155 Battery, Royal Field Artillery

14th Jan 1915 Reorganisation

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155 Battery, Royal Field Artillery
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Cannon Charles Herbert. Gnr.
Pidd Percy. Dvr.

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240094

Dvr. Percy Pidd 155th (West Yorkshire) Brigade, B Bty. Royal Field Artillery

On Thursday 15th April 1915 Percy Pidd set out from his parents small terraced house at 55 William Street, Swinton, in what was then the West Riding of Yorkshire, and travelled the couple of miles that separates it from the neighbouring town of Mexborough. He was 23 years old, single and a coal miner. The war had been going on for over 8 months and Percy was determined to do his bit. p>The nations coal miners had indeed responded magnificently to their countrys call to arms. Right from the outbreak of war the previous August, they had flocked to the colours in huge numbers. In the month of August 1914 alone 115,000 miners from all parts of the country had volunteered to fight, and in the less than a year that number was to double leaving many mining communities virtually emptied of their young men. But this exodus from the mines was having a damaging effect on the war effort. In an attempt to stem the flow of miners and other essential workers the Government raised the minimum height for recruits from 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 6 inches in September 1914. That was bad news for Percy who had found he was not only too short to join up, but even his chest measurement was now below the minimum required.
Heavy war losses soon forced the authorities to lower the minimum height, first to 5 feet 4 inches in mid October 1914 - still too tall for Percy - and then on 5th November 1914 back to the original 5 feet 3 inches. The way was again clear for Percy to join the ranks. He need not have done so, of course, conscription was a long way off and in any case as a miner he would probably have been exempt. However, enthusiasm for the war had not yet evaporated and most of its real horrors were still to happen. Not that there was long to wait for a taste of things to come as exactly one week after Percy joined up poisoned gas was used for the first time in the war, the Germans discharging 168 tons of chlorine into the Ypres Salient in Belgium to horrific effect. On the other hand recent war news had been encouraging with early successes in British naval attacks on the Dardanelles, shortly to be followed by landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula and the, albeit short-lived, hope of early victory.
Any doubts about Percys height were quickly swept aside, with the doctor examining him stating, with somewhat suspicious precision, that he was a clear five eighths of an inch above the minimum. His physical development was found to be good, he had a 35-inch chest when fully expanded and a three-inch range of expansion. His eyesight passed too with 6 over 18 being recorded for his right eye and 6 over 12 for his left eye. The Doctor also noted four vaccination marks, dating back to his childhood, on his right arm. Finally Percy tipped the scales at a trim 120 pounds. As it turned out Percys small stature would not have stood in his way for much longer. Just over a month later Lord Kitchener called for an additional 300,000 volunteers and the minimum height dropped once again, this time to 5 feet 2 inches.
He enlisted in the new 155th (West Yorkshire) Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery and was given the number 18828. The Brigade was just being formed as part of the 31st Division of one of Lord Kitcheners New Armies. The day after he became a soldier, Percy joined his Brigade at Wetherby. He was allocated to B Battery as a Driver and his training began. Eventually the Brigade moved to Lindrick Camp a couple of miles west of Ripon where the 31st Division, of which it was a part, was training at South Camp. The 31st Division was composed of units mainly from Yorkshire and Lancashire. Appropriately enough the Divisional badge showed two overlapping roses, one red, the other white. The badge worn by Yorkshiremen, such as Percy showed the white rose of York overlapping the red rose of Lancaster. The men from the other side of the Pennines reversed this on their badge with red rose on top. Their camp was in a beautiful location adjacent to the steep sided valley of the River Skell in which lay the famous 18th century water gardens of Studley Royal and the magnificent ruins of the 12th century Cistercian monastery Fountains Abbey. Percy recalled that he regularly watered the horses in his care in the river here. In this idyllic landscape not just the men, but also the horses - the remounts - were shaped into an effective fighting unit.
It was whilst still based at Lindrick Camp that Percy married his sweetheart Amy Florence Womersley. Percy and Amy Florence were married on Monday 11th of October 1915 in the United Methodist Church in Middle Dean Street, West Vale, Greetland on the southern outskirts of Halifax. The couple had little time to enjoy married life together. In little over ten weeks time Percy left for France and there is no evidence that he ever saw his new bride again in the three long years he served there.
On 29th December the Brigade left Fovant and made its way its way to Southampton for embarkation to France. The major task of loading the 155th Brigades 16 guns, 56 limber wagons, 9 GS wagons (general service vehicles for ammunition and so on), 11 carts, 4,032 18-pounder rounds of shrapnel and 451,110 rounds of small arms ammunition, 729 horses, 728 other ranks (including Percy) and 24 officers on board ships at Southampton was accomplished between 6pm and 9pm on the evening of 29th December. A Battery and the Brigades Ammunition Column arrived in Le Havre early on the morning of 30th December. Percys B Battery together with C and D Batteries and the Headquarters staff arrived next day, New Years Eve 1915. It also turned out to be the very last day on which it was possible to qualify for the award of the 1914-1915 Star. The medal that Percy subsequently received was clearly highly prized because his father had it gold plated!
Eight days after arriving on French soil B Battery fired its first shots in anger. On 7th January 1916 the Brigade took its place in the front line which lay well to the north west of Argoeuvres. They formed part of the left group of the 32nd Division facing the Germans in that part of Picardy known to us as the Somme. Their zone extended from Beaucourt-sur-Ancre to Martinsart and followed a line 500 yards south of Authville to Martinsart. B Battery found itself near the village of Mesnil, which it shelled heavily for the next two days.
Percy continued to see action before taking part in the Battle of the Somme. On 26th June they moved to The Bluff at Authuille, their final position ready for the start of the battle. The job of their 18-pounder field guns was to cut the barbed wire and shell the enemy communication trenches and strong points. They shared their position with A and C Batteries and with an observation point. It was a very dangerous spot as Lt. Col. Sheppard noted the following day in the War Diary. Although A, B and C Batteries were in an exposed position and ammunition was brought up to them every evening during the preliminary bombardment, the battery position and approaches to them were under intermittent heavy machine gun and artillery fire, the casualties sustained were very small. Mercifully Percys battery escaped without a single casualty.
And so dawned the fateful day when the Battle of the Somme finally began: Z Day Saturday 1st of July 1916.The 155th Brigades War Diary for that day reads simply: "Authuille 1st July 1916. All batteries took part in a heavy bombardment of the enemy lines prior to the attack by the 96th Infantry Brigade on Thiepval and trenches south of Thiepval. Bombardment started 65 minutes before zero time. Zero time was 7.30am. Infantry attacked at 7.30am supported by barrages on enemy support and reserve lines. Infantry entered enemy lines and many went on to support lines, but were unable to hold any enemy trenches in front of this sector". The battle continued with Percys Brigade supporting an attack by the 25th Divisions infantry south of Thiepval on the 3rd July. The 25th Division, which was commanded by Major General E.G.T. Bainbridge, had been moved up from reserve to join the X Corps for the assault. All the batteries heavily bombarded the enemy strong points and communication trenches from 1.15am to 3am and then again from 5am to 6.15am when the infantry attacked, supported by barrages from the artillery. But, of course, the Somme turned out to be a disaster and Percy was heavily involved throughout.
His next major engagement the Battle of Arras in April 1917. The 155th (now officially referred to as the CLV Army Brigade) had been brought in together with the CL Army Brigade to reinforce the 30th Divisional Artillery. Their job was to support the attack by infantry of the 21st and 89th Brigades of the 30th Division, whose objective was to capture the villages of Heniel and Wancourt. The plan was for the artillery to create a creeping barrage covering 100 yards in three minutes, with pauses as objectives were reached, then finally reducing to 100 yards in six minutes for the final assault on the two villages. Unfortunately things did not go exactly according to plan. The qualified success of the British at Arras was in sharp contrast to the disastrous showing of the French in the so-called Nivelle Offensive which was launched on 16th April, the day after the Battle of Arras ended.
The 155th Brigade, in common with virtually all available artillery, having moved north into Belgium to join the 2nd Army now found itself in the Ypres Salient. This was the most hotly contested area of Flanders. Facing them were formidable German trenches, dugouts and fortifications in the Klein-Vierstraat area on the strategically important Messines-Wytschaete Ridge a few miles south of the city of Ypres itself. Percy was about to fight in the Battle of Messines. The Brigades initial role was to keep up constant barrages. On 1st June 1917 the Brigade tried out a special Test Barrage on the enemy front line and support trenches at 6pm for ten minutes. They were also subject to enemy fire and on 2nd June B Battery had one soldier killed and five more wounded after being caught in heavy shelling. Three hundred Royal Flying Corps aircraft and eight balloons of the 2nd Kite Balloon Wing assisted the British gunners by carrying out artillery observation. Percys Battery was supporting the 19th (Western) Division under Major-General C D Shute positioned north of the Vierstraat to Wytschaete road facing what little remained of two woods, the Grand Bois and the Bois Quarante which were on and behind the German front line. Three mines in this sector at Hollandscheschuur helped the infantry composed of the 58th and 56th Brigades together with Welsh, Cheshire and Lancashire battalions easily overrun a particularly difficult salient known as the Nags Nose on an outlying spur of the main ridge. The Divisional Diary noted: "there was little resistance from the Germans, who either ran forward to surrender or if they could do so ran away, very few of them put up a fight". At 3.10pm, New Zero according to the War Diary, the 155th opened fire again to support a further advance to Odonto Trench and this final objective was taken easily.
In the six weeks that followed the victory at Messines, men and equipment were poured into the area around the once beautiful, but now utterly devastated, City of Ypres. Amongst them was Percys 155th Brigade which moved north on the 23rd June to Steentje and became attached to the 39th Division, part of the 5th Armys XVIII Corps. It was whilst still at Steentje on 29th July that the Brigade suffered its first recorded casualties as a result of enemy gas attacks. First to be gassed were two officers - one of them, 2nd Lt. E. Leet, from Percys B Battery. Neither died, but it was an ominous prelude of the real horrors soon to come. Just two days after the gas attack in which 2nd Lt. Leet was injured Percy and his comrades were plunged into the Third Battle of Ypres, a battle that has become synonymous with all that was most ghastly, barbaric and futile about the Great War. A battle better know as Passchendaele.
Early on the morning of 31st July the Brigades HQ moved to the Canal Bank. By 3am the entire British 2nd and 5th and French 1st Armies were in position ready to attack. Then as Lt Col. H. Allcard wrote in the 155ths War Diary came Zero Hour - 3.50am. A, B and C Batteries fired in a creeping barrage and D Battery in a standing barrage under the orders of Right Group 39th Divisional Artillery in support of an attack on the enemy trench system by the 116th Infantry Brigade. As Lt Col Allcard was forced to record in the 155ths War Diary: "During the afternoon it transpired that the infantry had not attained their final objectives". As withdrawal followed withdrawal the Brigade did its best to cover the retreat in very difficult circumstances. Lt Col Allcard had to admit, "The situation is a bit obscure, the infantry apparently holding the line of the Steenbeek."
In terms of casualties, July 1917 had been the worst month of the whole war so far for the 155th Brigade. Ten men were dead, 2 officers gassed and 43 men wounded, a total of 55 casualties out of the Brigades establishment of around 750 men. Even the Brigades Commanding Officer Lt Col Allcard was temporarily hospitalised. During his absence from 8th to 21st August command was in the hands of Major H K Saddler. Percys Brigade had advanced as far as the Steenbeek only later to be pulled back again to the banks of the Yser Canal. Fortunately the Germans concentrated their subsequent artillery bombardment further to the south causing heavy casualties amongst the men of the II and XIX Corps between Stirling Castle and St Julien. For the XVIII Corps things remained comparatively quiet for the time being. However as a Driver, Percy had to endure special dangers as the Official History makes clear. The wagon drivers and emergency carrying parties, even though they moved only by night, had continually to run the gauntlet of German artillery fire, because in the darkness the enemy shelled in particular, frequently with mustard gas, the mass of wheeled transport and pack animals which had to pass through the road bottleneck at the Menin Gate of Ypres. In this horrible conflict even the horses wore gas masks. An important part of Percys responsibilities as a Driver was, of course, to care for the animals in his charge. At the alert he had to ensure that not only his own crude and uncomfortable gas mask was in place, but that he quickly fitted the special equine masks to the noseband and headstall of the frightened and confused horses who were so vital to his battery. But there was little that could be done to protect the horses from the terrible skin blistering which mustard gas also caused. The suffering of horses in action particularly upset many soldiers who witnessed it. Just how many of the 155ths horses died as a result of gas, bullets, shellfire or other injuries is not recorded, but official figures show that by the end of the Great War a total of 484,143 animals had been killed or died in service with the British forces.
The next phase of the conflict saw Percy fighting in the Battle of Langemarck. Percys Brigade had two officers and five men killed and two officers and 44 men wounded during August, a month during which, as their War Diary records, they were constantly in action. Then came the Battle of Menin Road. By the end of September 1917 the monthly toll for Percys Brigade was another eight men dead, 38 wounded and two officers wounded.
Percy fought on to the bitter end of the war in 1918, but his luck held and he evaded injury throughout, except that is for the day he was grooming one of the battery's horses which suddenly kicked out and Percy found himself in the field hospital for a few days.
Howard Pidd

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235939

Gnr. Charles Herbert Cannon 48th Brigade, 155 Battery Royal Field Artillery

Apparently, my grandfather, Charles Cannon volunteered on the 4th of August 1914 aged 19. Before the war he had worked as a gardener, but his father was a drayman in Hertford for the McMullen Brewery, so he was familiar with horses, hence I believe his recruitment to the RFA. The 48th Brigade was part of the 14th (Light) Division that was sent to France in May 1915. From the available material he would have seen action several times, including the Somme. The Brigade left the Division in January 1917 to form a new Army Brigade, but I have been unable to trace him after this time. However he was in England in December 1917 when he married my grandmother in Hertford. He returned to civilian life as a gardener in Ingatestone and for the Colchester Parks Department. He died in 1957.
Steve Cannon

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Those known to have served with
155 Battery, Royal Field Artillery
during the Great War 1914-1918.