page_title: 172nd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
section_title: Mobilisation
hierarchical_section_title: 172nd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery / Mobilisation
caption_attribution_description: English: LAC. World War, 1914-1918 Equipment. A crew positioning a BL 6-inch howitzer, February 1918. The BL 6-inch 26cwt howitzer made its debut during the Battle of the Somme, the major British offensive launched on July 1, 1916.
context_page_description: The 172nd Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery raised during World War I. It manned heavy howitzers on the Western Front and Italian Front from 1916 to 1918.
context_section_description: On the outbreak of war in August 1914, units of the part-time Territorial Force (TF) were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service and most of the Glamorgan Royal Garrison Artillery did so. This unit had mobilised as part of No 26 Coastal Fire Command, responsible for the defence of Swansea, Cardiff and Barry.
  By October 1914, the campaign on the Western Front was bogging down into trench warfare and there was an urgent need for batteries of siege artillery to be sent to France. The WO decided that the TF coastal gunners were well enough trained to take over many of the duties in the coastal defences, releasing Regular RGA gunners for service in the field, Soon the TF RGA companies that had volunteered for overseas service were also supplying trained gunners to RGA units serving overseas and providing cadres to form complete new units.
  172nd Siege Battery, RGA, was raised at Cardiff with three officers and 78 other ranks from the Glamorgan RGA under Army Council Instruction 1239 of 21 June 1916. It went out to the Western Front on 12 September 1916, manning four BL 6-inch 26 cwt howitzers, initially under the command of 50th (South African) Heavy Artillery Group (HAG)  in Third Army. It then changed command rapidly: to 19th HAG on 4 October, to 8th HAG on 18 October, then to 47th HAG on 24 November and back to 8th HAG on 8 January 1917, all with Third Army, whose front was quiet during this period.
caption: Crew positioning a 6-inch 26 cwt howitzer in 1918.
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