Between the Wars
Mechanisation
Annual Camp - Medmenham, 1923
Although the British Army experimented with mechanised transport from the 1860’s onwards, it was not until the First World War that motor transport became integrated with rail and horse to provide supply lines for the Western Front. The invention of the tank was eventually to have a fundamental influence on the mechanisation of fighting vehicles and guns, developments that largely followed on after the war ended.
For the Berkshire Yeomanry, fighting in the campaigns in North Africa, Gallipoli and Palestine there was little interaction with motorised vehicles. Some operations did involve the Rolls Royce armoured cars of the Royal Naval Air Service but, in general, supply and movement was either by rail, camel, mule or horse.
After the war, in 1921 the Berkshire Yeomanry was re-roled as gunners and they were to keep their horses for a few more years. As the Army developed its new doctrine in the 1920’s and 1930’s, with modernity and machinery at the very core of its thinking, horses were to be replaced with motorised vehicles to tow the guns.
Individually of course the members of the regiment were experiencing the growth of mechanisation in their civilian lives as landowners, farmers, estate workers and tradesman. So the developments within the British Army were not unexpected nor resisted, despite the loss of the much-loved horses.
Horse Gunners
For the Berkshire Yeomanry the first post-war camp, held in 1921, was their last as cavalry. At that camp they were shown their new weapon, the 18-pounder field gun.
From 1922 until 1938 the Berkshire Yeomanry provided 395 Battery (initially from Windsor and Reading), and 396 Battery (Newbury and Hungerford) of 99th (Buckinghamshire and Berkshire Yeomanry) Brigade RFA. The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) was the largest branch of the Royal Artillery and was formed in 1899. In 1924 the RFA was merged back into the Royal Artillery and the regiment’s title changed to 99th (Buckinghamshire and Berkshire Yeomanry) Field Brigade RA.
Gun detachment from 395 Battery at Annual Camp at Bulford in 1922
Annual Camp lasted two weeks and was the focus of training. From 1922 onwards Camps followed a regular four-year cycle: a Practice Camp every other year, and in the intervening years, alternately, a local or “County” Camp, and a Camp by, or near, the sea. This arrangement, which seemed to work well enough in practice, was broken only in 1932, when the War Office in a sudden enthusiasm for economy, cancelled all Territorial Army Camps leaving units to make what arrangements they could for their training.
Annual Camp at Medmenham in 1923
Commenting on Annual Camp in the first few years as gunners, in his history of the Berkshire Yeomanry, Lt Col WH Skrine wrote:
One of the major problems at annual camps was the training of the horses. These were hired from a contractor, and were usually taken over straight from a train at a station near the camp. Then the trouble began. The contractors were supposed to have them somewhat trained to the job - lead, centre, wheel, or riding the horse as the case might be. This was a pious hope which never materialised.
When the drivers eventually got the harness on to the brutes there would be chaos as soon as they tried to get them into a team. It usually ended in finding three or four teams that would go, and making them do a shuttle service bringing guns and wagons to the camp. Most of the camps were on top of a hill. The remainder were led by their drivers. The language on these occasions was awful. The first week in camp was always a rodeo. The next week things would improve considerably but all too soon the batteries would have to pack up and go home.
Annual Camp at Medmenham in 1923: “something of a rodeo” according to Lt Col Walter Skrine
This sub-section is practising deployment drills as part of the Alarm Race. The Alarm Race started with gun detachments in their tented accommodation. The detachments then had to race to their guns, attach the guns to the limber, hitch the horses to the limber, deploy to the specified location, unhitch the horses and ready the gun for firing. The winners were the first to be ready to fire.
Practice Camp - Oakhampton 1924
Practice Camp at Okehampton in 1924
Led by Bandmaster Peter Farrell, the Berkshire Yeomanry Band is making its way on foot from Okehampton railway siding to the Camp.
In the background the contractor’s horses are being unloaded from railway wagons which form a large part of the train.
At the front and rear of the train are passenger carriages. In the foreground is a War Department Dennis 3-ton lorry of which 7,000 had been manufactured during the First World War.
On approach to Okehampton Camp in 1924 showing detachments of six horses towing limber and gun.
Both 99th (Buckinghamshire and Berkshire) Brigade RFA and 100th (Worcestershire and Oxfordshire Yeomanry) Brigade RFA were attending Annual Camp at Okehampton at the same time.
Early attempts at Mechanisation
In 1926 the two Batteries went to camp, at Okehampton, completely horsed for the last time.
396 Battery at Annual Camp in 1927 at Hurley
Whilst officers, battery staff and gun detachments remained mounted, guns and wagons were drawn by most unmilitary-looking Fordson tractors which, although they worked well enough on the parade ground, were not really up to the job of hauling an 18-pounder gun plus limber up a steep slope or in stiff going. From a training point of view, they were certainly an improvement on the untrained gun teams of previous years, and there can be no doubt that the mobility of the batteries improved considerably.
396 Battery at Annual Camp in 1927 at Hurley: Manoeuvring the guns
A Morris civilian lorry of the 1920’s
At Okehampton in 1928 the batteries were provided with civilian Morris lorries to tow the guns, a change which marked the final eclipse of the ammunition wagon and its limber, though the gun limber was retained.
This was to become the accepted method of hauling the guns for many years and, by and large, it worked very well. Horses were retained only for officers and battery staff (all personnel apart from the gun detachments).
In 1929 the War Office had decided that by 1933 all field batteries were to be completely mechanised. The absence of horses would disappoint many but it was acknowledged that the use of mechanical transport would enable more time for gunnery training. It would also serve to familiarise the volunteer soldier with machinery which would be of benefit to them in their civilian lives.
Weymouth in 1929 was a most successful camp in every way. There was strong emphasis on individual training, and great progress was made in all departments. Training, as a result of this camp, 'moved up a class' and performance at the 1930 Practice Camp at Okehampton reached a higher level than hitherto.
At Wyfold in 1931, it never stopped raining, and partly because of this and partly because of the threat of national retrenchment over-hanging everything, this was a somewhat undistinguished camp.
In 1932 the threatened Government axe descended, and it was announced that there were to be no Territorial Camps. It was however left to individual units to make what arrangements they could without pay. The Berkshire Yeomanry batteries were able to hold ten days voluntary training in Aldershot and a very fair proportion of men attended. In one sense this was a very sad Camp, for at the end of it the Regiment said goodbye to their horses for the last time. From then on Officers and Battery Staff were to be conveyed in, according to Lt Col Walter Skrine, “an inadequate number of hopelessly inefficient” second-hand civilian cars, and the mobility of all batteries suffered severely in consequence
395 Battery in Oakhampton, 1933
Annual Camp at Okehampton in 1933 took the form of a Practice Camp and, for the first time, the Brigade attempted combined live field firing with all four batteries present. This took the form of a static survey scheme in which all four batteries engaged a regimental target without any ranging (the process of adjusting the firing through observation of the impact) and solely on data worked out by a two-man regimental survey party. This worked surprisingly well.
Two variations of the Morris 30 cwt D-Type Field Artillery Tractor. Manufactured by Morris Commercial from 1926 to 1932, these were six-wheeled vehicles powered by a 4-cylinder petrol engine and were fitted with road-going pneumatic tyres. 4-wheel drive was delivered by both rear-axles. The 18-pounders and their limbers continued to have hard-rimmed wagon wheels.
395 Battery in Oakhampton, 1933
Two variations of the Morris 30 cwt each towing a limber and 18-pounder gun. Five members of the gun detachment were accommodated in the rear of the lorry and the cab was occupied by the Driver IC, and the gun detachment commander (a sergeant or bombardier).
Driver IC (meaning Internal Combustion) was used to distinguish the gunner from the former trade of “Driver” used for the rider of a horse in a gun team.
The Shadow of War
In 1937, the Brigade went again to Okehampton for Practice Camp in July. It was now, almost for the first time, that the shadow of war began to affect the training. Batteries began to pay more attention to concealment of the gun positions and wagon lines. At this time the gun-drill of all batteries was good, but the signallers needed more training in the newly-introduced and somewhat complicated procedure for command and control of fire.
By 1938 the Regiment was fully equipped with Morris Commercial 30 cwt gun tractors fitted with road-going pneumatic tires. The 18-pounders and their limbers continued to have hard-rimmed wagon wheels and these wheels were not to be replaced until 1940. The Morris gun tractor was designated CDSW (Commercial, Double rear axle, Six-cylinder engine, Winch fitted) and had been introduced into the British Army in the mid-1930s. Between 1939 and 1944 the tractors were actually built by Austin and Wolseley who, between them, built over 12,000 vehicles of this type.
Annual Camp at Budleigh Salterton in 1938: Vehicles and Guns lined up for inspection
In 1938, following the Munich Crisis, 99th (Buckinghamshire and Berkshire Yeomanry) Field Brigade RA was reorganised and reduced from four batteries, each of two troops, to two batteries, each of three troops. The overall number of guns remained the same with each troop increased from three guns to four.
Berkshire provided three troops, each based at Newbury, Wantage and Windsor; the Hungerford and Reading sections were closed. In November 1938 the Royal Artillery ended the “Brigade” nomenclature and the regiment was retitled 99th (Buckinghamshire and Berkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment RA (TA).
Early in 1939 when preparations for conscription were under way, service in the Territorial Army was introduced as an alternative to compulsory call-up. In April 1939, the Territorial Army establishment was doubled over-night and 99th (Buckinghamshire and Berkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment RA (TA) was divided to provide two full regiments.
The choice was made to split along traditional county lines and the two regiments were titled 99th (Buckinghamshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment RA (TA) and 145th (Berkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment RA (TA).
Unsurprisingly, recruiting everywhere went on at an almost embarrassingly rapid rate, and long before it was time to go to Camp both regiments had doubled in size and stopped recruiting. Those attending Annual Camp at Chiseldon in July 1939 experienced appalling whether conditions and Lt Col Walter Skine’s only comment on it was “the less said the better”.
A Morris 8 cwt Wireless Truck attached to the regiment from 48 Divisional Signal Regiment.
A photograph from the Reading Mercury of a parade through Wantage in August 1939
Copyright © 2022. The Berkshire Yeomnary Museum. A Charitable Incorporated Organisation (1192384)