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[Guest Geordie Lad]

Regards

[Simon R]

I'm probably being pig ignorant here but does the T. stand for 'Trench'? and if so what ungodly calibre was a trench howitzer? Or is it: T (Howitzer) Battery, 32nd Brigade RGA?

I'm going through a particularly stupid phase at the moment please forgive me for I know not what I do.

[Hoplophile]

This is a particularly mysterious reference, with lots of anomalies.

Here are some facts bearing on the case:

1. "Trench howitzer" was often used as a synonym for "trench mortar" during WWI.

2. Garden-variety trench mortar batteries belonged to the RFA rather than the RGA.

3. Garden-variety trench mortar batteries were identified by letters of the alphabet - e.g. X, Y and Z.

4. The catalog at the Public Records Office shows that a war diary exists for a "32 Trench Motar Battery." This diary covers the period August 1915 through February 1916 and is filed with the records of the 17th Division.

With these things in mind, I suspect that the 32nd Trench Howitzer Battery was an experimental unit formed by the RGA in the early days of trench mortars. Soon after the unit was formed, the decision was taken to form subsequent trench mortar units as RFA batteries. (That decision would have been somewhat at odds with the general tendency of the period, which was to form artillery units armed with unusual ordance -i.e. anything but a conventional field gun or light field howitzer - within the RGA.)

[rflory]

Hoplophile:

With these things in mind, I suspect that the 32nd Trench Howitzer Battery was an experimental unit formed by the RGA in the early days of trench mortars. Soon after the unit was formed, the decision was taken to form subsequent trench mortar units as RFA batteries. (That decision would have been somewhat at odds with the general tendency of the period, which was to form artillery units armed with unusual ordance -i.e. anything but a conventional field gun or light field howitzer - within the RGA.)

I presume that the reason that the Trench Mortar Batteries became RFA rather than RGA was that they were a divisional unit and the Divisional Artillery was composed of RFA Brigades. It therefore made more sense to affiliate with the DA and the RFA than with the RGA (which was not represented at the Divisional level. Regards. Dick Flory

[Simon R]

I.V. Hogg in 'Allied Artillery of WWI' notes that the Americans termed some of their heavier guns 'mortars' instead of 'howitzers'. I wonder if this has rubbed off or whether it's completely apocryphal.

My money would be on the previous suggestion of 32nd Trench Mortar Bty.

You can but try.

[Hoplophile]

I just checked the electronic catalogue at the PRO website. According to it, the records for the "32 Trench Mortar Battery" are filed with the records of the 17th Division. However, when I checked A.F. Becke's "Order of Battle Divisions" (Volume 3a, New Army), I found no mention of 32 Trench Mortar Battery on the pages for the 17th Division. What I did find, however, was much mention of brigade trench mortar batteries - trench mortar batteries that were formed within (or for) infantry brigades in the summer of 1916. These batteries bore the number of their parent infantry brigades. Thus, 32nd Trench Mortar Battery belonged to the 32nd Infantry Brigade (of the 11th Division.)

But wait ...

If the trench mortar batteries of infantry brigades weren't formed until the summer of 1916, what should we make of a war diary for a numbered trench mortar battery that runs from August 1915 through February 1916?

The mystery continues ...