Thursday 26 May 2016

RA300 - Royal Artillery Tercentenary - RA Heritage

On completion of the Royal Review there was the opportunity to look at the equipment that had been reviewed by the Queen.

RA 300 with Light Gun

STA Equipment                                                    Weapon Systems

              Warrior OPV                                          Light Gun           MLRS

After lunch there was an opportunity to experience the 300 years of Royal Artillery history through heritage displays and re-enactments.  The story of the Royal Artillery was told through a gun   display and firing of equipment used through out the last 300 years.

 
The initial display featured Waterloo to Wipers: Guns from the Age of the Horse. The guns manned at Waterloo, Queen Victoria’s Volunteer Artillery, and an 18 pounder from WW1 were in action.
Waterloo to Wipers
                   Waterloo                   Victorian Volunteers     WW1 18 pounder

Waterloo to Wipers firing
 The Company Musketeers and Pikemen from the Honourable Artillery Company gave a display of pike and shot from the age of the English Civil War. One command that was definitely non Gunner like was “rest in a lazy pose“ !!

Musketeers and Pikemen
Honourable Artillery Company
 It was then a return to gunnery and Tyres and Tracks: Guns from the Age of Mechanisation. The mechanisation of the Royal Artillery after WW1 brought gun tractors and self propelled guns.

Coming into action and firing were an 18 pounder, 25 pounder and Sexton SP.

Mechanised Tractor with 18 pounder

Quad and 25 pounder

Sexton Self-propelled 25 pounder

Sexton firing
The final firing display consisted of the guns of Arnhem included 25 pounder 3.7in HAA Gun and a 5.5 inch.

Guns of Arnhem
 As a finale there was a flypast of an Auster Aircraft as used by the Air OP units of the Royal Artillery.

Auster Air OP Flypast
*


MLRS towing 25 pounders !


 

RA300 - Royal Artillery Tercentenary - Royal Review

On 26th May 1716 King George 1st signed a Royal Warrant to form the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Three hundred years later the Gunners commemorated their Tercentenary with their Captain General reviewing the Royal Regiment of today. The review took place 26th May 2016 at Larkhill, Headquarters of the Royal Artillery.



The days proceedings commenced with Her Majesty  arriving by helicopter and then proceeding in an open top land rover to Knighton Down on Salisbury Plain.

Her Majesty the Queen arrives at Knighton Down
She was received by an honour guard from 1st RHA.



RA 300 Honour Guard 1 RHA
Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery Fired a 21 Gun Salute.

Kings Troop RHA fire Royal Salute
The Royal Regiment of Artillery was then reviewed by the Captain General with representation from all Regiments and equipment currently in service with the Royal Artillery.

Her Majesty the Queen
Captain General reviews Royal Regiment of Artillery

 Queen passes by Kings Troop RHA

 
Queen with AS90
Queen with Light Gun
 Representing 101 (Northumbrian Regiment was a MLRS detachment with one Gunner from each of the Batteries within the Regiment.
Queen with MLRS from 101 (Northumbrian) Regiment RA

On conclusion of the Captain Generals Review the Master Gunner, addressed The Royal Regiment.

Master Gunners Speech
Royal Review 26 May 2016


Your Majesty,

The many members of the Royal Regiment honoured to be celebrating our Tercentenary in Your presence, do so in the knowledge that whilst we are shaped by our past, we are defined by what we do today, and are ready for what is to come. So the Regiment You have just reviewed is drawn up to show how it operates and fights in 2016. To your left are highly sophisticated and integrated means of finding adversaries and protecting our own forces—whilst to your right the means of striking hard, with precision and at range, comprises a wide range of weapon systems.

STA Equipment                                                Weapon Systems

But what of our 300 years ? In short, they have been defined by human achievement in a multiplicity of realms: in original thought (we were the first Regiment to educate it’s officers and to undertake formal military exercises); in science (Congreve’s pioneering designs from the 18th century  were recognizable in the guns and rockets recently used in Afghanistan.); in scale (Woolwich was the first military-industrial complex in the world and in the 2nd World War more than a million men and women wore our badge, seeing action on land, sea, and air and in every theatre); in many other realms (music and the film world, mountaineering and ocean sailing, political leadership and past and current Olymoiads just for example); and in terms of outright distinction (where the nation’s debt to Alanbrooke is probably the greatest case in point). Along the way there has been outright gallantry, heroism and sacrifice and service to the nation and mankind. Sixty two Gunners have won the Victoria Cross.

 Since 1945 many Gunners have been decorated for gallantry including Sergeant Bryan, Gunner Gadsby and Lance Bombardier Prout who were awarded Conspicuous Gallantry Crosses in recent operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 We should reflect that these 300 years of achievement have come at great personal cost. We lost just over 49 thousand officers and men in the 1st World War and nearly 29 thousand in the 2nd with countless thousands wounded. Since then 461 Gunners have given their lives on operations.  
It is important that the current generation identifies with this notable day. To that end a Baton, designed to reflect our history and bearing Your name as our Captain General, has in the past 12 months been carried around the world by teams from all our regiments. The route chosen took it through Commonwealth and Allied countries, as well as those of significance in our 300 year history. The journey, characterized by endeavour, ambition, adventure,   historical reflection and sporting challenge, embraced 26 countries. It started at Woolwich with the first leg being carried out by King’s Troop.

 As I speak, The Troop has completed the last leg across Salisbury Plain................

Kings Troop with Captain Generals Baton gallop across Salisbury Plain

Kings Troop deliver the Captain Generals Baton
and the Baton will be presented to You now by the youngest member of the Royal Regiment.

Youngest member of the Royal Artillery
 presents the Captain Generals Baton
to Her Majesty the Queen.
Our 3 centuries have forged a family Regiment and determined our character (’once a Gunner always a Gunner’ very much holds good). And in conveying the Regiment’s loyal greetings to You on this day, I do so with the assurance that that character and a preparedness to embrace technology, a determination to apply it intelligently on the battlefield and essential  competence in all we do — will  continue to define Gunners everywhere we may serve.

General Timothy Granville-Chapman GBE KCB
Master Gunner & Captain General

 Her Majesty the Queen, Captain General Royal Regiment of Artillery responded to the Master Gunner.

Master Gunner,
I last reviewed my Royal Regiment in 1984 in Dortmund and you have, consistent with your motto - Ubique - since then taken part in many operations, always adapting   quickly to new circumstances that face the Armed Forces today.

In all the theatres of war and in peacekeeping and    humanitarian missions throughout the world, you have served with great distinction, especially so in the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
It has indeed been a demanding period, for Gunners of all ranks and for your families who have so closely supported you.  You should be rightly proud of your achievements.
I congratulate you on the journey of the Captain-General’s Baton, which has so successfully reinforced the links     between the Royal Regiment and the Commonwealth and our Allies and which, of course, characterises the strength and depth of my Regiment's commitment to our common cause of freedom and democracy around the world.
The Royal Regiment of Artillery has since 1716 proudly served the Nation all over the World and I wish all Gunners every success and good fortune in the future.

On conclusion of the Captain General’s speech a drive past  by the Royal Regiment was led by King’s Troop Royal  Artillery.

Kings Troop RHA lead the Drive Past

Kings Troop RHA Eyes Right for the Captain General

Kings Troop RHA with AS90
AS 90 Eyes Right for Captain General


 


 

 

 

 

Royal Artillery Tercentenary

 
 

Thursday 19 May 2016

Ypres 2016 - 50th (Northumbrian) Division Memorial

A memorial to the 50th (Northumbrian) Division is located in the hamlet of Wieltje, and the nearby Oxford Road Cemetery.

50th Northumbrian Division Memorial
Wieltje
The Northumbrian Division left the North East in April 1915, and was complete in Ypres on the evening of 22n April 1915, just as the Germans released gas and the Division was immediately called into action to block German attempts to break the British line. It became the 50th Division in May 1915.

The Division were enaged in the following Battles as part of 2nd Battle of Ypres:
The Battle of St Julien
The Battle of Frezenburg Ridge
The Battle of Bellewaarde Ridge


The 50th Northumbrian Division would return to the Ypres Salient in 1917 engaged in the 3rd Battle of Ypres:
Second Battle of Passchendaele

The memorial design was the result of a design competition in 1928. It records the units of the Northumbrian Division.

50th Northumbrian Division Memorial
Divisional Units form Great War

1st 2nd 3rd 4th Northumbrian Brigade RFA
Northumbrian Ammunition Column

The 50th (Northumbrian) Division would return to the Ypres area in 1940 where they were engaged in halting the German advance during the Withdrawal to Dunkirk. The losses of World War Two are also commemorated on the memorial.

50th Northumbrian Division Memorial
Commemorations from World War One & World War Two

Sunday 15 May 2016

Ypres 2016 - Menin Gate Bdr. Gregg

Menin Gate South
Commemorated on the Menin Gate is Bombardier John Gregg who as killed on 8th May 1915. He, along with Gunner William Fishwick were the first Northumbrian Gunners killed on the Western Front in the First World War.

John William Gregg was born on 24th March 1895 in Jarrow, the eldest son of George and Emma Louisa Gregg residing at 48 Gladstone Street Hebburn. He was educated at Grange Boys School in Jarrow, leaving at the age of 13. He was employed at Palmers Works as an apprentice boiler maker. 

 He enlisted into the 5th Durham Battery Royal Field Artillery at Hebburn, part of the 4th Northumbrian Howitzer Brigade, on 23rd October 1913. The Brigade formed part of the Divisional Artillery. Mobilised 4th August 1914 he volunteered for Imperial Service. 

Tthe Northumbrian Division left the North East on the 18th April, arriving in Ypres 22nd April. At that time the 2nd Battle of Ypres was raging.

On the 8th May the Hebburn Battery was located near La Brique when the Germans succeeded in locating the Battery and shelled it killing Bombardier Gregg and Gunner Fishwick.

Gunner William Fishwick is buried in La Brique Cemetery
http://northumbriangunner.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/ypres-2010-la-brique-cemetery.html




Bombardier John Gregg has no known grave, he is recorded on the Addenda Panel on the
Menin Gate.
Bombardier Gregg JW Royal Field Artillery
Bombardier Gregg JW RFA
Menin Gate South - Addenda Panel
 
 His name can be found on the Palmer Cenotaph where he is listed under the Jarrow Engine Works, and he is recorded on the Roll of Honour for Grange Boys School in Jarrow.
 
Palmers Works War Memorial
Jarrow
 
Palmers Works War Memorial
John W.Gregg  Jarrow Engine Works