hawksworth Posted 12 November , 2008 Share Posted 12 November , 2008 My late father, was a Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve Sick Berth Steward attached to the RN Siege Guns near Nieuport from 1916 to 1918. That is about all I know, except for some very faded sepia photos, unfortunately without captions. As a child I remember something about "a 9.2 cruiser gun mounted on a railway, and Germans replying to their fire from a gun on Ostend racecourse" On one occasion he narrowly escaped when a German shell hit the barrel of his gun and one of the photos shows the bent barrel and wrecked emplacement. I would like to research more about these guns (particulary his) but can not find any references to them. Can anyone out there point me in the correct direction, please? His bravery under fire was recognised by two letters signed by the G.O.C. XVth Corps (19 March 1917 and August 1917) a Lieutenant General J P Du Cane. This might help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essdee Posted 13 November , 2008 Share Posted 13 November , 2008 The Naval Siege Guns ( Long Range Gun Group ) of XV Corps HA during Aug'17 consisted of :- Railway Mountings -- 9.2 Gun Barrington -- 9.2 Gun Eastney -- 9.2 Gun Carnac -- 9.2 Gun (2) Diana -- 7.5 Gun (2) Swiftsure -- 7.5 Gun (4) Langleys -- 7.5 Gun (2) Terrible -- 9.2 Mk VIII Gun (3) As of the 5th Aug'17 Diana, Swiftsure, Langley & Terrible are noted as not yey in action. The battery known as 'Railway Mountings' was located throughout Aug'17 into early Sept'17 at map ref:- X 5b 90.25. (i have the others if required) I don't know how the other guns were mounted so by suggesting the above may be a bit of a dud. However, the field would appear to be narrowed down to the first four and Terrible. There are previous threads on Naval Siege guns on the Forum and if memory serves the records for them are not held at Kew ( National Archive ). There are some Naval Gun people on the Forum that hopefully will be able to add more to the above. If you can scan and post the pictures they may give some clues as to the identity of the battery he served in. And welcome to the Forum. Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 13 November , 2008 Share Posted 13 November , 2008 Welcome to the forum, Purpleplumber. My avatar is the stamp of the Commanding Officer of the RN Siege Guns, Captain Henry Halahan RN, and I have been researching the RNSG, off and on, for about 10 years. As Essdee says, their official records are missing. What information there is about them is scattered through a wide range of public and private sources. Direct hits through the embrasure of the concrete gunpits were mercifully extremely rare, and the one that seems to match yours most closely occurred in late February 1917 when a German 28cm howitzer shell penetrated the unoccupied gun chamber of Barrington battery and sheared about 5 feet off the barrel of the 9.2" gun. One man who was in another part of the gunpit at the time suffered a minor flesh wound, but otherwise (apart from the gun itself) there were no casualties. I would be very interested to see your collection of photographs, as guns buried in concrete emplacements topped with hundreds of tons of sand are not very photogenic, and it was dangerous to venture outside in daylight in the forward area (Barrington was about a mile from the mouth of the Yser at Nieuport Bains). If you PM me your e-mail address, I will send you some information on the RNSG in general, and on Barrington in particular. What was your father's name? Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawksworth Posted 14 November , 2008 Author Share Posted 14 November , 2008 My late father, was a Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve Sick Berth Steward attached to the RN Siege Guns near Nieuport from 1916 to 1918. That is about all I know, except for some very faded sepia photos, unfortunately without captions. As a child I remember something about "a 9.2 cruiser gun mounted on a railway, and Germans replying to their fire from a gun on Ostend racecourse" On one occasion he narrowly escaped when a German shell hit the barrel of his gun and one of the photos shows the bent barrel and wrecked emplacement. I would like to research more about these guns (particulary his) but can not find any references to them. Can anyone out there point me in the correct direction, please? His bravery under fire was recognised by two letters signed by the G.O.C. XVth Corps (19 March 1917 and August 1917) a Lieutenant General J P Du Cane. This might help! The Naval Siege Guns ( Long Range Gun Group ) of XV Corps HA during Aug'17 consisted of :- Railway Mountings -- 9.2 Gun Barrington -- 9.2 Gun Eastney -- 9.2 Gun Carnac -- 9.2 Gun (2) Diana -- 7.5 Gun (2) Swiftsure -- 7.5 Gun (4) Langleys -- 7.5 Gun (2) Terrible -- 9.2 Mk VIII Gun (3) As of the 5th Aug'17 Diana, Swiftsure, Langley & Terrible are noted as not yey in action. The battery known as 'Railway Mountings' was located throughout Aug'17 into early Sept'17 at map ref:- X 5b 90.25. (i have the others if required) I don't know how the other guns were mounted so by suggesting the above may be a bit of a dud. However, the field would appear to be narrowed down to the first four and Terrible. There are previous threads on Naval Siege guns on the Forum and if memory serves the records for them are not held at Kew ( National Archive ). There are some Naval Gun people on the Forum that hopefully will be able to add more to the above. If you can scan and post the pictures they may give some clues as to the identity of the battery he served in. And welcome to the Forum. Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawksworth Posted 14 November , 2008 Author Share Posted 14 November , 2008 The Naval Siege Guns ( Long Range Gun Group ) of XV Corps HA during Aug'17 consisted of :- Railway Mountings -- 9.2 Gun Barrington -- 9.2 Gun Eastney -- 9.2 Gun Carnac -- 9.2 Gun (2) Diana -- 7.5 Gun (2) Swiftsure -- 7.5 Gun (4) Langleys -- 7.5 Gun (2) Terrible -- 9.2 Mk VIII Gun (3) As of the 5th Aug'17 Diana, Swiftsure, Langley & Terrible are noted as not yey in action. The battery known as 'Railway Mountings' was located throughout Aug'17 into early Sept'17 at map ref:- X 5b 90.25. (i have the others if required) I don't know how the other guns were mounted so by suggesting the above may be a bit of a dud. However, the field would appear to be narrowed down to the first four and Terrible. There are previous threads on Naval Siege guns on the Forum and if memory serves the records for them are not held at Kew ( National Archive ). There are some Naval Gun people on the Forum that hopefully will be able to add more to the above. If you can scan and post the pictures they may give some clues as to the identity of the battery he served in. And welcome to the Forum. Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbloy Posted 6 January , 2009 Share Posted 6 January , 2009 As regards direct hits on naval siege guns - I read recently about S/Lt Edgar Donovan RNVR who was a Carnac Battery officer. According to reports, on 26th April 1917 the battery was hammered with more than 300 high explosive and gas shells. One of these shells penetrated the gun port and he together with two members of his gun crew were killed instantly. As his battery was operating in support of French forces at the time (bombarding German heavy motar batteries on the north bank of the Yser), he was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm Leaves. Edgar's grave is in Coxyde Military Cemetery, flanked by gunners Harry Benton and James Broomhead (his gun crew). Regards, Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 6 January , 2009 Share Posted 6 January , 2009 I read recently about S/Lt Edgar Donovan RNVR who was a Carnac Battery officer. Where did you read that account, Michael? It sounds like the piece I wrote for the departmental newspaper of the (then) Department of Trade & Industry in April 2002. It is also in PDF format on the War Memorial website of BERR (successor to the DTI): http://www.berr.gov.uk/aboutus/corporate/h.../page29278.html Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbloy Posted 7 January , 2009 Share Posted 7 January , 2009 Hello Mick, Yes, you're spot on! My meagre knowledge comes from that excellent article you wrote for DTI News April, 2002 (which I only came across last weekend). For your information I was particularly interested in researching Edgar Donovan for the following reasons: 1. He attended the same school as me (only way before my time). 2. He enlisted in the RND and was a Gallipoli veteran. 3. Unusually, he became a naval artilleryman, serving on land. 4. He was awarded a French gallantry medal, but no British award. It's absolutely marvellous to discover that a GWF pal was the author of the article (why should I be at all surprised?). Would you mind if I forwarded it to the editor of our old boys’ newsletter? - I'm sure that he would be overjoyed to publish an extract from it and obviously I would ensure that there's a proper acknowledgement to you as the original author and researcher. Best regards, Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 2 November , 2019 Share Posted 2 November , 2019 I have recently discovered that my wifes great uncle Edmund Charles Aslett was killed on the 27th August 1916. He was awarded a DSM which states Navy siege gun. He is buried at the ADINKERKE CHURCHYARD EXTENSION in Belguim. I no nothing else about how he died. Can anyone enlighten me please? Regards Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PRC Posted 2 November , 2019 Share Posted 2 November , 2019 Interestingly the Grave Registration Report - a document attached to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission webpage for him, originally recorded him as R.N.S.G., (i.e. Royal Naval Siege Guns), but was manually amended to read Howitzer Brigade, Royal Marine Artillery. Somewhere along the line however they decided to record his unit as Naval Siege Guns (France) Royal Navy - https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/163905/aslett,-/ The terminology used on the WW1 Naval Casualties database is that he was Killed or died as a direct result of enemy action. More on the RMA Howitzer Brigade here - https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-royal-artillery-in-the-first-world-war/the-batteries-of-the-royal-marine-artillery/ His register of seamans services does however show him to be Royal Navy - https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D6739012 This records him as Killed in Action serving with the Naval Siege Guns.You can see a heavily watermarked preview version at this link or download it from there for £3.50. Alternatively I believe this type of record is available on FindMyPast, so possibly can also be found on Ancestry, Hope that helps, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
58 Div Mule Posted 2 November , 2019 Share Posted 2 November , 2019 Royal Marine Heavy Siege Train and Howitzer Bde RMA are different units. See Blumberg's "Britain's Sea Soldiers 1914 - 1919". Also Royal Marine's attached Royal Garrison Artillery i. e. 526 Siege Battery RGA. 58 DM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrenPen Posted 2 November , 2019 Share Posted 2 November , 2019 Acting Captain Henry Crosby Halahan, formerly of the R.N.S.G. was killed in action during the raid on Zeebrugge, where he was the Officer in Command of the Seaman Storming party of about 200 men. There were other men formally of the R.N.S.G. who participated in that raid, presumably as ship's crew on HMS Vindictive rather than in the Seamen Storming Party, which was made up of volunteers from the Grand Fleet Maurice De Sousa Barry British Naval Siege Guns J13410 Able Seaman Walter Charles Richard Bond British Naval Siege Guns J11313 Able Seaman John Braddock British Naval Siege Guns 194952 Able Seaman John Joseph Crowley British Naval Siege Guns 222084 Able Seaman Ernest Hall British Naval Siege Guns SS3771 Able Seaman Thomas Prestage Harris British Naval Siege Guns J19845 Able Seaman Arthur Victor Johnson British Naval Siege Guns J24734 Able Seaman Arthur George Jordan British Naval Siege Guns 189437 Able Seaman Richard Ellis Makey British Naval Siege Guns 219228 Able Seaman Horace Peploe British Naval Siege Guns J8070 Able Seaman Reginald John Tarr British Naval Siege Guns J13080 Able Seaman Cecil Thomas Cox British Naval Siege Guns Bristol Z/3555 Able Seaman RNVR Robert George Kirby British Naval Siege Guns London Z/4540 Able Seaman RNVR Daniel Lewis British Naval Siege Guns Wales Z/2202 Able Seaman RNVR Joseph Webb British Naval Siege Guns Wales Z/2728 Able Seaman RNVR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trevorlicense Posted 27 October , 2022 Share Posted 27 October , 2022 my great uncle arthur henry webb died 15 may 1918 whilst in the royal marines artillery siege guns dunkerque as a result of enemy action he is buried in coxyde cemetery his war record seem say his division was attentive 2 heavy siege train can anyone give me more info like what action was he invloved in in the may 1918 and what was this heavy siege train Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horatio2 Posted 28 October , 2022 Share Posted 28 October , 2022 (edited) This link may help - https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89100004282&view=1up&seq=504&skin=2021 As well as ADM 159, there are more records for him at TNA under ADM 157 - https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14501504 Borne on the books of HMS A|TTENTIVE II (Dover Base) for pay and admin. Good to see that he earned the Croix de Guerre (Belgium). Edited 28 October , 2022 by horatio2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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