page_title: G Parachute Battery (Mercer's Troop) Royal Horse Artillery
section_title: Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: G Parachute Battery (Mercer's Troop) Royal Horse Artillery / History / Second World War
caption_attribution_description: English: The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 Gunners of 'G' Battery (Mercer's Troop), Royal Horse Artillery, inside a pillbox, 29 October 1940.
context_page_description: G Parachute Battery (Mercer's Troop) Royal Horse Artillery is a close support battery of 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, part of the Royal Horse Artillery of the British Army, currently based in Merville Barracks in Colchester.
  Formed in 1801, the battery has taken part in the Napoleonic Wars, the Indian Mutiny, the Second Boer War and the First and Second World Wars.
  In 1961, it was given a parachute role as part of 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery and has seen considerable active service particularly in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq.
context_section_description: At the outbreak of the Second World War, the battery was still linked with F Battery as F/G Battery in 4th Regiment, RHA and still in Egypt.  It was unlinked on 25 November 1939 and simultaneously assigned to the 5th Regiment, RHA at Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire.  It remained part of 5th RHA for the rest of the war.
  In 1940, the 5th RHA formed part of the British Expeditionary Force in France.  After being evacuated at Dunkirk it joined Home Forces in the United Kingdom before being assigned to the 8th Support Group, 8th Armoured Division.  On 8 May 1942, it departed the United Kingdom to take part in the North African Campaign.  It arrived in Egypt on 18 July – the long sea journey being due to transiting via the Cape of Good Hope.  8th Armoured Division never operated as a complete formation and the regiment served with 23rd Armoured Brigade Group (Defence of the El Alamein Line and the Battle of Alam el Halfa) and 24th Armoured Brigade Group (Battle of El Alamein).
  On 1 December 1942, it joined 7th Armoured Division and remained with it for the rest of the war.  It took part in the rest of the Western Desert Campaign, the Tunisian Campaign and, briefly, the Italian Campaign (9 September – 15 October 1943).  It returned to the United Kingdom in January 1944 to prepare for the invasion of Europe.  It fought in the North-West Europe Campaign from 8 July 1944 through to the end of the war.
caption: Gunners of 'G' Battery (Mercer's Troop), Royal Horse Artillery, inside a pillbox, 29 October 1940 (IWM H5110)
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