page_title: 33rd (Camberwell) Divisional Artillery
section_title: 126th (Camberwell) Heavy Battery, RGA
hierarchical_section_title: 33rd (Camberwell) Divisional Artillery / 126th (Camberwell) Heavy Battery, RGA
caption_attribution_description: English: The German Spring Offensive, March-july 1918 60-pounder battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery in position near Albert, 28 March 1918.
context_page_description: The 33rd Divisional Artillery, popularly known as the Camberwell Gun Brigade, was a Royal Artillery force raised as part of 'Kitchener's Army' in early 1915. Recruited in the Borough of Camberwell, South London, the units served with the 'Pals battalions' of the 33rd Division on the Western Front for three years. They also supported other formations when 33rd Division was out of the line. The batteries saw action at the Somme, Arras, and Ypres, suffering heavy casualties. They were particularly distinguished defending against the German Spring Offensive of 1918, and continued through the victorious Allied Hundred Days Offensive.
context_section_description: 126th (Camberwell) Heavy Battery and its ammunition column were raised at Camberwll as part of 33rd Divisional Artillery in April 1915. By the time 33rd Division embarked for France, the policy was to remove heavy batteries from infantry divisions and concentrate them into heavy artillery groups (HAGs). 126th Heavy Bty, equipped with four 60-pounder guns, disembarked at Le Havre on 29 April 1916 and joined 22nd HAG with Fourth Army on 2 May in time for the Battle of the Somme.
  The battery moved to 44th (South African) HAG on 6 September. Then on 24 November it was made up to six guns with a section from 197th Heavy Bty, which had just arrived from England to join Fourth Army.
  On 13 March 1917, 126th Hvy Bty was ordered to 31st HAG with First Army, which it joined on 21 March. Here it formed part of the counter-battery support for I Corps in the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The corps' objective was Bois en Hache, north of the Ridge. There was a 48-hour preliminary bombardment, then when the attack went in at 05.30 on 9 April the most powerful and concentrated bombardment of the war so far crashed onto the German lines. The role of the 'heavies' was to bombard targets in depth and carry out a comprehensive CB fireplan. The attack was a great success.
  The composition of HAGs was extremely fluid, and batteries were frequently moved from one to another as operations demanded. 126th Heavy Bty moved to 15th HAG on 11 May, then to 67th HAG on 4 July, 89th HAG on 28 July, and back to 67th HAG on 10 November. It was assigned to 62nd HAG on 5 December and arrived on 22 December when the HAG joined Fourth Army, but from 23 December to 15 January 1918 it was actually attached to 68th HAG.
  On 1 February 1918 the HAGs were redesignated 'Brigades, RGA', and became more permanent organisations. 126th Heavy Bty remained with 62nd Brigade, RGA, until the end of the war. The brigade had a mixture of 60-pounders and various heavy howitzers. 62nd Brigade transferred from Fourth to Third Army on 14 March and was still with it at the time of the Armistice with Germany on 11 November 1918.
  A week after 62nd Bde RGA transferred to Third Army the German Spring Offensive was launched. Part of Third Army was engaged in the desperate fighting, but overall it was not obliged to retreat as far or to abandon as many heavy guns as Fifth Army further south. By the time of the attack on Third Army's front at Arras on 28 March, 'the German artillery was ineffective and, when it opened fire, was shot to pieces by the British heavies'.The German offensive had been halted on Third Army's front by 5 April.
caption: 60-pounders deployed in the open during the German Spring Offensive.
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