108th Army Brigade - which division?

[richardg]

First to say many thanks for this comprehensive and informative site - which has already helped me a great deal in tracking down my grandfathers movements in WW1.

My grandather, Herbert Graham, was a Royal Engineers signaller attached

(I think) initially to the 108th Brigade Royal Field Artillery, 24 Division. An informative posting

(from Stebie9173) tells me that this Brigade became the 108th Army brigade on

25 January 1917.

Can anyone tell me which Division the newly formed 108th Army Brigade was in? (I assume it was in a

a Division and not 'independent' in some way?).

My grandfather was wounded and spent some time in hospital in France. I would like to find which

place this was. At Kew I was told that if you search the NA catalogue using 'Division No' AND 'Casualty Clearing Station' in the search field and WO95 in the catalogue series you can sometimes

find the war diary of the Casualty Clearing Station. Thats why I would like to find out the Division he was in.

grateful for any help.

RichardG

[jhill]

I speak only to be corrected, but I believe that "Army" Brigades of the Royal Field Artillery were not part of particular Infantry Divisions. As the name suggests, an "Army" brigade counted as "army" troops, for example, reporting directly to 2nd Army.

Each Division had a divisional artillery, but for operations this was augmented by extra field artillery; either the artillery of a resting division, Army Brigades, or both. During these operations, the extra field artillery would come under the command of the Artillery of the Division conducting the operation.

I notice that the 108th Army Brigade served in this way during the Passchendaele operations of 1917, being relieved late in October.

I believe this is more or less the way things worked, but I am sure one of our artillery experts will tell us exactly.

[richardg]

Many thanks James

Bit by bit things become clearer! I would be interested to follow up your mention of 108th Army Brigade activities during Passchendale. Do you have a reference or web link for this?

Richard

[ororkep]

Richard,

108th Brigade (CVIII) RFA went out to France on the 31st August with 24 Div, arriving on the 1/9/1915. Became army brigade10/2/17; were with First army troops March 1917; 5th Army July 1917-feb 1918; 4th Army May 1918 and back with 5th army Nov 1918. A diary for the brigade covers the period from entry until Sept 1916 when on 3/10/16 the 4 batteries A, B, C and D were either broken up, or completely reorganised culminating with 522 Howitzer Battery becoming C/108th Brigade. For the purpose of the look up you require the 24 is the Division you need, but I do not think any relevant casualty diaries have survived.

[jhill]

Many thanks James

Bit by bit things become clearer! I would be interested to follow up your mention of 108th Army Brigade activities during Passchendale. Do you have a reference or web link for this?

Richard

Alas! I have only a passing reference!

When studying the Canadian operations at Passchendaele I came accross a rather good report on the operations with the War Diary of the General Officer Commanding, Royal Artillery, Canadian Corps . You have to go down to the end of the December, 1917 folder.

The only reference to the 108th is actually this appendix .

(The relevant diary entry also mentions the 108th moving back to the wagon lines on October 20th).

That's about it, I'm afraid. Good luck with your research!

Edit: There is also a wee bit of stuff about the relief with the October diary of the 3rd Divisional Artillery .