171st Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
military unit
171st Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) formed during World War I. It served on both the Western Front, including the Battles of Arras and Passchendaele, and the Italian Front, where it participated in the repulse of the Austrian Summer Offensive of 1918 and the crushing victory at Vittorio Veneto.
Mobilisation and training
171st Siege Battery was formed at Pembroke Dock in West Wales on 13 June 1916 under Army Council Instruction 1239 of 21 June, which laid down that it was to follow the establishment for 'New Army' (Kitchener's Army) units, with a cadre drawn from the Pembroke Royal Garrison Artillery, a Territorial Force (TF) unit forming part of the Pembroke Dock garrison. The cadre was to consist of three officers and 78 men (the wartime establishment of an RGA Company of the TF), the rest of the men would be Regulars and New Army recruits
Western Front
The battery went out to the Western Front on 16 September 1916 equipped with four 6-inch 26 cwt howitzers and joined 49th Heavy Artillery Group (HAG) in Second Army on 22 September, switching on 4 October to 43rd HAG, which joined Fifth Army shortly afterwards.
Fifth Army was engaged in the final weeks of the Battle of the Somme, then in a number of small actions in early 1917 as the German Army retired to the Hindenburg Line (Operation Alberich). During the Arras Offensive of April–May 1917 Fifth Army fought in attack and defence around Bullecourt and Lagnicourt. The last of this series of actions (the Second Battle of Bullecourt) was preceded by effective counter-battery (CB) fire from the heavy guns, but after the first day (3 May) the German guns driven out of their positions began to take a toll on the infantry from new positions that could not be located and neutralised quickly enough. A hurriedly arranged attack on 13 May had no real fireplan and failed, but Bullecourt was finally taken on 17 May.
171st Siege Bty was joined by a section from 368th Siege Bty on 29 June 1917, and brought up to the strength to man six 6-inch howitzers, but it seems that the additional guns never joined. The battery joined 40th HAG on 7 July 1917. The heavy guns of Fifth Army were engaged in a long artillery duel with the Germans throughout July in preparation for the Third Ypres Offensive, but 40th HAG was transferred to Third Army on 1 August after the first day of the attack.
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