J Macartney-Filgate

History of the 33rd Divisional Artillery in the War 1914-1918 J Macartney-Filgate New edition

On 14th January, 1915, a letter from the War Office to the Mayor of Camberwell authorised the recruiting of a brigade of field artillery (156th Brigade R. F. A). The local response was so prompt that further authority was given to raise another brigade in the same neighbourhood, to be designated 162nd Brigade R. F. A. and this was done by mid May. It was then brought to the attention of the WO that a mass of would-be recruits still remained in the Camberwell Borough, enough to complete the whole of the artillery for the 33rd Division, a Kitchener division of the Fourth New Army. The two additional field artillery brigades needed were numbered 166th and 167th (Howitzer), and the divisional ammunition column (33rd D. A. C)was also formed. This book took nearly two years to complete and throughout that time the author maintained the closest collaboration with the official war diaries, personal diaries, letters and experiences of individuals and every sort of reliable information to produce an accurate and complete record of the doings of the batteries in France. An appendix contains a list of the casualties suffered by the divisional artillery (officers by name, other ranks numerically) during the war, another shows all the other divisions supported by 33rd Divisional Artillery, when and where; a third appendix shows the various sectors of the line where the batteries were in action, with dates and official names of the battles in which they were engaged. In the text are twelve tables showing the names of the HQ Staff, brigade commanders, adjutants and battery commanders at various stages of the war