page_title: 1st Kent Artillery Volunteers
section_title: Later war
hierarchical_section_title: 1st Kent Artillery Volunteers / World War I / 1/1st Home Counties (Kent) Heavy Battery / Later war
caption_attribution_description: English: A British 60-pounder gun on Mk I carriage moving forward through St Venant during the advance in Flanders.
context_page_description: The 1st Kent Artillery Volunteers was a part-time unit of the British Army's Royal Artillery from 1860 to 1956. Primarily serving as coastal artillery defending the Port of Dover and other harbours in South-East England, the unit's successors also served in the heavy artillery role on the Western Front during World War I and as anti-aircraft artillery during the Blitz and later in the North African and Italian campaigns of World War II.
context_section_description: Over the next two years, the 1/1st Kent Bty was moved from one HAG to another as circumstances demanded. On 12 February 1917, the battery was joined by a section of 118th Heavy Bty RGA to make it up to a strength of six guns. The 118th Heavy Bty was a regular unit formed at Woolwich shortly after the outbreak of war and had been in France with 4.7-inch guns since 6 November 1914. By now, the heavy batteries on the Western Front were adopting the modern 60-pounder in place of the obsolete 4.7-inch.
  In late 1917, the policy was changed, and HAGs became permanent formations. 1/1st Kent Bty joined the 92nd HAG on 13 January 1918 and remained with it until the end of the war. On 1 February 1918, the HAGs became Brigades once more, and 92nd became 92nd (Mobile) Brigade, RGA, composed of four six-gun batteries of 60-pounders, and joined First Army on the same day.
  During the German Spring Offensive of March 1918, the 92nd (M) Bde was sent to reinforce the hard-pressed Third Army, and remained with it until the Armistice with Germany on 11 November 1918.
  After the German offensive was halted, the Allies went over to the attack in the Hundred Days Offensive, which gathered pace once the St Quentin Canal had been crossed. Mobile heavy guns had to be moved up to support the successive attacks. On 8 October, 92nd (M) Bde was assigned to counter-battery fire to support IV Corps' attack (the Battle of Cambrai (1918)).
  For Third Army's attack on the River Selle, 92nd Bde was again attached to IV Corps Artillery. Now there was no long preliminary bombardment, instead a surprise attack was made at 02.00 on 20 October under a full moon. During the October fighting heavy guns were not used on the towns to avoid casualties among French civilians, but the 60-pounders were used to 'search' roads and forest clearings. Again, on 4 November, at the Battle of the Sambre, 92nd (M) Bde supported IV Corps in a complex fire programme to assist 37th Division and the New Zealand Division in capturing the old fortress of Le Quesnoy.
caption: A 60-pounder gun being moved up in 1918.
exif: {}