Battery Whereabouts in R.F.A. Books?

[Skipo]

All,

 

Grateful for some reference advice - Is there a book that lists the whereabouts and actions of individual RFA batteries throughout the war?

 

Best,

 

Skip

[FROGSMILE]

Unfortunately I don't think there is a single book (the regiment was enormous) so you'd probably need to buy several volumes of General Martin Farndale's History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery.  For WW1 he did one volume for each front (e.g. Western).  Plus you'd need Honour Titles of the Royal Artillery by Major General B P Hughes:

"Battle Honours form a natural part of (the British soldier's) quest for individuality. In the case of the Royal Artillery, it was in 1833 that King William IV ordered all existing Battle Honours to be replaced by the motto 'Ubique', and that this new Honour should apply throughout the Regiment. Welcome as this Honour has always been, it did not entirely fulfil the wishes of units to retain their individuality. This eventually gave rise, in 1925, to official approval to the granting of Honour Titles to Batteries where certain rules and conditions applied. Gunners know well the history of the Battery in which they are serving, or have served, but little about others. General Hughes has collected and rewritten in one book the stories of all those Batteries (58 at present) who proudly possess an Honour Title. In doing so he has produced a fascinating book which will be of great value and interest not only to Gunners but also to all students of military history." From the Foreword by Field Marshal Sir Geoffrey Baker.

[Skipo]

Many thanks Frogsmile, will look into both of your suggestions. Much appreciated.

[FROGSMILE]

16 hours ago, Skipo said:

Many thanks Frogsmile, will look into both of your suggestions. Much appreciated.

I’m glad to help.  The second book can be obtained for a quite moderate price as it’s been in publication for some time.  The former books are more recent and there are many volumes, as explained, but if you shop around in such places as abe books, Stella books and even (dare one say it) Amazon (look at the ‘used’ copy options), you should be able to get them for a moderate outlay.  Good luck.

Edited 3 August , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[MaxD]

 

20 hours ago, Skipo said:

Is there a book that lists the whereabouts and actions of individual RFA batteries throughout the war?

I hate to take a different tack to friend Frogsmile but only one RFA battery* gained an honour title in the Great War.  The Hughes book describes the actions that earned the battery the title so I am not sure this would go a long way to answering the question as posed.   Even Farndale doesn't follow the fortunes of each individual battery.  Frogsmile is correct when he says there is no single book that would have such a list.  Batteries didn't stay in one place  and there were indeed an enormous number of them.  Take a look at Batteries and Brigades of the Royal Field Artillery – The Long, Long Trail (longlongtrail.co.uk) which lists all the RFA brigades in the Great War.  As each had 3 sometimes 4 batteries, I'd go so far as to say while listing the batteries might be possible (although I wouldn't want to do it myself as batteries moved between brigades, were disbanded and resurrected) determining the "whereabouts and actions" would be mission impossible.

Is there a particular battery you are trying to track?

 

* 37 Field Battery RFA - now 93 (Le Cateau) Battery RA

 

MaxD

[FROGSMILE]

49 minutes ago, MaxD said:

 

I hate to take a different tack to friend Frogsmile but only one RFA battery* gained an honour title in the Great War.  The Hughes book describes the actions that earned the battery the title so I am not sure this would go a long way to answering the question as posed.   Even Farndale doesn't follow the fortunes of each individual battery.  Frogsmile is correct when he says there is no single book that would have such a list.  Batteries didn't stay in one place  and there were indeed an enormous number of them.  Take a look at Batteries and Brigades of the Royal Field Artillery – The Long, Long Trail (longlongtrail.co.uk) which lists all the RFA brigades in the Great War.  As each had 3 sometimes 4 batteries, I'd go so far as to say while listing the batteries might be possible (although I wouldn't want to do it myself as batteries moved between brigades, were disbanded and resurrected) determining the "whereabouts and actions" would be mission impossible.

Is there a particular battery you are trying to track?

 

* 37 Field Battery RFA - now 93 (Le Cateau) Battery RA

 

MaxD

Thank you Max, that makes complete sense to me and those books were really just the best that I could see of a bad job.  It would be a lifetime's work for some historian to try and piece all the moving parts together, for the exact reasons that you've outlined.

Edited 3 August , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[Skipo]

Thanks to you both. It's obviously a complex area and I'm grateful for your honesty and advice.

I'm researching quite a few individuals with an RFA background so there's no single battery. Just wondered whether there was a "one-stop-shop" but instead I'll tackle each individually as I get to them.

 

Does each battery have a war diary in the same way an infantry battalion does?

 

Best,

 

Skip

[Ron Clifton]

Two points:

Farndale's histories only have two volumes: (i) The Western Front, and (ii) The Forgotten Fronts and the Home Base, which covers everywhere else.

Movements of batteries between brigades are covered in great detail in A F Becke's "Order of Battle of Divisions", Parts 1, 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B, published as an addition to the Official History series. Becke was an RFA officer himself so the details are very extensive. In addition, there was no single sequence of battery numbers, and most non-Regular batteries were designated A, B, C or D of a specific brigade. Even so, such designations were not unique as batteries were swapped between brigades occasionally, especially in May 1916.

Ron

[MaxD]

To the question about war diaries - the vast majority are covered in the diary of the RFA Brigade(s) to which they belonged.  Those available for download are listed at the Natonal Archives:  Search results: battery field artillery WO 95 | The National Archives

RFA Brigade diaries are: Search results: brigade field artillery WO 95 | The National Archives

The documents referred to by Ron are available to buy, Google "Order of battle of Divisions Becke"  The Naval and Military Press seem to have reasonably priced copies (other booksellers are available!

 

MaxD

 

 

[Skipo]

Many thanks MaxD, very useful links so much appreciated. 

Will have a look at N&MP now.

 

Best,

 

Skip

[FROGSMILE]

4 hours ago, Ron Clifton said:

Two points:

Farndale's histories only have two volumes: (i) The Western Front, and (ii) The Forgotten Fronts and the Home Base, which covers everywhere else.

Ron his volumes cover WW2, and 'between the wars' too and that's what I was referring to.  They are a series intended to continue on from the author who had completed the history of the RA up until 1914.  Ergo it is indeed more than two volumes and I mentioned that he covered each front, by which I meant Western and Eastern theatres of operation.

It had been an ambition of his (Farndale's) to do this in retirement for some time, but I recall him telling me during the only time that I met him (at Woolwich where he was fund raising for the Firepower Museum) that other things kept getting in the way.

Edited 3 August , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[MaxD]

Skipo

Longlongtrail will be of help as it is so often.

Examples at random  -  C/115 is C Battery 115 Brigade.  Look up 115 Brigade in the LLT piece I cited in my first post.  This will take you to the brigade (listed as CXV Brigade) and you will see the division with which it fought.  You can then look at the National Archives war diaries and find Search results: (115 AND brigade AND artillery AND WO AND 95) NOT siege | The National Archives  (only one diary digitised in this case).  27 Battery would be rendered as 27/32 [XXXII Brigade]  The latter example shows a little of the complexity of the task.

I don't pretend this will solve all your queries but it may go some way towards solutions.

MaxD

Edited 4 August , 2021 by MaxD

[Skipo]

Right, very good tips MaxD and much appreciated. I'll knuckle down and see what I can find. Thanks for taking the time to post this.

 

Best,

 

Skip