Mountain Artillery
History
Mountain Artillery
Mountain Artillery was developed to allow field guns to accompany forces operating in mountainous regions. The guns were dismantled into three loads (piece, carriage and wheels) and carried on mules. The first mountain train in India was formed in 1840 for service in the 1st Afghan War and disbanded in 1843. Mountain Batteries formed part of the forces raised to defend the territory gained in the 2nd Sikh War in due course known as the North West Frontier Province. The Hazara Mountain Train was the first to be formed in 1850 from a nucleus raised by Capt J Abbott, Bengal Artillery, during the Hazara rebellion of 1848.
Punjab Irregular Force
When the Punjab Irregular Force was formed in 1851 it had four batteries of artillery mainly recruited from defeated Sikh artillerymen. They were known as Punjab Light Field Batteries:
- No 1 Horse Light Field Battery
- No 2 Horse Light Field Battery
- No 3 Horse Light Field Battery
- No 4 Garrison Company
The force later gained two further units:
- Hazara Mountain Train
- Peshawar Mountain Train
The Indian Mutiny
As a consequence of the Indian Mutiny the European artillery regiments (21 horse batteries & 48 field batteries) of the Presidency Armies were taken into the Royal Artillery of the British Army. The Bengal, Madras and Bombay Native Foot Artillery were disbanded except for the Mountain Trains, the Horse Light Field Batteries, three companies of Madras Native Foot Artillery (disbanded in 1870), three companies of Bombay Native Foot Artillery (one disbanded in 1870) and some garrison and local units which were soon disbanded.
Punjab Frontier Force
The Punjab Iregular Force became the Punjab Frontier Force in 1865 and the two mountain trains were redesignated mountain batteries. The No 1 Light Field Battery was disbanded in 1870. In 1876/7 the remaining batteries were renumbered as follows:
| No 2 Horse Light Field Battery | became | No 1 Mountain Battery (PFF) |
| No 3 Punjab Horse Light Field Battery | became | No 2 Mountain Battery (PFF) |
| Peshawar Mountain Battery | became | No 3 Peshawar Mountain Battery (PFF) |
| Hazara Mountain Battery | became | No 4 Hazara Mountain Battery (PFF) |
| No 4 Garrison Company | became | No. 5 Garrison Battery |
In 1879 the titles were further changed to:
| No 1 Mountain Battery (PFF) | became | No 1 (Kohat) Punjab Mountain Battery |
| No 2 Mountain Battery (PFF) | became | No 2 (Derajat) Punjab Mountain Battery |
| No 3 Peshawar Mountain Battery (PFF) | became | No 3 (Peshawar) Punjab Mountain Battery |
| No 4 Hazara Mountain Battery (PFF) | became | No 4 (Hazara) Punjab Mountain Battery |
Also in 1876 the two remaining companies of Bombay Native Foot Artillery became No 1 & No 2 Bombay Mountain Batteries. In 1890 there were again renumbered:
| No 1 Bombay Mountain Battery | became | No 5 (Bombay) Mountain Battery |
| No 2 Bombay Mountain Battery | became | No 6 (Bombay) Mountain Battery |
In 1886 No 1 & No 2 Bengal Mountain Batteries were formed and renumbered in 1899:
| No 1 Bengal Mountain Battery | became | No 7 (Bengal) Mountain Battery |
| No 2 Bengal Mountain Battery | became | No 8 (Bengal) Mountain Battery |
Also in 1899 the 9th (Native) Mountain Battery was raised at Rawalpindi
and in 1900 the 10th (Native) Mountain Battery was raised at Abbottabad
Titles in use in 1900 were again changed in 1901:
| No 1 Kohat Mountain Battery | became | Kohat Mountain Battery |
| No 2 Derajat Mountain Battery | became | Derajat Mountain Battery |
| No 3 Peshawar Mountain Battery | became | Peshawar Mountain Battery |
| No 4 Hazara Mountain Battery | became | Hazara Mountain Battery |
| No 5 Bombay Mountain Battery | became | Quetta Mountain Battery |
| No 6 Bombay Mountain Battery | became | Jullundur Mountain Battery |
| No 7 Bengal Mountain Battery | became | Gujarat Mountain Battery |
| No 8 Bengal Mountain Battery | became | Lahore Mountain Battery |
| No 9 Native Mountain Battery | became | Murree Mountain Battery |
| No 10 Native Mountain Battery | became | Abbottabad Mountain Battery |
1903 reorganisation
The units were again numbered and their names changed:
- 1907 two more batteries were formed: 31st Mountain Battery and 32nd Mountain Battery
1914-18 War
15 additional batteries were formed.
1920-22 reorganisation
- 1920 all batteries were titled 'Pack' rather than 'Mountain"
- 1921 names in bracket were restored to Nos 25-30. No 31 named Dehra Dun. No 32 named Poonch
- 1922 80 added to all numbers
- 1924 became batteries in the Royal Regiment of Artillery
- 1927 100 deducted from numbers and all retitled Indian Mountain Batteries RA
- 1928 Indian dropped from title
- 1939 transferred to the Indian Regiment of Artillery
- 1942 retitled Indian Mountain Batteries IA
Royal Artillery Batteries with British gunners
There were eight British Army batteries of mountain artillery, numbered 1 to 9, of which one was in Egypt, where the gunners were British, in comparison to the Indian mountain artillery where the gunners were Indian. The designation changed to Pack Battery in 1920 and to Light Battery in 1927.[1] In 1937 these Batteries ceased to exist in their previous form, when they were transformed into Indian mountain artillery, when the British gunners were sent to other artillery units, and were replaced by Indian gunners.[2]
Armament
- See separate article Mountain Guns
- See Mule Corps for information about the carrying of the guns by mules.
Recommended reading
Tales of the Mountain Gunners an anthology compiled by those who served with them and edited by C. H. T. MacFetridge and J. P. Warren. Edinburgh : Blackwood, 1973.
An anthology of tales and short stories about one of the most unusual and colourful units in the history of the British Empire: the Mountain Artillery. Its reputation for action attracted a collection of adventurous, able and eccentric officers; usually with a combination of all three qualities. See Military reading list - Army - Other - List of books recommended by Peter Moore. Another reader said "I cannot recommend too highly Tales of the Mountain Gunners. It is simply enthralling, moving, funny, inspiring and wonderful. It would be in my top 10 books never to part with.[3]
Chapters include: in the days work, good fighting, the soldier, the mule, the gun, some characters and more.[4]
External links
- Indian Mountain Artillery www.king-emperor.com, now archived.
- Mountain Gunners www.victorianmilitarysociety.org, now archived. From ‘Soldiers of the Queen' issue 82, September 1995. Current website
- War Horse: Munitions National Army Museum, now an archived webpage
- Model Mountain Artillery with Mule Team and Quick Firing Gun, 1908. National Army Museum
- Indian Artillery in WW1 by Major General Rajendra Prakash, VSM, Indian Army (Retd). “India and the Great War” website
- Indian Army 1917 Mountain Artillery Batteries by Paul Watson November 22, 2006 orbat.com, now archived.
- Photograph of Indian troops [7 Indian Mounted [Mountain?] Artillery Bde with mules, waiting to embark transport ship at Alexandria, Egypt. No 2278. 1916 from a collection of official photographs of the Dardanelles Expedition, 1915-1916. The Serving Soldier King’s College London.
- "Kurdistan 1919: Military Operations in Mesopotamian Kurdistan: South Kurdistan, May–June 1919" by Harry Fecitt. From Harry's Sideshows kaiserscross.com. Includes mention of the 34th Mountain Battery.
- Photograph of Breech loading 10-pounder gun of the 5th (Bombay) Mountain Battery, 1933 National Army Museum
- Film footage of gunners of the Indian Mountain Artillery, probably of 5th Indian Division, manning their 3.7-inch howitzers in action on the Tiddim Road in India/Burma in September 1944. colonialfilm.org.uk
- Obituary of Colonel John Kenyon, 1921-2006 who won an immediate MC as a mountain gunner in the Burma campaign during the critical battle of Kohima. In 1944 Kenyon, a lieutenant, was serving with 5 (Bombay) Indian Mountain Battery, part of 25th Indian Mountain Regiment. telegraph.co.uk (archived).
- In action in Waziristan with a Mountain Gun Regiment c 1945-1947 by Graham F Reed He was the Signals Officer. Photograph: Thirty-Eight Mountain Regiment Signal Section. "Walks in Waziristan", now an archived website.
- Photograph of 31st Mountain Battery: Mule with part of a dismantled gun flickr.com. No.3 Mule carrying the carriage assembly Probably 31st Mountain Battery. flickr.com
Historical books online
- The History of the Indian Mountain Artillery by Brigadier-General C A L Graham 1957 Archive.org.
- "Native Artillery" Chapter V, page 42 Indian Army Uniforms by W Y Carman 1969. Full title: Indian Army Uniforms under the British from the 18th century to 1947 : Artillery, Engineers and Infantry. Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection.
- Page 24 and the following Chapter 5 "Screwier Gunner", Thim Days Is Gone. Qatar Digital Library. A memoir written by Major Maurice Patrick O'Connor Tandy recounting his career. Page 24 he joins 12 Poonch Mountain Battery based at Thal, while the earlier pages describe his time in the Royal Artillery in a Light Battery, c early 1930s. He subsequently joined the Foreign and Political Department in October 1936.
- Seven Cantonments by Major SEG Ponder c 1938. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org version. The author was an Officer in the Royal Artillery, based on the North-West Frontier, including Peshawar, in 1937 and perhaps later. He was with a RA Light Battery, a Mountain Battery unit.
- Modern Guns and Gunnery 1907. A Practical Manual for Officers of the Horse, Field and Mountain Artillery by Lt.-Colonel K A Bethell Royal Field Artillery Hathi Trust version, issuu.com version. 1910 version: Entirely rewritten Hathi Trust Digital Library.
- "Chapter IV. Horse and Mountain Artillery" page 46 Modern Artillery in the Field: a description of the Artillery of the Field Army, and the Principles and Methods of its Employment by Colonel H. A. Bethell RFA (Retired) 1911 Hathi Trust Digital Library. Contains a photograph (facing page 47) (which can be rotated) (probably in German South West Africa, but similar to India).
- "The Burden and Heat of the Day by Godfrey Elton page 821 Blackwood’s Magazine, no 198 July-Dec 1915. Archive.org. Travelling by road near Afghanistan with a mountain battery and three hundred transport mules. The author was possibly Godfrey Elton of the 4th Hampshire Regiment, later 1st Baron Elton, posted initially to the North West Frontier until October 1915.
References
- ↑ Clifton, Ron. Royal Artillery in India, Pack Battery query Great War Forum 28 January 2017. Mentions the book A Norfolkman in the Raj : the Royal Artillery 1920-1933 by Alan W. Roper. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
- ↑ Seven Cantonments by Major S E G Ponder, see Historical books online, above.
- ↑ Muerrisch. Royal Artillery in India, Pack Battery query Great War Forum 28 January 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
- ↑ Books on Artillery and Fortifications DP&G Publications.
