1st Field Artillery Regiment (Belgium)
The 1st Field Artillery Regiment (, ) or 1A was an artillery battalion in the Land Component of the Belgian Armed Forces. The regiment was the field artillery battalion of the 7th Brigade until 2010. The unit was stationed in Bastogne and was equipped with the M109 self-propelled howitzer of 105mm and later the Mortier 12O RT heavy mortar. History. The 1st Field Artillery Regiment was established on 21 February 1836, when the Regiment of Artillery was split up into three new regiments. The regiment participated in both World Wars. During the Second World War , it remained active after the Eighteen Days' Campaign, the campaign of the Belgian army in May 1940 when Belgium was invaded by Germany. The First Belgian Battery, which was created in the United Kingdom in February 1941, participated as part of the Brigade "Piron" in the Battle of Normandy and in fights in Belgian and Dutch Limburg during the liberation of Western Europe. For this reason, the regiment's first battery, A Battery, is known as "Batterie Libération" (French for "Liberation Battery").