THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARTILLERY AND TRENCH WARFARE:THE ROYAL ARTILLERY
The Royal Regiment of Artillery was created in 1722 and was based at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich (before relocating to Highbury in North London the Woolwich Arsenal was a works football team made up of workers in the arsenal). The regiment traditionally wore blue uniforms and had its own names for ranks (privates were gunners, corporals were bombardiers, etc). In 1899, the Royal Artillery was split into the Royal and Horse on one side and the Garrison (which included the Mountain Artillery) on the other. The Royal Garrison Artillery were in charge of the guns on forts, mainly huge muzzle loaded guns. If the Army needed an enemy fort to be reduced, these guns were mounted on a wooden carriage for use in a siege. The RGA did not attract the best recruits to the Artillery; most recruits wanted the prestige of being in the Royal Horse Artillery or failing that the normal field Royal Artillery.
DEVELOPMENTS IN GUNNERY
During times of peace or naval warfare, the RGA operated coastal guns, but when the Army needed to march on heavily fortified positions the RGA would mount these heavy guns on carriages. Traditionally the RGA put their fort guns on wooden carriages and would follow the infantry in a large siege train. The siege guns would have large wooden chocks behind the wheels to absorb the impact of the shot and return the gun to the same place. The force of the blast would cause the gun to roll back up these wooden chocks and then the weight of the gun would make it roll back into position. This was very inaccurate as the gun would not be in the exactly the same position after firing. Guns with large springs that could absorb the power of the shot and spring the gun back into position were being developed. As these guns do not need re-aiming after each shot they are called Quick Firing. This guns could be used to 'range' targets that is if the first shot is slightly out the gun crew could adjust the aim of the gun until it hit the target which is not possible to do with a gun jumping all over the place. These new guns could easily reduce 19th Century forts to rubble, could fire over forts built to protect harbours into an enemy fleet and the fort often could not fit these new guns so making the forts obsolete except as stores. However, one of Fred's batteries in World War One was still using fort guns on a wooden carriage until 17 June 1916 (9th Siege Battery). Also, note that the old fort guns are often muzzle loaded (i.e. the shot is put down the barrel from the front of the gun, not loaded into a special breach at the back, as is the case with modern guns). A further and very confusing note is the Artillery often refers to BL (Breach Load) and QF (Quick Firing Ammunition) types of ammunition, designations that have nothing to do with breaches and quick firing guns. BL shells (or rounds) are one with a separate charge (the explosive propellant that makes the shellfire out of the gun) and QF rounds have the charge inside the shell casing (often erroneously called the shell cartridge). These confusing terms cause me much head scratching during my research!
When Fred was with the 16th Battery they had 30 cwt guns. During the actual Battle of the Somme Fred's new unit (9th) was using the new 26 cwt guns.
LIFE IN THE TRENCHES
Fred's unit had taken over that section of line from the French and the trenches were not in good repair. Basically the Germans built nice dugouts as they were on enemy territory so wanted to stay, the French were more interested in throwing the Germans out than defending so built shoddy dugouts and the British had to be seen to be serious about evicting the Germans in the eyes of the French so built slightly less shoddy dugouts. Fred's section was on the edge of some fields just on the back of a ridge to the south east of the village (nearer the time of the Battle of the Somme the plain of fields became thick with guns). Heavy guns were usually place behind a ridge so enemy spotters could not see the smoke from the guns and call down a counter-battery bombardment from their own artillery. Forward Observation Posts linked to the battery by telephone wire or signals from aircraft directed the fire of heavy guns like Fred's 6-inch siege howitzers. The main function of the howitzer was to fire a shell high into the air and down onto fortified enemy positions (either deep dugouts or enemy batteries). It was a quiet sector where live and let live was practiced. The British guns were so few there was no point antagonising the Germans into an artillery duel. The German commanders ordered their reluctant gunner to 'range' British positions in the village on Christmas Day. Ranging involved firing a few shots, observe their fall and check their aim so they had the information ready as to exactly at what angle to aim their guns if they needed in the future to hit the village. The village was full of dugouts where the men slept, so the front line German troops put up a sign warning the British of the number of shells coming over. The British, however, misinterpreted the signs and there were still some casualties. The British did most of their shelling between 10 and Noon and between 2pm and 5pm. This avoided casualties and thus retaliation. If you wanted to kill the enemy then you would shell them at three points during the day: mealtimes when the men lined up for their grub, sunrise/sunset when both sides would order their troops to fix bayonets and 'stand to' for an hour in the front line trench (as this was the time the enemy were mostly likely to attack) a routine the infantry hated and the hours of darkness when most of the work on the trenches or barbed wire was carried out (snipers can't see in the dark).
