22nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

   XXII Brigade, Royal Field Artillery comprised of 104, 105 and 106 Batteries, they joined 7th Division in the New Forest in Hampshire in late September 1914. The Division landed at Zeebrugge in the first week of October 1914, to assist in the defence of Antwerp, they arrived too late prevent the fall of the city and took up defensive positions at important bridges and junctions to aid in the retreat of the Belgian army. The 7th Division then became the first British Troops to entrench in front of Ypres, suffering extremely heavy losses in the The First Battle of Ypres. By February 1915 the Division had been reinforced to fighting strength and they were in action at The Battle of Neuve Chapelle, The Battle of Aubers, The Battle of Festubert. On the 24th of June 1915 35 (Howitzer) Battery joined from IV Corps. They fought in The Second action of Givenchy and The Battle of Loos. In 1916 22nd Brigade RFA were in action during the Battles of the Somme, including the capture Mametz, The Battle of Bazentin, the attacks on High Wood, The Battle of Delville Wood, The Battle of Guillemont and the Operations on the Ancre. In 1917 They fought during The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line and the flanking operations round Bullecourt during The Arras Offensive, before moving to Flanders for the Third Battle of Ypres, seeing action in The Battle of Polygon Wood, The Battle of Broodseinde, The Battle of Poelcapelle and The Second Battle of Passchendaele. In late 1917 the 7th Division was selected to move to Italy. They took up position in the line along the River Piave,in late January 1918. 7th Division played a central role in crossing the Piave, in October and at the Battle of Vittoria Veneto.

4th Oct 1914 Orders Received

5th Oct 1914 On the Move

6th Oct 1914 On the Move

7th Oct 1914 On the Move

8th Oct 1914 On the Move

9th Oct 1914 Anxiety

10th Oct 1914 Withdrawal

11th Oct 1914 Hostile Forces

11th Oct 1914 Orders

12th Oct 1914 On the March

13th Oct 1914 Enemy Closes

14th Oct 1914 On the March

15th Oct 1914 Hostile Column

16th Oct 1914 Line Advanced

17th Oct 1914 Enemy Active

18th Oct 1914 Planning

19th Oct 1914 Hard Fighting

20th Oct 1914 In Action

20th Oct 1914 Defensive Line

21st Oct 1914 In Action

21st Oct 1914 Hard Fighting

22nd Oct 1914 New Line Occupied

22nd Oct 1914 Bombardment

23rd Oct 1914 Heavy Shelling

23rd Oct 1914 Under Fire

24th Oct 1914 Hard Fighting

24th Oct 1914 Enemy Break Through

25th Oct 1914 Enemy Break Through

26th Oct 1914 Forced Back

27th Oct 1914 Orders Received

28th Oct 1914 Artillery Active

29th Oct 1914 Hard Fighting

30th Oct 1914 Hard Fighting

31st Oct 1914 Hard Fighting

9th May 1915 The Battle of Aubers Ridge: The Northern pincer  2.30am: all units in the North report that they are in position, having assembled at night. 4.06am: sunrise and all very quiet on this front.
5.00am: British bombardment opens with field guns firing shrapnel at the German wire and howitzers firing High Explosive shells onto front line. Many reports are received that British 4.7-inch shells are falling short, and even on and behind the British front line (Later it is agreed that this is due to faulty ammunition, as well as excessive wear to gun barrels). 5.30am: British bombardment intensifies, field guns switch to HE and also fire at breastworks. Two guns of 104th Battery, XXII Brigade RFA had been brought up into the 24th Brigade front and they now opened fire at point blank range against the enemy breastworks; they blow several gaps, although one of the guns is inaccurate due to the unstable ground on which it is located. The lead battalions of the two assaulting Brigades of 8th Division (24th Brigade has 2/Northants and 2/East Lancashire in front; 25th Brigade has 2/Rifle Brigade, 1/Royal Irish Rifles and 1/13 London Regiment (Kensingtons)) move out into the narrow No Man's Land (in this area it is only 100-200 yards across). German bayonets can be seen behind their parapet.
5.40am: On the further advance the 2nd East Lancs are hit by heavy machine-gun and rifle fire by the time they had progressed thirty yards from their own trench; the 2nd Northants, coming up ten minutes later, were similarly hit, but a party got through one of the gaps blown by the field guns, and into the German front trench. The attack of 25th Brigade is much more successful: the wire on the left had been well-cut and the infantry poured through, crossing the almost-undamaged breastworks and into the German fire trenches. They moved onto the first objective (a bend in the Fromelles road), and the Rifle Brigade bombers extended the trench system they occupied to 250 yards broad. On the blowing of the two mines at 5.40am, the lead companies of the Kensingtons rushed to occupy the craters, moved forward to capture Delangre Farm, and then formed a defensive flank as ordered.
6.10am: Brig.Gen. Oxley (24th Brigade) orders the support battalion, 1st Notts & Derbys, to support the attack of the Lancashires, but they are also held up with high losses, at almost unbroken wire. The front and communication trenches are by now very crowded and chaotic; German shelling adds to confusion. By now, the fire across No Man's Land was so intense that forward movement was all but impossible. The support battalion of the 25th Brigade, the 2nd Lincolns, was ordered forward, to cross by the craters; they did so, despite losing many men on the way. Men of the Brigade were at this time seen to be retiring to their front line, having apparently received a shouted order. German prisoners, making their way to the British lines, were mistaken for a counterattack and there was a great deal of confusion. Brig.Gen Lowry Cole, CO 25th Brigade, was mortally wounded when standing on the British parapet in an attempt to restore order.
8.30am: the attack had established three small lodgements in the enemy positions, but they were not in contact with each other and were under tremendous pressure. Otherwise the attack had come to a standstill and all movement into or out of the trench system had become impossible. The men in the German positions were cut off.
8.45am and again at 11.45am: Haig orders Rawlinson (CO, IV Corps) to vigorously press home the attack.
1.30pm: A renewed attack with 2nd Queens of 22nd Brigade in support, did not take place as the troops were heavily shelled in the assembly areas and many casualties were suffered even before the original support lines had been reached. Major-General Gough (CO, 7th Division, whose 21st Brigade had now also been ordered forward by Haig) reported that after a personal reconnaissance he was certain that forward movement was at the present time impossible.
5.00pm: General Haig, hearing of the continued failure of the Southern attack and the hold-up after initial success of the Northern attack, orders a bayonet attack at dusk, 8.00pm.

9th May 1915 The Battle of Aubers Ridge: Evening and Night  2nd Battalion Queens (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
6.00pm: such chaos in the trench system and on the roads and tracks leading to it that it becomes clear that fresh units will not be ready for the 8pm attack. Haig cancels the attack and rides to Indian Corps HQ at Lestrem, to meet with all Corps commanders to consider the next moves. 7.30pm: the meeting breaks up having decided to renew the attack next day, taking advantage of night to reorganise. Efforts were made throughout the evening to reinforce the small garrisons of the lodgements in the enemy trenches. 26 men of the 2/Northants, of which 10 were wounded, returned to the British front. 2.30am 10 May: the 200 or so surviving Rifle Brigade and Royal Irish Rifles were withdrawn from their position, all efforts to reinforce them having been repulsed. 3.00am 10 May: the last few Kensingtons also returned from their position; all British troops were now out of the German lines. Around this time, First Army HQ, having by now got a good picture of the losses, failures and general conditions, called a Commanders conference for 9.00am, to take place at I Corps HQ on the Locon road, some 1.5 miles from Bethune. 9.00am 10 May: the Army and Corps commanders and staffs in attendance learned that there was insufficient artillery ammunition to continue two attacks. (The Secretary of State for War, Kitchener, had also just ordered a considerable portion of existing stocks to be sent to the Dardanelles); for example there were only some 3,000 18-lbr rounds left, and some of that was way behind the firing positions. They also heard that the 4.7-inch ammunition that had caused problems on IV Corps front was too defective for further use and that the fuzes on 15-inch heavy rounds were also defective and the shells simply did not burst on hitting the wet ground. All further orders for renewing the attack were cancelled at 1.20pm; the views of the conference were transmitted to GHQ. 7th Division was ordered to move from it's position north of Neuve Chapelle to the south of it, with a view to strengthening a future offensive there. British casualties from the 9 May attacks continued to move through the Field Ambulances for at least three days after the attack.
More than 11,000 British casualties were sustained on 9 May 1915, the vast majority within yards of their own front-line trench. Mile for mile, Division for Division, this was one of the highest rates of loss during the entire war. There is no memorial to the attack at Aubers Ridge.

21st Sep 1915 Orders

10th Jul 1916 106 Bty RFA in Action  106th Battery, 22nd Brigade, RFA were positioned on the east flank of Mametz Wood above the valley in a strip of woodland called Caterpillar Wood on 10th July 1916 close to a part of Mametz Wood called the Hammerhead. They were shelling towards Flat Iron Copse which is in the north east and just beyond the eastern edge of Mametz Wood.

17th Jan 1918 Tragic Accident

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Those known to have served with
22nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
during the Great War 1914-1918.

Forbes Peter Carlton. Pte. (d.28th Sep 1918)
McKenna William. Gnr. (d.29th Sep 1918)
O'Connor MM & Bar. Peter. Gnr.
Page MBE.. Harold James. Capt.
Woodhouse Cuthbert William. Cpl.

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234666

Cpl. Cuthbert William Woodhouse 22nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery

Bill Woodhouse joined the British Army, Royal Field Artillery in January 1909 aged 14 years and 9 months. At the beginning of WWI he was a member of 22nd Brigade. Early in WWI he became a corporal. He fought through many battles (later details sadly as yet not known) and was wounded in action, a piece of shrapnel hit him in the helmet, shattering his skull. He was Blightied out and at some point later he had a steel plate in his head replacing the shattered bone. He eventually left the British Army after a period of convalescence and recovery in January 1918, and lived into his eighties.
E Woodhouse

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231978

Capt. Harold James Page MBE. 106 Battery, 22nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery

Harold James Page born 1890 joined up in 1914 and fought in Ypres and then in France. By July 1916, he was fighting in France as a Captain of 106 battery of 22nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery in the lead up to and during the Battle of Mametz Wood
On 10th July 1916 he was acting as a Forward Observation Officer (FOO) on top of Caterpillar Wood, south of Mametz Wood, looking out towards Flat Iron Copse and positioned south of the Hammer Head part of Mametz Wood. Caterpillar Wood had been occupied in the weeks before by the Germans who had left piles of ammunition there as they retreated. On 10th July 1916, the German guns were firing towards Caterpillar Wood and at about 9.50 pm on the evening of 10th July 1916, a shell fell near where Harold Page was observing, blowing up a pile of ammunition. A sliver of red hot shrapnel pierced Harold's left lower jaw passing straight through and out the other side exiting just under his left ear. Although it shattered his jaw and teeth, it did not kill him. He was treated initially at a dressing station near Caterpillar Wood and then evacuated via The Loop, The Triangle and Minden Post to the village of Morlancourt where he remembers waking up in an old church which was being used as a Main Dressing Station. He was sent back to England immediately to Guys Hospital, London and took no further part in military operations.
Despite his dreadful wounds he resumed working for the war effort in London and was awarded the MBE for his services in July 1917. He became one of the earliest of Dr Gillies patients having his face reconstructed. He made a full recovery and went on to live a full and happy life , he married and had 4 children - I am his granddaughter. Harold died in January 1972.
Judy Barradell-Smith

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229254

Gnr. Peter O'Connor MM & Bar HQ Coy. 22nd Brigade

Peter O'Connor's service record is still being researched. I understand his awards were in connection with re-establishing damaged communications lines in 'no-man's-land'.
Peter Johnstone

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216510

Gnr. William McKenna 22nd Bde. Royal Field Artillery (d.29th Sep 1918)

William McKenna served in 22nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery and died on the 29th September 1918. He is remembered at St. Paul's Church and us buried in Templeux-le-Guerard British Cemetery. His medal card shows the award of the 1914 Star, War and Victory Medals. His older brother Thomas Patrick, 528 Field Company, Royal Engineers was also among the fallen.
William was born in Jarrow 1890, son of William and Elizabeth McKenna nee Watson of 48 Charles Street, Jarrow. In the 1911 census William is listed on the rolls of the his RFA unit.
Vin Mullen

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208245

Pte. Peter Carlton Forbes 22nd Brigade, "B" Battery Royal Field Artillery (d.28th Sep 1918)

Peter Carlton Forbes was born to Peter Grassick Forbes of Dunfermline Scotland and the Late Jane Forbes who came from Broken Hill Australia. It is understood that on the outbreak of the WW1 a number of men including immigrants from the UK and, of course, Peter and his father left Australia to join the British Army and fight the war. He had married Margaret Elizabeth Magraw and fathered a child, named Peter Grassick Forbes. He came home to visit his son before going off on a campaign from which he never returned.
Peter Carlton Forbes was 24 when he was reported initially missing and subsequently confirmed dead on the 28th of September 1918. His remains are buried in Fins New British Cemetry, Sorel-Le-Grand. His widow was advised that because his family had emigrated to Australia she was not entitled to any War Widows pensions or assistance from the British Goverment.
T Forbes

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Those known to have served with
22nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
during the Great War 1914-1918.