a limited operation behind a Creeping barrage to capture strongpoints around Borry Farm. This failed, though the guns drove off German counter-attacks. Casualties were heavy on the gun positions from enemy counter-battery (CB) fire and among the drivers bringing ammunition up shell-swept roads at night. On 7 September Gunner S. Hardcastle of B Bty left cover to rescue a wounded comrade under heavy shelling, and three days later he ran across to extinguish a fire in an adjacent battery's ammunition dump. The division was withdrawn to the Flanders coast on 20 September, but once again 42nd DA remained in the line, supporting V Corps's successful attack at the Battle of the Menin Road Ridge on 20 September, then moving up onto Frezenberg Ridge on 25 September to prepare for next day's Battle of Polygon Wood. The artillery engagements were intense, and it was not unusual for a battery to fire 5000 rounds in a day. The gunners suffered heavy casualties from gas shelling: during September CCXI Bde suffered casualties of 2 officers and 7 other ranks (ORs) killed, 3 officers and 40 ORs wounded, and 4 officers and 76 ORs gassed, including Lt-Col Walker who was gassed and evacuated on 9 September. Lieutenant-Col E.J. Inches arrived on 18 September to take over command.

CCXI Brigade was relieved in the line over the nights of 28/29 and 29/30 September and marched to join the infantry of 42nd (EL) Division in the line near Nieuport on the Flanders Coast. On the nights of 2/3 and 3/4 October relieved CCCXXXI Bde (formerly 2/II East Lancs Bde) of 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division. Earlier in the year British troops had been concentrated here for a planned thrust up the coast, but with the Ypres offensive bogged down this operation had been abandoned. However, German artillery and aircraft were very active, shelling and bombing the British gun positions and canal crossings. When Major-General Arthur Solly-Flood took command of the division in October he instituted an improved system of retaliatory fire, known as 'Punishment Fire'. When the Germans began a heavy bombardment while the division was being relieved by French troops on 19 November, the Punishment Fire silenced the German guns in 20 minutes.La Bassée