1st Dorsetshire Artillery Volunteers

The 1st Dorsetshire Artillery Volunteers and its successors were part-time coast defence units of the British Army from 1859 to 1956. Although these units saw no action, they protected the Dorset Coast, including the naval base of Portland Harbour, in both World Wars and also supplied trained gunners to siege batteries engaged on the Western Front during World War I. The unit continued in the Territorial Army after World War II.

Volunteer Force
The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many Rifle and Artillery Volunteer Corps composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular British Army in time of need. Four Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVCs) were quickly formed in Dorsetshire:
 * 1st (Lyme Regis) formed on 29 December 1859
 * 2nd (Portland) formed on 14 February 1860, absorbed into 4th in November 1861
 * 3rd (Bridport) formed on 8 February 1860
 * 4th (Portland) formed on 20 November 1860, absorbed 2nd in November 1861

In November 1863 they were attached to the 1st Administrative Brigade, Hampshire AVCs based at Portsmouth, then transferred to the 1st Devonshire Admin Brigade at Exeter in January 1866. Two further AVCs were formed in Dorsetshire at this time:
 * 5th (Charmouth) formed on 31 January 1868
 * 6th (Swanage) formed on 28 April 1869

The Dorsetshire AVCs returned to the 1st Hants Admin Bde in 1873, but the 3rd (Bridport) Corps was disbanded that year. When the Volunteers were consolidated in 1880, the Dorsetshire units became part of the 1st Hants & Dorset Artillery Volunteers:
 * No 15 Company at Lyme Regis – former 1st Dorset
 * No 16 Company at Portland – former 4th Dorset
 * No 17 Company at Portland and Swanage – former 4th and 6th Dorset
 * No 18 Company at Charmouth – former 5th Dorset.

On 1 April 1886 the Dorset companies were separated to form an independent 1st Dorsetshire AVC, with its HQ initially at Portland, moving to Weymouth by July 1886, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel G.E. Eliot, previously the second Lt-col of the 1st Hants & Dorset. Since 1882 all the AVCs had been affiliated to one of the territorial garrison divisions of the Royal Artillery (RA), with the 1st Hants and Dorset in the Western Division. In 1886 the 1st Dorset AVC officially became the 2nd Volunteer (Dorsetshire) Brigade, Western Division, RA. In 1889 the structure was altered, and the corps resumed its former title and joined the Southern Division. In January 1891 the personnel from Portland were separated into the 2nd Dorsetshire AVC, but this was absorbed back into the 1st in June 1894. In 1899 the RA was divided into separate field and garrison branches, and the artillery volunteers were all assigned to the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). In 1902 their titles were changed, the unit becoming the 1st Dorsetshire Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) of 10 companies. with its HQ at Lower St Alban's Street, Weymouth.

Territorial Force
When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908, , the unit was split up:
 * Nos 1 and 2 Companies became 6th Hampshire Battery, III Wessex Brigade, Royal Field Artillery at Bournemouth
 * No 4 Company became the Dorsetshire Battery, III Wessex Bde, RFA, at Bridport
 * The remainder of the personnel were to join the Hants & Dorset RGA, but this was changed back to separate Dorset and Hampshire units in 1910. The Dorsetshire RGA was a 'Defended Ports Unit' in Southern Coast Defences with the primary role of defending the naval base at Portland Harbour, alongside the Dorsetshire and Wiltshire Fortress Royal Engineers and three Regular RGA companies (Nos 16, 28 and 30) based at Weymouth.

The Dorsetshire RGA had following organisation:
 * HQ at Lower St Alban's Street, Weymouth
 * No 1 Company at King's Road East, Swanage
 * No 2 Company at South Road, Poole
 * No 3 Company at Old Drill Hall, Easton Lane, Portland (shared with Dorsetshire and Wiltshire Fortress RE; now the Portland Sculpture Trust)

Mobilisation
On the outbreak of war the Dorsetshire RGA mobilised in Southern Coast Defences under the command of Major M.J. Raymond. Shortly afterwards TF units were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service and on 15 August 1914, the War Office (WO) issued instructions to separate those men who had signed up for Home Service only, and form these into reserve units. On 31 August, the formation of a reserve or 2nd Line unit was authorised for each 1st Line unit where 60 per cent or more of the men had volunteered for Overseas Service. The titles of these 2nd Line units would be the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix. In this way duplicate companies were created, bringing the Dorsetshire RGA up to a strength of six companies.

By October 1914, the campaign on the Western Front was bogging down into Trench warfare and there was an urgent need for batteries of Siege artillery to be sent to France. The WO decided that the TF coastal gunners were well enough trained to take over many of the duties in the coastal defences, releasing Regular RGA gunners for service in the field, and 1st line RGA companies that had volunteered for overseas service had been authorised to increase their strength by 50 per cent.

Although complete defended ports units never left the UK, they did supply drafts of trained gunners to RGA units serving overseas. They also provided cadres as the basis on which to form complete new units for front line service. The cadres of the 123rd and 174th Siege Batteries formed in 1916 were provided by the Dorsetshire RGA, while a large number of other siege batteries formed at Portland (87th, 116th, 129th, 136th, 145th, 177th, 183rd, 209th, 216th, 241st, 277th, 285th, 305th) and Weymouth (106th, 111th, 200th, 226th, 249th, 291st, 304th) may have included trained men from the unit among the recruits, although the Army Council Instructions did not specifically order this.

Under Army Council Instruction 686 of April 1917, the coastal defence companies of the RGA (TF) were reorganised. The Dorsetshire RGA serving in the Portland garrison was reduced from six to just two companies, which were to be kept up to strength with non-TF recruits. In April 1918 the Portland Garrison comprised the following batteries under the control of No 5 Coastal Fire Command: These defences never saw action during the war.
 * Blacknor Battery – 2 x 9.2-inch Mk X guns
 * East Weare Battery – 2 x 9.2-inch Mk X
 * Breakwater Fort Top – 2 x 12-pdr QF guns
 * Breakwater Fort Jetty – 2 x 12-pdr QF
 * New Breakwater Pier A – 2 x 12-pdr QF
 * New Breakwater Pier B – 3 x 12-pdr QF
 * New Breakwater Pier C – 1 x 6-inch Mk VII gun
 * Upton Battery – 2 x 9.2-inch Mk X

123rd Siege Battery


123rd Siege Battery, RGA, was raised at Portland on 22 March 1916 under Army Council Instruction 701 of 31 March 1916 with a cadre of 3 officers and 78 other ranks from the Dorsetshire RGA. It went out to the Western Front on 18 July 1916, manning four 6-inch howitzers, and joined Third Army. Third Army was not engaged in any major operations during the second half of 1916, so this was a relatively quiet sector of the front. 123rd Siege Bty was assigned to 47th Heavy Artillery Group (HAG) but the policy was to transfer siege batteries from one HAG to another as the situation demanded, and 123rd regularly switched between 8th and 46th HAGs with Third Army during the winter of 1916–17.

1917
123rd Siege Bty served with Third Army at the Battle of Arras and then in July it moved to Fifth Army, whose heavy guns were engaged in a long artillery duel with the Germans in preparation for the Third Ypres Offensive. Slowly the British got the upper hand, and a large proportion of German guns were out of action when the infantry attacked on 31 July. However, the offensive bogged down through the summer and autumn of 1917. 123rd Siege Bty was joined by a section from the newly-arrived 414th Siege Bty in August, in preparation for bringing the battery up to a strength of six 6-inch howitzers; however it does not appear that the additional guns arrived until 19 February 1918. Second Army HQ took over the faltering offensive in September, and the battery came under its control. The Battles of the Menin Road, Polygon Wood and Broodseinde were highly successful because of the weight of artillery brought to bear on German positions. But as the offensive continued British batteries were clearly observable from the Passchendaele Ridge and were subjected to counter-battery (CB) fire, while their own guns sank into the mud and became difficult to aim and fire.

On 13 November the battery transferred to 88th HAG; by now HAG allocations were becoming more fixed, and in December the 88th was converted into a permanent RGA brigade. 123rd Siege Bty stayed with it until the Armistice a year later. 88th Brigade and 123rd Siege Bty were with Third Army for its surprise attack with tanks at the Battle of Cambrai.

1918
When the German Spring Offensive opened on 21 March 1918, 88th Bde was ordered to move to assist the hard-pressed VI Corps. Over the next two weeks, VI Corps and Third Army fought a series of rearguard actions through the 'Great Retreat'.

88th Brigade was still with VI Corps when Third Army joined in the Allied Hundred Days Offensive at the Battle of Albert on 23 August. The artillery barrage was very good and the infantry were on their objective less than an hour after Zero. This was followed by the Battles of the Scarpe (28 August), the Drocourt-Quéant Switch Line (2 September), Épehy (18 September), the Canal du Nord (28 September) and the Second Battle of Cambrai (8 October).

The battery's last major operation was the Battle of the Selle on 20 October. By the beginning of November 88th Bde was standing by for further operations, but the enemy was retiring so rapidly that it was difficult to get heavy guns forward into range. The brigade's batteries hardly fired another shot before the Armistice with Germany came into force on 11 November.

123rd Siege Battery was disbanded in 1919.

174th Siege Battery
174th Siege Battery, RGA, was raised at Weymouth on 13 June 1916 under Army Council Instruction 1239 of 21 June 1916 with a cadre of 3 officers and 78 other ranks from the Dorsetshire RGA. It went out to the Western Front in October 1916, equipped with four 6-inch howitzers, and soon joined Fifth Army which was engaged in the final stages of the Somme Offensive.

Like 123rd Siege Bty, 174th regularly switched between 8th and 46th HAGs during the winter of 1916–17. 174th Siege Bty took part in the Battle of Arras (see above) in April 1917.

1917
On 21 May 1917 174th Siege Bty was transferred to Second Army in the Ypres Salient where a mass of guns and howitzers had been assembled for the Battle of Messines. Although this attack was characterised by the surprise explosion of 19 huge mines under the German lines at Zero hour, it was preceded by days of preliminary bombardment aimed at destroying strongpoints and the opposing artillery. This continued until 02.40 on 7 June, when the guns fell silent. Then at 03.10 the mines were exploded and the assault went in with massive artillery support.

Next, 174th Siege Bty moved to Fifth Army for the opening of the Third Ypres Offensive (see above). An even greater concentration of guns was massed than for Messines, but the circumstances were less favourable. Gun batteries were packed into the Ypres Salient where they were under observation and CB fire from the Germans on the higher ground: casualties among guns and gunners were high. 174th Siege Bty was rested from 19 August to 4 September before returning for the final attacks. After the Passchendaele fighting the battery joined 79th HAG, which became a permanent RGA brigade the following February; 174th Siege Bty remained with it until the Armistice. The battery was joined by a section from the newly-formed 448th Siege Bty on 16 February, bringing it up to a strength of six howitzers

1918
79th Brigade was with Second Army and was not involved in the first phase of the German Spring Offensive of 1918, but the Army was directly attacked and driven back from its positions during the following Battle of the Lys. Nevertheless the line held, and the heavy guns, often well forward, took a heavy toll of the attackers.

79th Brigade had shifted to First Army by 1 May, and on 28 June it supported XI Corps in Operation Borderland, a limited counter-attack on La Becque and other fortified farms in front of the Forest of Nieppe, in what was described as 'a model operation' for artillery cooperation. 79th Brigade joined Fourth Army on 18 August, soon after the beginning of the final Hundred Days Offensive. On 29 September IX Corps carried out an assault crossing of the St Quentin Canal, with 79th Bde amongst the mass of artillery supporting the operation. The heavy guns continued firing on the canal banks until the last possible moment as 137th (Staffordshire) Brigade stormed the outpost line and then scrambled across the canal in the morning mist. IX Corps continued to attack, at the Beaurevoir Line on 8 October, and the River Selle on 17 October. The first day of the battle went well, one German counter-attack being broken up when all available guns were turned onto it. Steady progress was also made on the second and third days as Fourth Army closed up to the Sambre Canal.

IX Corps renewed its advance on 23 October, with 79th Bde part of a massive corps artillery reserve. As the regimental historian relates, 'The guns of Fourth Army demonstrated, on 23rd October, the crushing effect of well co-ordinated massed artillery. they simply swept away the opposition'. After a pause to regroup and reconnoitre, IX Corps stormed across the canal on 4 November (the Battle of the Sambre). After that the campaign became a pursuit of a beaten enemy until the Armistice, in which the slow-moving siege guns could play no part.

174th Siege Battery was disbanded in 1919.

Interwar
The Dorsetshire RGA was placed in suspended animation after demobilisation in 1919. It reformed in 1920, and when the TF was reconstituted as the Territorial Army (TA) in 1921, the unit was renamed the Dorsetshire Coast Brigade, RGA. Then, when the RGA was subsumed into the Royal Artillery in 1924, the unit became the Dorsetshire Heavy Brigade, RA. It formed part of the coast defence troops in 43rd (Wessex) Divisional Area with the following organisation:
 * HQ at Weymouth
 * 179 Battery at Weymouth
 * 180 Battery at Portland
 * 186 Battery at Poole – added in late 1930s

Mobilisation
On the outbreak of war the regiment and its three batteries mobilised in the Portland Defences. The guns were controlled by Portland Fire Command at Weymouth and companies of the Dorsetshire Fortress Royal Engineers manned searchlights for coast and anti-aircraft defence.

With the danger of invasion after the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk, the coastal artillery regiments underwent a major reorganisation in the summer of 1940. On 1 July the Dorsetshire Heavy Regiment (as RA brigades were termed after 1938) was redesignated 522nd (Dorsetshire) Coast Regiment. A number of emergency batteries of ex-Royal Navy guns were obtained for the South Coast ports, including two 6-inch Mk XII naval guns manned by the army, ordered for Poole Harbour on 22 May. These were followed by two 4.7-inch guns ordered for Lyme Regis on 14 July. Other emergency coastal batteries (each of two 4-inch Mk VII guns) were ordered on 21 July for Abbotsbury and Swanage.

Home Defence
From June 1941, 522nd Coast Rgt comprised the following:
 * 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 and 134 Coast Btys
 * 387 Coast Bty – to 569 Coast Rgt by December 1941
 * 239 Independent Coast Bty – attached for training; joined regiment August; to 569 Coast Rgt by December 1941
 * 31, 57 Coast Observer Detachments (CODs) – joined August–December 1941
 * 98 COD – joined by July 1942
 * No 4 Coast Artillery Plotting Room (Portland) – joined by July 1942

At their height in September 1941, the Portland area defences contained the following guns:
 * Portland
 * 4 x 9.2-inch
 * 4 x 6-inch
 * 4 x 12-pounders
 * Poole
 * 2 x 4.7-inch
 * Lyme Regis
 * 2 x 4.7-inch
 * Swanage
 * 2 x 4.7-inch
 * Abbotsbury
 * 2 x 4-inch
 * West Bay (Bridport Harbour)
 * 2 x 5.5-inch

In April 1942 the regiment came under the command of V Corps Coast Artillery HQ, changing to Hampshire & Dorset District by October. Then Canadian Corps took over responsibility for coast defence in the area as part of South Eastern Command, until it joined 21st Army Group in June 1943 and Sussex District Coast Artillery HQ took over control of 522nd Rgt. The regiment returned to the command of Hants & Dorset District in April 1944.

Later war
As the invasion threat receded, the coast defences were seen as absorbing excessive manpower and were scaled back, the gunners being redeployed. 569th Coast Regiment was disbanded in early 1943, and its batteries joined 522nd, giving the following organisation:
 * 102, 103, 104, 105, 107, 134 Btys
 * 106 Bty – to 534 (Orkney) Coast Rgt April 1943
 * 239, 387 Btys – returned from 569 Coast Rgt February 1943
 * 376 Bty – from 569 Coast Rgt February, disbanded April 1943
 * 27 COD – replaced 31 COD
 * 57, 98 CODs
 * No 4 Army Plotting Room

However, Portland Harbour was a major concentration point for shipping being assembled for the Allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord), and Weymouth Bay was used for invasion exercises, so 522nd Coast Rgt did not see the same reductions as regiments elsewhere. Nevertheless, by the end of 1944 serious naval attacks on the coast could be discounted and the War Office began reorganising surplus coastal units into infantry battalions for duties in the rear areas. In January 1945 most of the gun positions were reduced to 'care and maintenance' and 522nd Coast Rgt was converted into 618th (Dorsetshire) Infantry Regiment, RA. The new regiment included a draft of 130 men from 523rd (Cornwall) Coast Rgt. It does not appear to have served overseas.

Postwar
618th (Dorsetshire) Infantry Regiment was placed in suspended animation in 1946. When the TA was reconstituted in 1947, the regiment was reformed at Weymouth as 421st (Dorset) Coast Regiment in 102 Coast Brigade.

In 1956 the Coast Artillery branch was abolished, and on 31 October 421st Coast Rgt merged with 255th (Wessex) Medium Rgt to form 255th (West Somerset Yeomanry and Dorset Garrison) Medium Rgt, with its HQ at Yeovil.

In 1961, 255th Med Rgt amalgamated with 294th (Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry) Medium Rgt as 250th (Queen's Own Dorset and West Somerset Yeomanry) Med Rgt, which included R (Dorset Garrison) Battery. The Dorset artillery lineage ended when the TA was reduced into the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve in 1967.

Uniforms and Insignia
The 5th and 6th Dorsetshire AVCs wore distinctive buttons marked with a crown above a field gun and a laurel spray on either side. Beneath the gun was the figure 5 or 6 and round the lower edge was the word 'DORSET'.

Honorary Colonels
The following served as Honorary Colonel of the unit:
 * Col G.E. Eliot, former CO, appointed 9 January 1895
 * Lt-Col Edward, 10th Lord Digby, late Coldstream Guards, appointed 28 November 1900
 * Maj-Gen Sir Reginald Pinney, KCB, appointed 31 March 1921
 * Col Edward, 11th Lord Digby, DSO, MC, late Coldstream Guards, appointed 18 December 1929 and continued post with 421st (Dorset) Coast Rgt in 1947

External Sources

 * Mark Conrad, The British Army, 1914 (archive site)
 * British Army units from 1945 on
 * The Drill Hall Project
 * Great War Centenary Drill Halls
 * The Long, Long Trail
 * Orders of Battle at Patriot Files
 * Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth – Regiments.org (archive site)
 * Royal Artillery 1939–1945 (archive site)
 * Graham Watson, The Territorial Army 1947