page_title: 7th County of London Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
section_title: Somme
hierarchical_section_title: 7th County of London Brigade, Royal Field Artillery / World War I / 1/VII London Brigade / Somme
caption_attribution_description: English: The Battle of the Somme, July-november 1916 Battle of Thiepval Ridge, 26-28 September 1916. 18 pounder battery of the Royal Field Artillery in action by the roadside, Authuille.
context_page_description: The 7th 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 West London in the 1860s, which had later been incorporated into a larger London unit. Together with its wartime duplicate it served on the Western Front, at Salonika and in Palestine during World War I. It formed several units for service in World War II, when they were in action in North Africa, Italy and North West Europe. The unit continued in the postwar Territorial Army until 1961.
context_section_description: On 1 August 1916 47th (2nd L) Division began to move south to join in the Somme Offensive. While the infantry underwent training with the newly-introduced tanks, the divisional artillery went into the line on 14 August in support of 15th (Scottish) Division. The batteries were positioned in Bottom Wood and near Mametz Wood, and became familiar with the ground over which 47th (2nd L) Division was later to attack, while supporting 15th (S) Division's gradual encroachment on Martinpuich. Casualties among FOOs and signallers was heavy in this kind of fighting. Between 9 and 11 September 47th (2nd L) Division took over the front in the High Wood sector, and on 15 September the Battle of Flers-Courcelette was launched, with tank support for the first time. The barrage fired by the divisional artillery left lanes through which the tanks could advance. However, the tanks proved useless in the tangled tree stumps of High Wood, and the artillery could not bombard the German front line because No man's land was so narrow. Casualties among the attacking infantry were extremely heavy, but they succeeded in capturing High Wood and the gun batteries began to move up in support, crossing deeply-cratered ground. The first to arrive was 1/19th Bty under its commander, Maj Lord Gorell, who brought it up into the shell-hole area immediately behind High Wood. He then made a reconnaissance of the whole divisional front with Maj E.H.Marshall of 1/18th Bty. Lord Gorell was awarded a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for this work. Casualties among the exposed guns and gunners took their toll, but a German counter-attack was broken up by gunfire. Next day the division fought to consolidate its positions round the captured 'Cough Drop' strongpoint. When the infantry were relieved on 19 September the artillery remained in the line under 1st Division.
  47th (2nd L) Division came back into the line to relieve 1st Division on 28/29 September, and began attacking Eaucourt L'Abbaye as part of the Battle of the Transloy Ridges, finally securing the ruins on 3 October. This allowed the batteries to cross the High Wood Ridge into a small valley where they remained for the rest of the Somme fighting, helping to cover the unsuccessful attacks by 47th (2nd L) Division and later 9th (Scottish) Division against the   Butte de Warlencourt through October. By now the gun lines were crowded together in deep mud, guns sank up to their axles, and getting ammunition through was extremely difficult. The artillery was finally relieved on 14 October and followed the rest of the division to the Ypres Salient.
  A further reorganisation of field artillery in the BEF was carried out in November 1916. To increase the batteries of other brigades of the division to six guns each, CCCXXXVII Bde was split up: B battery and half of A battery formed C Battery in CCXXXVI Bde, and C Battery and half of A Battery formed  C Battery in CCXXXV Bde. CCXXXVII Brigade's headquarters was abolished on 29 November, and the brigade ceased to exist for the rest of the war. However, the 7th Londons' war memorial in Fulham includes those later battles on the Western Front in which the two successor batteries were engaged. Lord Gorell was mortally wounded on 15 January 1917 when acting as FOO for his battery. 'A pre-war Territorial officer of high professional attainments, and at times almost reckless courage, his loss was universally mourned'.
caption: Bringing up ammunition for an 18-pounder battery during the Battle of the Somme
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