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Remembered Today:

14th Siege Battery RGA


Chris_Baker

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I would like to understand the movements of 14th Siege Battery RGA from the time they landed in France. There is no war diary at the NA, so their story will need to be compiled from the Official History, Farndale, etc ...unless someone already knows...so please help!

For info: It moved to France in April 1916 and remained on the Western Front for the rest of the war, at times changing formations (in succession it moved in May 1916 to 16th Heavy Artillery Group, July 1916 to 36th Heavy Artillery Group, January 1917 to 70th Heavy Artillery Group, April 1917 to 6th Heavy Artillery Group, May 1917 to 64th Heavy Artillery Group, October 1917 to 89th Heavy Artillery Group and finally on 20 October 1917 it joined 79th Heavy Artillery Group with which it then remained).

For anyone searching on this unit: there is an excellent existing discussion thread covering the Battery's service in Gallipoli.

Thanks in advance

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Chris: Nothing in Farnsdale on the 14th Siege Battery and I know of no unit history that covers their service in France. The best way to get the information you seek is to check the War Diaries for the HAGs under which the 14th Siege Battery served. Regards. Dick Flory

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70 HAG is listed on the Order of Battle of the Canadian Corps and Attached Troops 9th April, 1917. It must therefore have been part of the artillery operation for the Vimy show; that is, March through mid April. After a quick browse I could not see any references to individual units in the Vimy documents, but that does not mean they do not exist.

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  • 1 year later...
Chris:  Nothing in Farnsdale on the 14th Siege Battery and I know of no unit history that covers their service in France.  The best way to get the information you seek is to check the War Diaries for the HAGs under which the 14th Siege Battery served.  Regards.  Dick Flory

I'm a new member also trying to find the movements of the 14th siege battery in France. I have tried to get the war diaries of the HAGs from the NA (WO95/5494) bt they're missing at the moment, any other ideas?

Also any idea where I can get the book "Under the Barrage/The Story of a Siege Battery"?

Thanks

Gary

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If you are realy desperate you can browse the diaries of the Commander, Royal Artillery, Canadian Corps. For example, here you can see the 14th Siege Battery listed on a location statement for August 3, 1917. There may also be references in the diary of the Canadian Corps Heavy Artillery. It might not be much, but it is available for the price of a few hours of time.

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Chris,

Not exactly what you need to hear, but you can add - 14th(Siege)Bty,R.G.A. formed in Weymouth 16/12/1914 and was disbanded 11/10/1919 at Sandling.

On 16/6/1917 sections of 348th(Siege)Bty,R.G.A. joined 14th & 28th(Siege)Bty's,R.G.A.

In Novemeber 1918 14th(Siege)Bty,R.G.A. were serving as Army Troops with 79th(Mixed)Brigade,R.G.A.: The 79th(Mixed)Bde,R.G.A. consisted of the following units;-

142nd(Durham)Heavy Bty,R.G.A. - (6x 60pdr guns).

1/1st(Essex)Heavy Bty,R.G.A. - (6x 60pdr guns).

14th(Siege)Bty,R.G.A. - (6x 6inch Howitzers).

174th(Siege)Bty,R.G.A. - (6x 6inch Howitzers).

145th(Siege)Bty,R.G.A. - (6x 6inch Howitzers).

185th(Siege)Bty,R.G.A. - (6x 9.2inch Howitzers).

Graham.

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Thanks Graham,

Your dates for the 14th Siege Battery seem to match my grandfathers service (6/6/1914-22/11/19).

Its not an easy task tracing them, they seem to move from HAG to HAG, sometimes only spending a few weeks in each group. Do you know of any other way of tracing the 14th without trying to track all the info for each HAG?

Thanks

Gary

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I'd be grateful for any info on this unit - and the action this soldier was probably killed in:

C E M ESSENHIGH

Gunner

115440

14th Siege Bty. Royal Garrison Artillery

Cemetery: HANGARD COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION

Country: France

Locality: Somme

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Chris

I have a couple of snippetts from 11 Corps HA diary covering April - July 1918.

11 Corps were the centre Corps of the 1st Army with 15 Corps to the left and 1 Corps to the right. The 1st Army front running roughly from north of Bethune in an arc to the Forrest of Nieppe. On the 1 July the reconstituted 5th Army is fitted into the line between the 1st and 2nd Armies. 15 Corps was moved into 2nd Army.

14 SB/ 79 HA Bde move from 11 corps to 15 corps/ 1st to 2nd Armies at this time. Apart from reading the Hag diaries 15 corps HA diary is the only one I can suggest looking at.

In June the diary mentions batteries moving into their operation BOARDERLAND positions. It doesn't mean much to me but you may know what this op. was.

X1 Corps diary

30th May 1918

"A German CB map was captured which showed the accurate location of 14 SB (rear section)

142 HB (forward section) 99 SB (forward) 329 SB (forward) 44 SB & 53 SB

Hostile artillery was normally active except about 21st which coincided with the attack on the R. AIsne"

post-6041-1126966576.jpg

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  • 11 years later...

This may be a tad late to join the discussion (ie 11 years!) however I am desperately looking for info on where the 14th SB were in May/June 1918 - My G Grandfather served with them and received the DCM at this time - while in the Nieppe forest.  I tried the diaries at Kew and copious searches online with no luck and just wondered if anyone had any idea what the 14th were involved with at this time? whist I know he was in the Nieppe forest, I'd like to know more about what they were doing etc .  Any help greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Catherine

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Hi Catherine,

As mentioned above, 14 SB were in 79 Heavy Artillery Group from 20/10/1917.

Although there doesn't seem to be a war diary  specifically for 14 SB, there is one for 79 HAG, which can be downloaded from the

National Archive for £3.45 Here

 

This diary might (or might not) give the location of the Brigade (HAG) HQ throughout the period in question, and if you're really lucky, it might give the location of the 6-10 or so batteries that comprised the HAG. It almost certainly won't name  individual soldiers unless they were medal winners- so maybe...

 

The diary is however unlikely to give a detailed strategic overview of the action they were involved in.

It might list individual targets, but it won't say why they were attacking them, or what the Corps and Army they belonged to were doing in the bigger picture. For that , you'd need to look at Corps Heavy Artillery diaries.

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Catherine,

I think you may have a job finding it so:

half of the battery guns were at Clebert Wood by the Nieppe Canal (36a NE J5c.20.10) but the position you most likely require for J Burke according to his citation is (36a NE J12c.39.50) in Nieppe Woods  where the rest of the battery guns were (above the Great Oak) 

http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A4335/-/collection

Rgds Paul

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Thank you both very much - I will have a good look at both links.  I am planning a trip next year to the area,  as my other G Grandfather died on 25/4/1918 while serving nearby with the MGC. I am very lucky to have found his service records intact and the relevant war diaries for the day he died  - am just plotting the map coordinates.

Whilst we are there I would like to visit the Nieppe Forest.  Sadly I have very little information on this side of my research as the service records for J Burke have not survived.

It seems a weird coincidence that both my G Grandfathers were so very close to each other and the connection between their children (my grandparents) was still over 20 years away.

Much appreciated

Catherine

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  • 5 years later...

Thanks for all the info on this chat and those that have posted. 

I have just come across this today as I have started the long journey to find out more about my Great Grandfathers service during WW1

He was Gunner 115440 Charles Edward Maurice Essenhigh who died 3rd September 1918, and is mentioned above in one of the posts. If anyone every traced the story further of 14th Siege Battery in particular towards the end of August 1918 I would love to know more.

Many thanks ,

Graham

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Hi Graham,

The service file for your Great Grandfather exists. It is currently available to view/download from Findmypast (link). The 'headline' page shows:

image.png.34f981a2099dee84d9ba6dd3062078fb.png
Image sourced from Findmypast

The 'concentration' sheets in his CWGC records indicate that he was originally buried at map reference 66e.K.7.b.9.9 Sites such as Tmapper will show you where that was. If you would like one, it seems that British War Graves would be able to send you a decent quality image of his currenting place, on a free of charge basis. 

For a small fee, a low resolution B&W scanned image of what was accepted as being his Will is available from here. It might only consist of a very few words though, and tell you very little.

image.png.a9ebc395ef7173eb1666e305f36a9035.png

Regards
Chris

 

 

Edited by clk
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Thanks for that Chris,

I suspect the level of detail i'm trying to find doesn't exist. I can see that he died from wounds in a French Hospital on the document you've kindly attached. I have also today found that he was initially buried in Le Quesnel Chateau Cemetry then finally transferred to The Hangard Communal Cemetry as his final resting place. 

Some time ago i stumbled across an officers diary or a news clipping somewhere online (can't remember where) that commented on the events of the day he was wounded. I'm trying to get to that level of detail if possible, the rough location of the unit and the detail of that day's battle, but don't know which direction to head off in to find it again.

Cheers,

Gra

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