page_title: 4th Lancashire Artillery Volunteers
section_title: 'A' Battery in Burma
hierarchical_section_title: 4th Lancashire Artillery Volunteers / World War II / 73rd Medium Regiment / 'A' Battery in Burma
caption_attribution_description: A pre war design the 2 pounder was intended to attack tanks with thin armour. It was inadequate against heavily armoured German tanks. It remained in service until replaced by the 6 pounder.
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 26 December 1941, following the Japanese invasion of Malaya, Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered Gen Auchinleck to send an armoured brigade to the Far East. Auchinleck sent 7th Armoured Brigade Group, including A Bty, 95th A/T Rgt, under Maj R.A. Hemelryk with three Troops each of four 2-pdr guns. The brigade group could not leave Port Suez until the end of January 1942 and was intended for Java, but that island was captured by the Japanese before it was due to arrive in March. Instead it sailed via Ceylon and landed at Rangoon in Burma on 21 February.
  The brigade reached the front just after the disastrous Battle of Sittang Bridge (17–23 February), and deployed around Thanatpin, Payagyi and Waw. By 27 February the Japanese were across the Sittang, and the brigade was pulled back to cover the Rangoon–Pegu road at Tharrawaddy. A counter-attack retook Pegu, but on 6 March the brigade was forced back into Pegu, and then formed the rearguard as Rangoon was burned and the British force retired northwards to Tharrawaddy on 9–10 March. There was bitter fighting round Magwe in March. On 19 March Burma Corps ('Burcorps') was formed, with A Bty becoming corps troops. The retreat continued to Prome and then Mandalay, with rearguard actions along the route. On 27 April the Japanese forces closed up to 7th Armoured Bde, which was at Meiktila, covering the retreat of 17th Indian Division across the Ava Bridge at Mandalay. A Battery 'dealt with the few Japanese tanks which were foolish enough to expose themselves', as the 1/7th and 2/5th Gurkha Rifles held off numerous attacks. The force withdrew across the Irrawaddy on the night of 28/29 April. By 3 May the brigade was covering the withdrawal towards Yeu, and finally the remains of Burcorps crossed the Chindwin to safety at Shwegyin during the night of 11/12 May after the rearguard artillery had fired off all their ammunition and destroyed their guns.
  7th Armoured Brigade was sent back to India to rest and reorganise. In August it was ordered to Iraq, where it was to join a new Persia and Iraq Command (Paiforce). On 23 September A Bty sailed for Basra. It left 7th Armoured Brigade on 20 November, and finally returned to its regiment in the Suez Canal Zone in March 1943.
caption: 2-pdr Anti-tank gun preserved at the RA Museum.
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