page_title: 96th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
section_title: 1917
hierarchical_section_title: 96th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery / War Service / 1917
caption_attribution_description: English: IWM caption&#160;: THE BATTLE OF PASSCHENDAELE, JULY-NOVEMBER 1917. Men of the 124th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery manhandling a 9.2 inch howitzer over muddy ground at Pilkem near Ypres, 14 September 1917.
context_page_description: The 96th Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery raised during World War I. It manned heavy howitzers on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918, beginning with the Attack on the Gommecourt Salient on the First day on the Somme.
context_section_description: On 21 March 1917 the battery moved to join 59th HAG in Fifth Army. The German army was in the process of retreating to the Hindenburg Line (Operation Alberich), which entailed much repositioning of British guns. Fifth Army then attacked the Hindenburg Line during April and May 1917 (the Battle of Bullecourt).
  On 10 July 1917 the battery left 59th HAG and moved to 15th HAG in First Army, arriving on 13 July. During the summer First Army was involved in the Battle of Hill 70 at Lens. From  22 August, 96th Siege Bty came under the command of 2nd Canadian HAG while the Canadian Corps was heavily engaged in the Hill 70 fighting. For the rest of the year the First Army front was a quiet sector, and 96th Siege Bty left on 5 October, moving back to Fifth Army, where it joined 36th HAG on 11 October. Fifth Army was fighting the last stages of the Third Ypres Offensive: the First and Second Battle of Passchendaele. Conditions for the artillery were very bad: British batteries were clearly observable from the Passchendaele Ridge and suffered badly from counter-battery fire, while their own guns sank into the mud and became difficult to aim and fire.
caption: Positioning a 9.2-inch howitzer and its ammunition in the mud of the Ypres Salient, 1917.
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