44th Infantry Division: BEF May 1940

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Leo Niehorster
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44th Infantry Division: BEF May 1940

#1

Post by Leo Niehorster » 12 Sep 2012, 09:54

Greetings,
Would someone please inform me as to which types of artillery, and how many of each, the field regiments (57, 58, 65) of the 44th Infantry Division had on 10 May 1940?

Thank you
Leo

Carl Schwamberger
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Re: 44th Infantry Division: BEF May 1940

#2

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 12 Sep 2012, 11:41

Standard number of cannon at that time per regiment was 24. They wold have been organized under the pattern selected in 1938, in two "batteries" of 12 cannon each, that would be divided into three "troops" of four cannon each. Odds are the cannon would have been the rebored 18/25 pounder cannon (25lbr gun Mk1), that is the older 18lbr guns altered to accept the new 25lbr projectiles. Alternately they might have been the new 25lbr gun Mk2


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Leo Niehorster
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Re: 44th Infantry Division: BEF May 1940

#3

Post by Leo Niehorster » 12 Sep 2012, 12:18

Thanks for your reply.

I am still looking for the allotment of guns by numbers and types for the three field regiments of this division as per the original question.

Gary Kennedy
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Re: 44th Infantry Division: BEF May 1940

#4

Post by Gary Kennedy » 12 Sep 2012, 20:09

Leo,

Not my period as you probably know, but there is a reference over on the RA39-45 website to 58 Fd Regt as having 18/25-prs in May 1940 -

http://www.ra39-45.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk ... age58.html

No detail for 57 or 65 Fd Regts on the same site unfortunately.

Have you checked with Alan Philson?

Gary

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Leo Niehorster
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Re: 44th Infantry Division: BEF May 1940

#5

Post by Leo Niehorster » 13 Sep 2012, 09:47

Hi Gary,
Naw, didn't really want to bother him — his volumes dealing with the 1940 BEF list all the artillery types and numbers by division, except the 44th. So he probably doesn't know either.

Cheers
Leo

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Re: 44th Infantry Division: BEF May 1940

#6

Post by Clive Mortimore » 13 Sep 2012, 22:04

Carl Schwamberger wrote:Standard number of cannon at that time per regiment was 24. They wold have been organized under the pattern selected in 1938, in two "batteries" of 12 cannon each, that would be divided into three "troops" of four cannon each. Odds are the cannon would have been the rebored 18/25 pounder cannon (25lbr gun Mk1), that is the older 18lbr guns altered to accept the new 25lbr projectiles. Alternately they might have been the new 25lbr gun Mk2
Hi Carl

The 18 pdr Mk4A ordnance had a lose liner, the 25 pdr Mk1 was the same barrel with a new lose liner of larger caliber so it could fire the new 25 pdr shell. They were not rebored.

Clive
Clive

Carl Schwamberger
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Re: 44th Infantry Division: BEF May 1940

#7

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 14 Sep 2012, 01:36

Forty minutes of web search turned up nothing. In the margin of some pages I have from the Journal of Royal Artillery I did make a note ten years ago. It reads "no 25lbr Mk2 were lost in France all MkI lost = 700 (?" That note went on the margin nine or ten years ago & I've no clue where the information came from.

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Re: 44th Infantry Division: BEF May 1940

#8

Post by Leo Niehorster » 14 Sep 2012, 10:02

I just contacted Alan Philson, who replied:
"All three Fd Regts had the 25 pdr, I'm guessing I haven't put that in the book?"

Thanks guys. :wink:
Leo

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