page_title: 140th (5th London) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
section_title: Battle of France
hierarchical_section_title: 140th (5th London) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery / Battle of France
caption_attribution_description: English: THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE 1940. An 18-pdr gun being inspected by General Georges and senior officers of the French and British armies at Orchies. Comment&#160;: This is a Mk II gun on Mk I* or II carriage of World War I vintage. It has the bronze reservoir fitted to the end of the recuperator (above the barrel) as part of the upgrade to hydro-pneumatic recuperator.
context_page_description: The 140th (5th London) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery was a unit of Britain's Territorial Army formed in 1939, just before World War II. During the Battle of France, in 1940, it participated in defending Cassel to protect the British Expeditionary Force's evacuation from Dunkirk. Barely half the men escaped to England, where the regiment was rebuilt. It later served in home defence, in Tunisia, and after conversion to the medium artillery role, in Italy, where it was disbanded.
context_section_description: At the outbreak of war in September 1939, the 140th Field Regiment mobilised under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Cedric Odling. In November 1939, after the soldiers had been equipped and had finished basic training in London, and Dursley, Gloucestershire, the regiment was assigned to join the British Expeditionary Force as "Army Troops", not assigned to a particular formation. On 2 March 1940, the regiment left Dursley and landed at Le Havre, in France, on 6 March 1940. By 9 May 1940, the regiment had been assigned to I Corps.
  Following the German invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May, the BEF advanced north into Belgium to defend the line of the Dyle river under Plan D. The regiment allegedly fired the first British artillery round during the Dyle-line defence. But the German Army broke through the Ardennes to the east, forcing the BEF to withdraw to the line of the Escaut river.
  On the evening of 16 May 1940, the regiment withdrew—via Brussels, Ninove, and Tournai—to the Escaut line, as the French military situation worsened to the south. The policy was to "superimpose" army field artillery regiments onto divisional artillery to give enhanced firepower as required. During the fighting on the Escaut, the regiment was in action with 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division at Wannehain, where it suffered its first battle casualties and had three guns knocked out by enemy shellfire.
  On May 22 1940, the regiment withdrew across the Franco-Belgian border into the French village of Sainguin-en-Melantois. The two batteries operated together as a single fighting unit until 23 May 1940. After then, as the British and French military situation worsened further, they were separated and were assigned to different sectors.
  366 Battery, under the command of Major Brooks, was assigned to defend the eastern escape corridor to Dunkirk and followed a route—via Seclin and Lille—to the Messines ridge in support of the British defence of the Ypres-Commines line. The battery was positioned near the village of Wytschaete during 27–28 May 1940, then withdrew under cover of darkness on 28 May 1940, having disabled its guns, and successfully reached the Dunkirk beaches on 29 May 1940.
  367 Battery, together with RHQ, under the command of Colonel C.J. Odling, was assigned to protect the western corridor and was initially assigned to "MacForce" under the command of Lieutenant-General Noel Mason-MacFarlane, on 23 May 1940, before joining "Somerforce" at the French hilltop town of Cassel under the command of Brigadier Nigel Fitzroy Somerset, on 25 May 1940. Somerforce included units of Brigadier Somerset's own 145th Infantry Brigade (2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, 4th Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry), together with armoured cars of the East Riding Yeomanry, and various support units, including the 140th Field Regiment and 5th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery. Its role was to hold the line from Cassel to Hazebrouck at the outer perimeter of the Dunkirk pocket.
caption: 18-Pounder gun being inspected in France, April 1940.
exif: {}