page_title: 4th Lancashire Artillery Volunteers
section_title: Germany
hierarchical_section_title: 4th Lancashire Artillery Volunteers / World War II / 59th (4th West Lancs) Medium Regiment / Germany
caption_attribution_description: English: 5.5-inch guns of 235 and 336 Medium Batteries, Royal Artillery, fire in support of the Rhine crossing, 21 March 1945. The 5.5-inch guns of 235 and 336 Medium Batteries, Royal Artillery, fire in support of the Rhine crossing, 21 March 1945.
context_page_description: The 4th Lancashire Artillery Volunteers, later renamed to the 4th West Lancashire Brigade, known as 'The Old 4th', was a part-time unit of the British Army's Royal Artillery founded in Liverpool in 1859. It served on the Western Front during World War I, one of its members winning the Victoria Cross at Cambrai. Between the world wars the unit pioneered mechanical traction methods. During World War II it formed three regiments that saw action at Dunkirk, in East Africa, on Crete, at Tobruk, in Burma, and in the final campaigns in Italy and North West Europe. It continued in the post-war Territorial Army until 1973.
context_section_description: On 24 February the regiment crossed the Maas and moved to Bedburg to come under command of 2 Canadian AGRA for Operation Blockbuster, for which 500 rounds per gun had been stockpiled. By the night of 6/7 March the regiment had advanced to the Hochwald Gap, but at dawn found itself under observation from enemy positions. It came under shellfire and suffered casualties while digging in, but did some accurate counter-battery (CB) firing. On 19 March RHQ moved a short distance to its assigned position for Operation Plunder, the assault crossing of the Rhine. The batteries moved in secretly on 23 March, leaving dummy guns at their old positions. The regiment was in close support for 227th (Highland) Brigade of 15th (S) Division, with OPs accompanying 10th Battalion Highland Light Infantry and 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The bombardment started at 18.00 on 23 March and 15th (S) Division began its assault crossing at 02.00 on 24 March. Although some of 227th Bde's troops were landed in the wrong places, the OPs landing on the far back were able to call down effective fire on targets to their front. The guns ceased fire while the airborne forces passed overhead to drop in Operation Varsity, then resumed, breaking up counter-attacks and supporting the advance to link up with the airborne forces across the Issel. On 28 March the regiment crossed the Rhine at Xanten and supported an attack on Bocholt.
  21st Army Group could not support all its troops in the pursuit across North Germany, and on 29 March 59th Medium Regiment was 'grounded'. It re-crossed the Rhine and was rested for two weeks. On 13 April, under the command of 9 AGRA, it crossed the Rhine once more and moved into Germany to begin battlefield clearance and occupation duties. On 28 April the scattered regiment was concentrated and sent forward to support the troops on the Elbe. It fired for the last time (eight rounds per gun) on 2 May, and the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath followed two days later.
  The regiment was then used for occupation duties in the Harburg, Hamburg, area, later at Bochum, mounting guards, supervising German working parties engaged on reconstruction, and distributing aid to the displaced persons camps. Demobilisation proceeded through 1945, the guns were handed in during January 1946, and on 1 March the regiment was placed in suspended animation.
caption: 5.5-inch guns of 235 and 236 Btys firing in support of the Rhine crossing, 21 March 1945.
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