354 battery Royal Garrison Artillery

[Guest derekksmith]

Trying to find out where my Grandfather served april 1917 to when he was injured in April 1918

[essdee]

Firstly, welcome to the Forum.

354 Siege went out to France armed with 4 x 6" Howitzers on the 22 May'17.

They were then allocated to the following Heavy Artillery Groups,

5 Jun'17 - 44th HAG

12 Jul'17 - 89th HAG

11 Nov'17 - 78th HAG

21 Nov'17 - 21st HAG

1 Dec'17 - 34th HAG

27 Dec'18 - 21st HAG

The groups reverted to Brigades for the rest of 18 following a major overhaul of Heavy Artillery.

Which means, 354 Siege were still within the 21st Brigade RGA in April'18 around Aubigny within the XIX Corps HA area, 4th Army.

4th April - 3 pm. - 354 s.b.heavily shelled. 16 casualties. Position temporarily vacated

There does not appear to be a diary for the battery within the National Archive , they do however hold a complete diary for the 21st Brigade RGA under the following ref

WO 95/469 21 Brigade Royal Garrison Artillery 1915 June - 1919 July

Stuart

[Guest derekksmith]

Firstly, welcome to the Forum.

354 Siege went out to France armed with 4 x 6" Howitzers on the 22 May'17.

They were then allocated to the following Heavy Artillery Groups,

5 Jun'17 - 44th HAG

12 Jul'17 - 89th HAG

11 Nov'17 - 78th HAG

21 Nov'17 - 21st HAG

1 Dec'17 - 34th HAG

27 Dec'18 - 21st HAG

The groups reverted to Brigades for the rest of 18 following a major overhaul of Heavy Artillery.

Which means, 354 Siege were still within the 21st Brigade RGA in April'18 around Aubigny within the XIX Corps HA area, 4th Army.

4th April - 3 pm. - 354 s.b.heavily shelled. 16 casualties. Position temporarily vacated

There does not appear to be a diary for the battery within the National Archive , they do however hold a complete diary for the 21st Brigade RGA under the following ref

WO 95/469 21 Brigade Royal Garrison Artillery 1915 June - 1919 July

Stuart

Many thanks for you help we have found a list of names so now will be able to try and match them up

[jono844]

Trying to find out where my Grandfather served april 1917 to when he was injured in April 1918

i just joined yesterday,and can help you with a 12 page history of the 354 siege battery,from my grans estate,finding it in 1970.

It gives movements and actions for 1917,1918 if you are still looking?

its not very long,isn't signed or attributed but does say where and when.

[rflory]

thecustodian: Would you be able to place scans in this thread of the 12-page history that you have for 354 Siege Battery?

Regards, Dick Flory

[jono844]

my son says he can do that but may take him a day or two.

thecustodian: Would you be able to place scans in this thread of the 12-page history that you have for 354 Siege Battery?

Regards, Dick Flory

[jono844]

The 12 page history of the 354 s.b. r.g.a. is scanned and is 7mb in size,this exceeds my attachment quota by 70x.(its 100k) so my son says put a link to it which is as follows:

http://goo.gl/PUuj1

It'll ask for money but ignore it and proceed and it should work. Just hit the grey button marked "free download".

[ororkep]

thecustodian,

I have also availed myself of your generosity in sharing your scans, for which I thank you. I thought you may be interested in the report below which confirms events on the 30th.

Rgds

Paul

354 Siege Battery Report to 3 Corps CRA 7.12.17.

At about 8.45am on Nov 30th, the area about the battery was heavily shelled with 5.9 how., 1 dugout being blown in and 5 men wounded. 1 Officer was wounded by a splinter from a 5.9 in another part of the village.This bombardment continued to about 9am., gradually slackening off.All communications were cut shortly after 7am and the last message sent through to the Group was at about 6.55am informing them of abnormal shelling.No wireless messages were received and the wireless was in action until 9am when the areil was broken by a splinter.About this time I went round to find how the repair of the wireless was getting on when I noticed a party of Bosches coming from the South through the villages, about 60 yards away from me.This was the first intimation the battery had that the enemy had broken through, as no SOS was seen. The battery was then cleared the men taking their rifles with them, those who had them eventually joining the infantry.I then asked a field battery in our rear (379 ?) 169 Army Brigade to fire on my guns which they very kindly did getting direct hits on Nos 2 and 3. No 1 was already out of action, and later No 4 was hit and an explosion was caused.By this time the enemy had established a machine gun in the Cemetery.

Signed A. R. Moubray, Major

Commanding 354 Siege Battery RGA

[jono844]

thanks for that report,it gives meaning to my Grandfarther's diary entry for friday nov 30 1917:

OH MY HAT !

_____________

On this day 354 went to war and held the trenches.

____

I went to Beaucamp.

[rflory]

thecustodian: Thank you very much for the scans. Very useful! Dick Flory

[jono844]

i have just come back from the AWM at Canberra with a lucky find. In the archives,order 143,Australian Corps Heavy Artillery, for july 1 1918 .and barrage map,for zero hour,3.10,july 4,1918 and

instructions for taking of Le Hamel with a creeping barrage,devised by General Monash and included in the 58 batteries is 354th siege battery,with 6 howitzers,6", at O13d 3.5, 4 guns, 80-130 arc of fire and

O13d 8.5, 2 guns, 70-130 arc of fire.Could anyone tell me how far this is from Le Hamel,please?

[jaydee500]

Trying to get as much information as I can on my grandfather Harold Parish who I understand was a gunner in the 354 siege battery. I would love to see the 12 page history but can't get the link to work. Would anybody be able to make this available to me. My uncle Ray Parish, son of Harold, would be absolutely thrilled.

I have a Xmas greeting card from the victorious 354 siege battery which was posted home by Harold to his parents. I can scan and attach if anyone is interested. Has an message from Major Murray Fisher R.G.A. on page 1

[kevinrowlinson]

Welcome jaydee500,

If your grandfather was 87556 Harold T Parish then there was a chance he had already served with another battery before the 354th Sge Bty. The number would imply enlistment at the end of May, beginning of June, 1916 to No. 3 Depot the Citadel, Plymouth. 354 SB left Southampton on the 22nd May 1917 and disembarked Le Havre the next day. It was made up to 6 guns from 512 SB on the 18th June 1918.

I think it would be polite to send a personal message to thecustonian to see whether he would send you the diary, but if you get no reply then please pm me and I will forward.

Kevin

[jaydee500]

Welcome jaydee500,

If your grandfather was 87556 Harold T Parish then there was a chance he had already served with another battery before the 354th Sge Bty. The number would imply enlistment at the end of May, beginning of June, 1916 to No. 3 Depot the Citadel, Plymouth. 354 SB left Southampton on the 22nd May 1917 and disembarked Le Havre the next day. It was made up to 6 guns from 512 SB on the 18th June 1918.

I think it would be polite to send a personal message to thecustonian to see whether he would send you the diary, but if you get no reply then please pm me and I will forward.

Kevin

He was indeed! Will pm thecustodian as you suggest. All I have is a scrap of paper stating 'army signalling' 22/11/1916 at southern command signal training department'. Also, passed first class, 23/2/1917. Would it be possible that he returned for this training or would he have not gone out to France until after the pass date? Please excuse my ignorance on this.

John

[jono844]

hello,

i can email you the 12 page history once you have done five posts.not my rule but this forums one.

i also have a photo circa 1916 and it has devon rga ,i think,on the shoulder of one chap relaxing in a group.i think they were in southern england defending a port against zepelin attack?

my grandpa,a e nichols didn't go to france until may 1917 as one of the officers in the recently formed 354 siege battery,rga, and survived many scraps until a severe gassing on 21 july 1918 sent him home.he joined up march 1915 in devon.

i see from his tiny diary they were softening up villers bretonneaux for 3 weeks.there is more info on this in the canberra war memorial archives,to which i will return shortly.

i also have a photo in training,i assume about april 1917,very clear under a magnifier taken at Lydd,or Somewhere in essex from the name of the studio on the back,maybe.

[kevinrowlinson]

John (jaydee500)

Without your grandfathers records it is impossible to say exactly where and what he was doing. Southern Command Signalling Depot was I believe at Southampton, although I may be wrong. The battery was formed at Gravesend on the 6th Jan. 1917 so it is possible he joined them there after becoming a 1st class signaller. Just make a couple of posts so you can pm the thecustonian with your email address.

thecustonian

It is always good to see photos of the RGA. Perhaps you could post them on forum.

Kevin

[jaydee500]

Unfortunately we have no diary from my grandfather so all this is news to us. His son tells me that he never spoke of the war afterwards but the family felt he came back a changed man as many must have done. You could say he was one of the lucky ones. Very interested to find that the 354 siege battery were involved in the battle of Le Hamel which also involved Americans who were drafted in to support the Australians.

After the armistice my grandfather went to Germany (Cologne) as part of the British occupation of the Rhineland. Again we know very little of his time there. I understand he grew to like the German people and even hung a swastika outside his house on his return to Birmingham.

That had to be swiftly removed once the Nazi party started using as an emblem.

[jaydee500]

The Xmas greeting card from 354 siege battery Xmas 1918. Going to have to do it in parts

John

[jaydee500]

Back page, hope it's readable

[jaydee500]

There are also two centre pages from this 1918 Xmas card which are cartoons but file size too big.

I could always scan and email if required. Please pm

John

[kevinrowlinson]

John,

2 very good posts. There are a lot of long standing members with thousands of posts who could take a leaf out of your book. Obviously if you are using a MAC then resizing is easy, but otherwise you can get a resizing programme free off the internet. It would come in handy later on if you have any other photos or documents that you may wish to post and research. Great cards but makes reading them upside down interesting.

Kevin

[jaydee500]

Centre pages of Xmas card...... Not sure about orientation problems, looks ok to me.

John

[jaydee500]

A big thank you to 'the custodian' for sending me the 12 page history. I spent time with my uncle last week plotting out events on a map of Picardy. Reading the account has been a revelation to us both, my uncle was never told any detail of events from his father.

Very interesting photo of the group too. My uncle doesn't recognise his father in the group, possibly he was having signalling training at the time? My uncle does recall talk of signalling training at Ventnor in the Isle of Wight which couldn't have been all bad as it was to Ventnor that my grandfather returned for his honeymoon after the war.

My uncle has a photo of some soldiers relaxing which we think was taken in Germany (army of occupation), he also has many many letters sent home from my grandfather when in France but obviously these contain no detail of what was going on.