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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

298 Brigade RFA


philipdavies48

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Hi I am researching a casualty in the 298th Brigade RFA. Can anyone tell me anything about the brigade - which division it was attached to. I know that my casualty was killed on 23rd March 1918 and is commemorated at Arras so the unit must have been in that area when the German Offensive of March 1918 began

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During 1918, 298th Brigade, RFA was an Army Brigade, RFA and from 28 February 1918 to 30 March March 1918 it was supporting the 14th Division of III Corps. The Brigade War Diary indicates the following for 22-23 March 1918:

22nd March 1918

12.1 am: En route to Faillouel via Flavy le Martel

3.0 am: Brigade in action 500 yards NE of Faillouel

10.0 am: Opened fire on line G.9.d.80..10 to M.30.d.50.20

12 noon to 12 midnight: During this period the Brigade kept up steady rate of fire on approached to canal, canal and bridges

23 March 1918

12.1 am to 8.0 am: Searching and sweeping fire by Brigade east of canal.

8.0 am: Enemy reported to have forced the bridges. Brigade quickened up rate of fire on all bridges in their zone.

9.30 am: One battery opened fire on Jussy M.15.b., remainder still on bridges.

11.0am to 1.15 pm: Brigade switched on to line 100 yards East of Railway between Jussy and Mennessis.

1.30 pm: Brigade retired under heavy shell fire.

2.0 pm: 1 Section 18-pdrs fired on Cavalry east of Flavy from Bois L'Abbe. Horses in Brigade killed R.35.b.70.40 by machine gun fire.

4.0 pm: Brigade arrived X.20.a. & b.

8.0 pm to 12 midnight: Brigade opened fire on valley east of Riez de Cugny per 14th Divisional Artillery orders. Brigade area heavily shelled causing casualties to men, horses and vehicles.

Regards, Dick Flory

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Thanks Dick for your prompt response.This information has filled a gap and given me a lead to follow. My casualty was Frank Gwyn Skeats Dvr 244041 "A" Battery 298th Brigade. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the missing. I will be visiting the area in June and hope to see some of the ground. I am also researching our village War Memorial which has Frank Skeats name. He was born in New York - yet to research this.

I notice that you are researching Great War Royakl Artillery Officers. I wonder if you can shed any light on my wife's great uncle, John Prichard. He was a Lieutenant in the Glamorgan Territorial Artillery pre war and was mobilised. He went to Gallipoli where he was mentioned in dispatches. He was with the 53rd Welsh Division but I have read that they did not take their divisional artillery and had to have another divisions artillery attached. I have long searched to find which unit he went to Gallipoli with. His Mentioned in Dispatches refers toi his work at Suvla. He was promoted Captain and next served in Mesopotamia, relief of Kut and was again mentioned in dispatches. In 1919 he was on the North West Frontier and as a Major was awarded the IGS with NWF Clasp. Subsequently he served in Iraq and was awarded the General Service medal with Iraq clasp. On leaving the army in the early 1920s he served in Iraq as a judge having trained pre war in the legal profession. On retirement he was knighted and returned to his home in Wick (Vale of Glamorgan). I would like to know what units he served in in Mespotamia and Afghanistan. I have a suspicion that he was in an Indian Artillery unit but cannot be sure.

Any help woulkd be greatly appreciated. I have a photograph of him if you are interested.

Best Wishes

Phil

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  • 7 months later...

Phil: I must have missed this when it was originally posted and just saw it today. I don't know which unit he served with during the Great War but he served with 1091st Battery, RFA on the North West Frontier of Afghanistan in 1919. Regards, Dick

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  • 5 years later...

Hi - noticed this thread and thought I'd contribute. I'm researching my grandfather, Edward Blackburn, who was in the RFA. From a photo of him and a postcard I've been able to establish he started off in 19 Battery, 2/3 East Lancs Bde (the Bolton Artillery) equipped with 18 pdrs, which then changed to B Battery, 332 Bde. From the threads on this forum I've seen that the Bde's A Battery was transferred to France in October 2016, and the B Battery became the A Battery. By the time it moved to France in March 1917, my grandfather was a sergeant (Reg nr 710493) and commanding a gun (from his account, although he died just before I was born). Shortly after arrival in France the Brigade was broken up, with A Battery going to 298 Bde as their C battery.

 

In March 1918, as Dick says, the Brigade was just south of St Quentin and about 5 miles from the German front lines when the German Spring Offensive started (and nowhere near Arras!). So for the next five days it was making a fighting retreat to the south-west. The War Diary is sparse with details of casualties, although it did note that the Bde drew 5 replacement guns later in the month, so presumably it lost some guns in the retreat.

 

My grandfather remained with the Brigade until 25 August, after the Battle of Amiens, when he was wounded and repatriated. According to the family, he received his injury when his gun exploded (his discharge papers confirm a shell wound to the left thigh), and the rest of the detachment serving the gun were killed. Having looked through a number of War Diaries during my research I haven't found any references to this sort of incident - although the 298th's diary is rather sparse, others are more detailed but have no records of premature explosions or burst barrels. Does anyone have any knowledge of this sort of incident, and was it particularly common? I would have thought not, since shells were more reliable by this time of the war.

 

 

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While researching my grandfather's service in the RFA, 96 Bde and 59 Bde, I have downloaded a number of RFA Brigade war diaries relevant to my grandfathers movement,1916/7 and have been surprised by the number of 'prematures' suffered in service and noted in the diaries. Invariably,most of the gun crew were killed from the accounts I have read.

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Thanks Barwinmol, that's interesting. My grandfather would have been the nr 1, so behind the gun, and possibly that might have been what saved him. I assume then it would have been the nrs 2 and 3 that would have been killed, the ones alongside the breech/barrel, rather than the other guys who I assume were doing the fusing and loading?

 

The WDs do seem to vary considerably in detail, I cam across one that had all casualties by name for ORs, whereas the 298th has virtually nothing, even about officers.

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