RGA 499 Siege Battery

[Roy C]

Hello, My Grandfather C.H. Thomas was assigned to the RGA 499 Siege Battery as a Signaller 1^st class (no 152214). He Disembarked at Le Havre on 25/01/1918. He was on the western front until 15/01/1919 when he came home on leave.

I cannot find anything much about the 499 Siege Battery or the role of a signaller for this period, can anyone please enlighten me or point me in the right direction. Many thanks for your help.

Roy

[sotonmate]

Roy

Here a page from the LLT at top left of this page on Siege Batteries:

http://www.1914-1918.net/siege-battery-index.htm

499 is not on the list but from a search of the Catalogue at the National Archives I have found a War Diary,but it says in the index only for one month and there is no other shown,though this might mean it is named under some other prefix in the Catalogue. It's WO95/476 and shows Nov 1917. The Battery was in the 4th Army at that time.

You will at least get to see a couple of pics of a unit on the above page.

Sotonmate

[Roy C]

Roy

Here a page from the LLT at top left of this page on Siege Batteries:

http://www.1914-1918.net/siege-batteries-index.htm

499 is not on the list but from a search of the Catalogue at the National Archives I have found a War Diary,but it says in the index only for one month and there is no other shown,though this might mean it is named under some other prefix in the Catalogue. It's WO95/476 and shows Nov 1917. The Battery was in the 4th Army at that time.

You will at least get to see a couple of pics of a unit on the above page.

Sotonmate

Thanks for the reply 'Sotonmate' unfortunately the link does not work for me - comes up with an error message.

edit: I have now gone into the site and found the page, strange thing is the page URL is what you posted but I cannot access via the link!!

From what I have gathered the 499 siege battery had a short life. It was only formed at the start of 1918 and was disbanded a year later.

Roy

[sotonmate]

Roy

Sorry I have adjusted the link !

Sotonmate

[essdee]

Roy

499 Siege was formed at Bordon, nr Aldershot 8th Sept’17 and went out to F & F in Jan’18 leaving the Lines of Communication on the 21st Jan’18 for III Corps Heavy Artillery, 5th Army, later armed with four 6” Mk XIX Guns on the 29th Jan.

Already there is an anomaly in dates. One source says they went out on the 23rd, another that they left the Lines of Communication on the 21st. Advanced parties for batteries quite often arrived a few days earlier with the main body arriving later. I’ve always assumed the battery officially turned up when the Battery Commander arrived.

However, 499 Siege is one of those batteries which is hard to tie down as no battery diary exists for their time in theatre and they were not, unlike most of the other batteries, Brigaded at the end of 1917 and therefore, a single Brigade diary noting their movements, positions, actions etc does not exist for them either. These un-Brigaded batteries, comprising the 6” Guns, 9.2” & 12” railway Guns/Howitzers, formed groups as required and therefore moved from Corps to Corps and Army to Army, sometimes allotted to a Brigade RGA for tactical purposes, temporary attachments if you will. Because they had no permanent affiliation to any one Brigade, Corps or Army they tended to get left out when it came to writing diaries.

My notes on this battery are sparse for the reasons given but I have something which may help you to carry out further research. As stated above they were posted to III Corps HA where I am sure they remained until 30 Mar’18 where they, and a number of other batteries, moved to the 5th Army Gun Park at Poix for refitting.

From here they return to III Corps HA and on the 27th Apr’18 transfer to the Australian Corps HA and are allotted to 69th Brigade RGA. On the 29th May they are relieved in the line by 68th Brigade RGA leaving Guns, stores, maps etc for the incoming Brigades 6” battery.

Nothing until 21st Sept’18 where I have them moving to IX Corps HA, no Brigade or other details available.

On the 18th Oct’18 they appear in 73rd Army Brigade RGA where five batteries of 6” Guns are tasked on Leval Junction with the aim of disrupting re-supply.

9th Nov’18 Guns left in position, personnel to Elincourt for rest.

10th Nov’18 73rd Army Brigade RGA, 4th Army. 222, 545, 312, 449, 504, 50 & 499 Siege batteries.

11th Nov’18 499 Siege are shown as grouped within 93rd Brigade RGA, I think this is for administration purposes only.

Stuart

[Roy C]

Roy

499 Siege was formed at Bordon, nr Aldershot 8th Sept'17 and went out to F & F in Jan'18 leaving the Lines of Communication on the 21st Jan'18 for III Corps Heavy Artillery, 5th Army, later armed with four 6" Mk XIX Guns on the 29th Jan.

Already there is an anomaly in dates. One source says they went out on the 23rd, another that they left the Lines of Communication on the 21st. Advanced parties for batteries quite often arrived a few days earlier with the main body arriving later. I've always assumed the battery officially turned up when the Battery Commander arrived.

However, 499 Siege is one of those batteries which is hard to tie down as no battery diary exists for their time in theatre and they were not, unlike most of the other batteries, Brigaded at the end of 1917 and therefore, a single Brigade diary noting their movements, positions, actions etc does not exist for them either. These un-Brigaded batteries, comprising the 6" Guns, 9.2" & 12" railway Guns/Howitzers, formed groups as required and therefore moved from Corps to Corps and Army to Army, sometimes allotted to a Brigade RGA for tactical purposes, temporary attachments if you will. Because they had no permanent affiliation to any one Brigade, Corps or Army they tended to get left out when it came to writing diaries.

My notes on this battery are sparse for the reasons given but I have something which may help you to carry out further research. As stated above they were posted to III Corps HA where I am sure they remained until 30 Mar'18 where they, and a number of other batteries, moved to the 5th Army Gun Park at Poix for refitting.

From here they return to III Corps HA and on the 27th Apr'18 transfer to the Australian Corps HA and are allotted to 69th Brigade RGA. On the 29th May they are relieved in the line by 68th Brigade RGA leaving Guns, stores, maps etc for the incoming Brigades 6" battery.

Nothing until 21st Sept'18 where I have them moving to IX Corps HA, no Brigade or other details available.

On the 18th Oct'18 they appear in 73rd Army Brigade RGA where five batteries of 6" Guns are tasked on Leval Junction with the aim of disrupting re-supply.

9th Nov'18 Guns left in position, personnel to Elincourt for rest.

10th Nov'18 73rd Army Brigade RGA, 4th Army. 222, 545, 312, 449, 504, 50 & 499 Siege batteries.

11th Nov'18 499 Siege are shown as grouped within 93rd Brigade RGA, I think this is for administration purposes only.

Stuart

Thank you very much for all that info Stuart, quite a lot to digest!. The only info I have is from the recently released ancestry records.

It shows that my grandfather was posted to 499 Siege at Plymouth on 11/12/1917.

He then disembarked at Havre on 25/01/1918

To Hospital, sick in field 03/07/1918

Back to duty with unit 12/07/1918 (could not have been too serious)

Granted leave to UK 29/01/1919 (he was married during this leave)

5/2/1919 Returned from Leave

20/02/1919 To Fovant for return - Embarked (there is no record of him disembarking)

22/03/1919 Demobbed (it looks like he never went back to France!)

There is a letter to say he was awarded medals on 03/12/1919 but he did not receive them until 05/12/1922 - I guess the delay was due to the millions of medals that had to be distributed.

Thanks again Stuart

Roy

[jono844]

The 73rd brigade was in the Australian Corps Of Heavy Artillery,4th Army and on the 01/07/18 are listed at N.6.a.4.5 (2 guns) and

N.12.c.8.9 (2 guns) 6"gun mkXIX .Major H.E. Lane commanding.Plot this on map 62Dsw? 1:20000 to find them 9000 or so yds from Hamel.?

They are preparing for the bombardment on july 04.Read the on-line war diary free from Canberra War Memorial Archives,one page at a time to gleen this data.there are 100's of pages though.