page_title: 8th County of London Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
section_title: Palestine
hierarchical_section_title: 8th County of London Brigade, Royal Field Artillery / World War I / 2/VIII London Brigade / Palestine
caption_attribution_description: English: Monument to the December 9, 1917, surrender of Jerusalem to the 60th London Division.
context_page_description: The 8th London Brigade, Royal Field Artillery was a new unit formed when Britain's Territorial Force was created in 1908. Its origin lay in Artillery Volunteer Corps formed in the 1860s in Plumstead, Kent, later incorporated into London. Together with its wartime duplicate the brigade served during World War I on the Western Front, at Salonika and in Palestine where it was the first British unit to enter Jerusalem. It again formed two units for service in World War II, one of which saw extensive action in France, North Africa, and Italy, while its duplicate was captured at the Fall of Singapore. Its successor unit continues in the Army Reserve today.
context_section_description: After landing at Alexandria between 18 and 22 June, 60th (2/2nd L) Division moved to the Suez Canal to join the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), where its units were reorganised (the BACs were absorbed into the DAC once more) and underwent training before crossing Sinai in early July 1917. Further intensive training followed until late October, when the division made its first full-scale attack of the war, at Beersheba. In the weeks leading up to the attack artillery officers had regularly ridden close to the Beersheba defences to reconnoitre, often under fire. Concentration for the attack was carried out under cover of darkness, beginning on 20/21 October and completed on 28/29 October. The divisional artillery was divided into Right and Left groups corresponding to the two attacking brigade; CCCIII Bde was part of Right Group supporting 179th (2/4th London) Brigade. The whole force moved forward under moonlight on 30/31 October, with the Royal Engineers improving the track north of Wadi ed Sabe for the artillery, which was in position by 01.30. At dawn the guns began to bombard Hill 1070, pausing at 07.00 to let the smoke and dust clear. Right Group then resumed its wirecutting and at 08.30 the guns switched to intensive bombardment, 179th Bde moving forward as the guns lifted. By 13.00 the whole of the defence works were in British hands, and that evening the Desert Mounted Corps entered Beersheba.
  The next phase of the offensive involved 60th (2/2nd L) Division in an attack on Kauwukah in the Turkish Sheria position (the Battle of Hareira and Sheria) on 6 November. The attacking brigades moved forwards at 03.30 with the artillery, which began wire-cutting as soon as it was in position. Each 18-pdr battery cut two 10 yards (9.1 m) gaps in the wire by 12.15, and then began a bombardment of the enemy trench as the attack went in against heavy fire. The field guns then lifted onto the works in the second line. The whole defensive position was in the division's hands by 14.00 and it pushed patrols ahead towards Sheria and its water supply. Each brigade advanced with its artillery group, 'Bayley's Group' (commanded by CCCIII Bde's CO) supported 181st (2/6th London) Brigade. Sheria was captured at daybreak the following morning without artillery preparation, CCCIII Bde's  guns moving up under heavy shellfire to support the attack once launched. B Bty advanced one gun under Lieutenant E.C. Philpott and stopped the fire of machine guns that were holding up 180th (2/5th London) Brigade. Two Turkish counter-attacks were broken up by the field guns. CCCIII Brigade suffered casualties of two officers wounded, 23 men killed, 26 wounded, and 39 horses and mules killed or wounded. The infantry brigade groups continued their advance the following day, supported by their artillery groups (Bayley's Group supporting 179th Bde in the advance guard). By 09.30 179th Bde had cleared the Zuheilikah ridge and supported by the artillery stormed the strongly-held village of Muntaret-el-Baghl. The brigade then reorganised to advance on its final objective, Huj, which was undefended after a mounted charge by the Worcestershire and Warwickshire Yeomanry.
  After a short rest at Huj, the division bivouacked at Gaza under heavy rain, then began a 42 miles (68 km) march through the mud to Junction Station, which it reached on 22 November. It now entered the last stage of the Battle of Nebi Samwil, where the objectives were a tangle of hill slopes, with tracks so bad that it was impossible to bring up the guns until roads had been made for them. Nebi Samwil had been captured by units of 75th Division, and the London battalions that relieved them came under fierce counter-attacks on 29 November; only the supporting British artillery fire allowed them to maintain their position. However, the way was now open to attack the final defences of Jerusalem; an encirclement was chosen, to avoid attacking the city itself. The surprise attack began on 8 December without artillery support; once progress had been made the batteries were to move up and come under c
caption: Monument to the surrender of Jerusalem to 60th (2/2nd London) Division.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4608", "Image ImageLength": "3456", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "COOLPIX AW100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2014:04:25 09:09:47", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "304", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[0/0, 0/0, 0/0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[0/0, 0/0, 0/0]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "0/0", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[0/0, 0/0, 0/0]", "GPS GPSSatellites": "", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "M", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "34121/100", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "", "GPS GPSDate": "", "Image GPSInfo": "1028", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1394", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8718", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "39/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "125", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:04:23 14:37:26", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:04:23 14:37:26", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "540241/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "1481737/250000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "39/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3528", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3168", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "996", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "28", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain down", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "2"}