page_title: 191st (Hertfordshire and Essex Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
section_title: Training
hierarchical_section_title: 191st (Hertfordshire and Essex Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery / Training
caption_attribution_description: Morris-Commercial C8 'Quad' artillery tractor with limber and 25-pdr field gun, on an exercise in Scotland, 20 March 1941.
context_page_description: The 191st (Hertfordshire and Essex Yeomanry) Field Regiment was a unit of Britain's Royal Artillery formed during World War II. Created around experienced drafts from existing Territorial Army units, it trained as mobile artillery with an armoured division. Later it served through the campaign in North West Europe, supporting varied formations such as the Royal Marine Commandos, Royal Armoured Corps and Polish troops operating under First Canadian Army.
context_section_description: The regiment's first eight 25-pounder guns and tractors arrived at the beginning of January 1943, and a month later 533 and 534 Btys had their full establishment of eight guns each, though 532 Bty had to make do with old 18/25-pounders at first. At the end of three months, the regiment was at full establishment in manpower, and training was proceeding, though there were few men suitable for training as signallers. A Light Aid Detachment (LAD) of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) had been formed, but at first had no vehicles or equipment.
  At the end of March 1943, 42nd Armoured Division transferred from Northern Command to Southern Command and 191st (H&EY) Fd Rgt went with it, moving to Trowbridge Barracks. On 3 May it officially replaced 86th Fd Rgt in 42nd Armoured Division. That month a detachment of the Royal Corps of Signals arrived to man the 'rear link' communications. Later the regiment was issued with Crusader Mk III tanks for armoured Observation Posts (OPs), later replaced by Cavaliers. During the spring of 1943 the regiment carried out field firing at Okehampton Camp, mobile exercises with 30th Armoured Brigade on West Down, Salisbury Plain, and an armour–infantry live-firing exercise at Sennybridge Training Area with 71st Infantry Brigade. It was known that 42nd Armoured Division was to be broken up, so during the summer 147th Fd Rgt worked mostly with 30th Armoured Bde and 191st with 71st Infantry Bde – 532 Bty affiliated to 1st Battalion Highland Light Infantry, 533 to 1st Bn Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, and 534 to 1st Bn East Lancashire Regiment. In September there were further practice shoots at Okehampton, with 532 Bty being loaned to 79th Armoured Division for exercises at Linney Head, Pembrokeshire.
  42nd Armoured Division was broken up in October 1943, and after a period of uncertainty 191st (H&EY) Fd Rgt went to Ramillies Barracks, Aldershot, where it was ordered to mobilise as part of 2nd Canadian Army Group Royal Artillery (AGRA).
  In November 1943 the regiment moved to Sutton in Surrey, but spent much time training on the Otterburn and Redesale ranges and on Salisbury Plain. On 1 January 1944 Lt-Col Cochrane was appointed to the staff of First Canadian Army and was succeeded in command by Lt-Col Maurice Hope. Shortly afterwards, the regiment was offered the opportunity to take on the identity of 6th Field Regiment, a Regular Army unit that had been disbanded in India. However, 191st decided to retain its links with the county Yeomanry regiments and turned down the offer.
  Training now concentrated on the role the regiment would take in the forthcoming invasion of Europe (Operation Overlord). 2nd Canadian AGRA was not scheduled to land until late in the build-up programme for the invasion, but 3rd Canadian Division would be landing on Juno Beach on D-Day under the command of I British Corps and would require extra firepower. 191st (H&EY) Field Rgt was therefore attached to I Corps' 4th AGRA for the early stages of the operation. Training in loading and unloading from landing craft became a priority, and the Cavalier tanks were abandoned (thereafter OP tanks would have to be borrowed from the armoured formations the guns were supporting). Final live-firing and loading exercises were carried out in the spring of 1944, and in April the regiment moved into I Corps' concentration area in Essex: RHQ and 533 Bty at Ramsden Hall, near Billericay, 532 Bty to Great Baddow, and 534 Bty to Little Baddow. On 2 June the regiment moved to its marshalling area in Epping Forest and on the morning of 6 June, as the leading assault waves landed on the Normandy beaches, 191st (H&EY) Fd Rgt moved to Royal Albert Dock, where it embarked at 18.00.
caption: 25-pounder gun and Quad tractor on exercise in the UK.
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