{"id":61,"date":"2014-05-23T11:24:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T11:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ww1hull.com\/the-artillery\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T12:02:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T12:02:56","slug":"the-artillery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ww1hull.com\/?p=61","title":{"rendered":"The Hull Heavy Battery, RGA"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The First World War was an artillery war. The Royal Artillery like their motto “Ubique” served everywhere and suffered nearly 50,000 casualties in the First World war. The Regiment used an immense range of weapons and has its own unique War Memorial at Hyde Park Corner in London.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The Heavy Guns of the Royal Garrison Artillery, fired large calibre, high explosive shells, in fairly flat trajectory fire. Britain defined the size of artillery by the weight of the shell. In 1914, the heaviest artillery gun was the 60-pounder, with four guns to each heavy battery. However, some had obsolescent 5 inch howitzers. As British artillery tactics developed, the Heavy Batteries were mostly employed in destroying or neutralising the enemy artillery, as well as putting destructive fire down on strongpoints, store dumps, roads and railways, behind enemy lines. <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Artillery caused 60% of all war casualties and 75% of Trench injuries. It was the most devastating weaponry of the war, and won battles. <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Despite the long Royal Navy tradition of using heavy artillery, the British Army had little heavy field artillery before World War I. This caused a serious disadvantage for the British infantry in the first years of the war.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Royal Artillery Memorial, Hyde Park Corner, London<\/strong>. Unveiled on 18 October 1925. Designed by two WW1 veterans, Charles Sargeant Jagger and Lionel Pearson. Commissioned by Gunners for Gunners, the memorial depicts an artillery piece and the role of the Artillery in WW1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1914, Britain’s artillery, consisted of the Royal Horse Artillery, (light, mobile, 13 Pounder guns, to support the cavalry), the Royal Field Artillery, (more numerous, medium sized, 18 Pounders, to support front line infantry) and the Royal Garrison Artillery, (using heavier, 60 Pounder guns, to break defences). It also drew experienced gunners, from Britain’s coastal defences, local territorial forces, like the Honourable Artillery Company, and the Royal Navy’s, Royal Marine Artillery, which used Heavy Howitzers. Britain had a highly professional artillery force in 1914, but small compared to Germany, Austria and Italy and insufficient to break the deadlock on the Western Front. <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

There was a serious shortage of shells in 1915 and through necessity, Britain developed a war economy, to mass produce munitions, and armaments. This enabled Britain’s Artillery to build bigger guns, with better shells and fuses, that could dispense chemical weapons and fire high explosive shells<\/a>, higher, further and faster. There were four types of shell used – direct action, delayed action, shrapnel and poison shells, each case painted a different colour, to distinguish in the heat of battle. The Shells were heavy and often had to be hauled by animals. Even with the inventions of new technologies like aircraft, machine guns, and tanks, artillery remained the primary weapon on land during World War I. Artillery was the principal threat to ground troops in the war and was the main reason for the development of trench warfare. Britain alone produced nearly four million rifles, a quarter of a million machine guns, 52,000 aeroplanes, 25,000 artillery pieces\u00a0and over 170 million rounds of artillery shells by the end of the war.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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British 18-pounder (Mark I) field gun – a general purpose gun, used in \u2018creeping barrage\u2019 maneuvers, and in pre-emptive strikes before major offensives. Fired 8 round a minute, over 7,000 yards.<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the Western Front, Britain created new types of artillery, like Mortars, to support trench warfare and larger Siege Howitzers, to destroy strongholds. <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Larger, modern recoil artillery, were manufactured, like the British 12-inch (Mark III) Railway Howitzer, that was 41 feet long, weighed 76 tons and fired a shell a minute, over 13,000 meters. <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The British 4.5-inch howitzer, which fired four rounds a minute, over 7000 yards, soon became the standard British Empire howitzer, firing in an upwards, curved trajectory, over hills. The 182 available at the outset of the war became 3,177 more over the next four years. <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The British 60-pounder field gun, used mainly for counter-battery, required 8-12 horses to transport it and fired 2 rounds a minute, over 10,000 yards. The British 9.2-inch (Mark I) Howitzer became the principal counter-battery weapon, firing 2 rounds a minute, over 10,000 yards. The gun initially served only on the Western Front with 36 British, one Australian and two Canadian batteries, but was soon expanded. Old heavy guns also remained in use until the end of the war and after. <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

During the war, the artillery grew not only in terms of absolute numbers, but as a relative share of the entire army. Between 1914 and 1918, the Royal Field Artillery had increased from 45 field brigades to 173 field brigades, while the heavy and siege artillery of the RGA had increased from 32 heavy and six siege batteries, to 117 heavy and 401 siege batteries. With this increase came the need to find a more efficient method of moving the heavier guns around. Tractors were used for the first time and large Naval guns were mounted on various railway platforms to offer long range support.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Guns were used for a range of vital work both offensively and defensively. Operating an artillery piece was a complicated, technical process, carried out by teams of men, working in confined gun pits. The work of the gun crews was physical and dangerous. Gun emplacements were dug by hand, in all weathers. Gunners had to lay stable, timber platforms and sandbagged guns for protection.\u00a0 The guns were heavy and cumbersome, 8-inch howitzer shells weighed 200 pounds and crews were expected to fire 800-1000 shells a day during heavy bombardments, all the time, being observed, shelled by enemy and surrounded by live ammunition.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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British 4.5-inch howitzer, fired four rounds a minute, over 7000 yards, and soon became the standard British Howitzer.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Command and control of the guns was improved throughout the war. Divisional Batteries spread across the battle, became Heavy Artillery Groups after February 1915, and in 1916, these were commanded by Army Corps, which meant guns could be physically moved, to where concentrated fire was most needed.<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The artillery became more mechanised, replacing horses with motorised transport and railways. Observation and Signal units, were improved to spot targets. Lieutenant\u00a0William Lawrence Bragg<\/a> developed “Audio ranging” to determine the location of targets by means of acoustics. Later <\/span><\/strong>“Light Spotting” would be developed to locate enemy guns by their gun flashes<\/span><\/strong>. <\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Telephones, Radio and Wireless would be used for the first time, to improve artillery communications. These would be linked to the new Royal Flying Corps, to provide better aerial observation and co-ordinated artillery fire. Artillery tactics also changed, using “Box barrages” to concentrate fire, on specific areas, “boxed” on a map, and the “creeping barrage” to destroy obstacles in the path of advancing infantry.\u00a0 Guns became more accurate, allowing precision artillery fire, in surprise attacks. Britain rapidly developed a strong, powerful artillery, that was destructive and feared. For example, British guns supported the American offensive, in 1918 and were highly praised by the Americans for their flexibility and effectiveness. It was realised that the important effect of the barrage was to demoralise and suppress the enemy, rather than physical destruction; a short, intense bombardment immediately followed by an infantry assault was more effective than the weeks of grinding bombardment used in 1916. British artillery rained down high-explosive shells, shrapnel and poison gas on the enemy. Heavy fire destroyed troop concentrations, wire and fortified positions. By the end of the war, the enemy were no longer safe and could be constantly fired upon. British artillery could neutralise German guns, almost as soon as they fired. Artillery in short, had become a war-winner.<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
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British 60-pounder field gun, used for counter-battery fire. It required 8 to 12 horses to transport it, and fired 2 rounds a minute, over 10,330 yards.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 1st Hull Heavy Artillery\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

With the shortage of Heavy artillery, Hull had the foresight to recruit it’s own Heavy Artillery and Support Column, when war began. A typical Heavy Battery, contained 5 Officers, 170 men, 4 artillery pieces, 8 ammunition wagons, 86 draught horses and between 17-26 riding horses. Hull recruited :-<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

–\u00a0 \u00a0the 11th RGA (1st Hull ) Heavy Battery, formed on 1st May 1915. It trained with the 11th Division and became known as the 11th RGA. This went to East Africa, on the 8th February 1916 and later went to France in 1918; Recruited in Hull, it was the first unit of the Royal Garrison Artillery<\/a> raised for the new \u2018Kitchener\u2019s Army<\/a>\u2018.<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

–\u00a0 \u00a0the 124th RGA (2nd Hull) Heavy Battery, formed in Hull June 1915, proceeded to France, in April 1916 and served there, until the end of the war;<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

–\u00a0 \u00a0the 146th RGA (3rd Hull) Heavy Battery, formed in Hull, on 22nd May 1916 and served in France from June 1916, onwards.<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

–\u00a0 \u00a0the 32nd (Hull) Divisional Ammunition Column, RFA, was formed in Hull, in September 1914, from local Policemen and Tramway workers. Commanded by Lt Col, James Walker. It became the 38th (Hull) Divisional Ammunition Column, on 14th May, 1915, joining the 31st Division on 8th December 1915. It embarked from Southampton, on 29th December 1915 , disembarked at Havre and joined the 32nd Division, at Argoeuves the next day.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As artillery expanded and evolved during the war, Hull also formed new artillery support units, such as\u00a0 the:-<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n