South African Heavy Artillery

[JustinL]

I have just obtained my great uncles's complete service record from the Department of Defence in South Africa - completely free of charge after only three weeks.

Are there any experts out there - Dick Flory perhaps! - who could explain some of the details?

For instance, where was the Artillery Training Depot aka Heavy Artillery Base (HAB)?

What was the Reserve Brigade, i.e. Heavy Artillery Reserve Brigade? And where did it spend the war?

Lastly, has anybody heard of the 552nd Siege Battery?

Justin

[Hoplophile]

I've just checked the catalog at the PRO. There doesn't seem to be a war diary on file for the 552nd Siege Battery. (The highest number for a siege battery that I found was 545, with a war diary - and thus frontline service - that begins in January of 1918.)

[cahoehler]

Guys

From Buchan in "THE HISTORY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN FORCES IN FRANCE"

"A ninth battery, the 552nd, armed with 8-inch guns, was formed in the autumn of 1918, but the war ended before it could be brought into action."

The 7th (542nd) and 8th (496th) Batteries were created but on arrival in France were broken up and and the guns and personnel distributed between the 75th & 125th and the 72nd & 74th Batteries respectively.

In the beginning of 1918 two British Batteries (the 20th and the 275th) were brigaded with the 44th (SA) and 50th (SA) Brigades respectively.

I have unit histories for the 71st, 72nd, 74th and 75th Siege Batteries but nothing for the 73rd and 125th Siege Batteries - the 125th served with XIV Corps Heavy Artillery of the Belgian Army during Oct and Nov 1917 (Buchan pg 272).