135th Field Regiment was a Royal Artillery (RA) unit being formed in Britain's part-time Territorial Army (TA) on the outbreak of World War II.

During March 1940, parties were temporarily sent to man Lewis guns for AA defence on coastal shipping, and 20 volunteers left the regiment to join No.

After the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk, the regiment exchanged three officers and 57 other ranks (ORs) with 97th (Kent Yeomanry) Field Rgt, which had experience of the fighting in France.

[1][18][19][20] At the beginning of 1941, 18th Division moved from coastal defence duties to GHQ Reserve and began mobile training for overseas service.

The regiment spent a few days at the end of April at No 4 Field Practice Camp at Trawsfynydd in North Wales, where it fired its 25-pdrs for the first time.

On 5 May the regiment sent a large party to assist in air raid duties at Liverpool, which had suffered four successive nights of heavy bombing.

[26] The Sobieski took the regiment to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where 135th Field Rgt and 53rd Bde transshipped to the USS Mount Vernon and CT5 sailed on via Port of Spain to Cape Town.

A reconnaissance ('recce') party from 135th Field Rgt consisting of Lt-Col Toosey and the three battery commanders accompanied the brigade while the guns were being serviced.

Next day BHQ and D Trp of 344 Bty under Maj H.M. Peacock deployed in a 'hide' outside Pontian Kechil, supporting 28th Indian Bde on the coast road.

Banham drove out to the Mount Austin Estate north of Johor Bahru on the road to Kota Tinggi to recce likely anti-tank positions.

499 Battery under Maj Daltry was finally issued with a collection of requisitioned vehicles to tow its guns (8 x 4-5-inch howitzers) and join the rest of the regiment.

The two sections of B Trp were ordered to advance by leap-frog bounds so that they could provide continuous fire support for the scratch force of Norfolks and FMSV armoured cars.

The commander of 15th Indian Bde decided to retire to Benut through the mangrove swamps along the shoreline, so A Trp's remaining howitzer was put out of action by dropping the breech-block into the river.

Meanwhile, Rengit was under heavy attack and was overrun during the night of 26/27 January; guns and vehicles were disabled and the survivors made their way to Benut, where they were evacuated by Royal Navy gunboats.

[38][40][41] 53rd Brigade HQ at Benut was now effectively the front line, defended by 3rd Bn 16th Punjab Regiment and the two remaining howitzers of B Trp of 336 Bty under Capt J.M.

On the night of 30/31 January all the troops in Johore withdrew across the causeway onto Singapore Island, Lt-Col Toosey withdrawing his guns by leap-frog bounds to ensure continuous fire support.

4th (Hazara) Mountain Battery, Indian Artillery, equipped with two 6-inch howitzers, and a section of 273 Anti-Tank Bty armed with 2-pounder guns were attached to 135th Field Rgt on 3 February.

A joint 135th Field Rgt/4th Mtn Bty OP under an overhanging rock at Bukit Mandai received 25 direct hits but the FOOs (Capt G. Keane, 135th Feld Rgt, and Jemadar Jogindar Singh, 4th Mtn Bty) remained at their posts, bringing down fire on the enemy's gun flashes, and temporarily silencing the guns firing on the naval base.

On 10 February, 8th Indian Bde was ordered to put in a counter-attack on Point 95 overlooking the causeway with fire support from 135th Field Rgt.

135th Field Rgt fired 7000 rounds that day, and received the personal congratulations from the Commander-in-Chef of ABDA, Sir Archibald Wavell, who was visiting the island.

However, the order to withdraw did not reach 499 Bty's B Echelon in the wagon lines in a rubber plantation, and the men and vehicles with their FMSV liaison officers were captured in an ambush when they finally pulled out.

Toosey was now ordered to join the evacuation of key personnel and cadres from Singapore, but he refused (quoting the Artillery Training manual) so that he could remain with his men during their impending captivity.

[56] Firing continued throughout 14 February, with 11th Indian and 18th Divisions holding their ground, but field gun ammunition was running short and the city's water supply breaking down.

In the evening the regiment was warned of Japanese tanks attacking, and Sergeant Hughes's gun of B Trp was detached and placed in an anti-tank role facing north on Balestier Road.

In June 1942, 500 men of 135th Field Rgt were sent to Sime Road Camp to work as labourers on a Japanese war memorial, some of the others remaining at Changi during the notorious Selarang Barracks incident.

In October a party of 18th Division prisoners, including about 400 of 135th Field Rgt, was sent to Thailand to work on the Wan Po viaduct across the Mae Klong river on the Burma Railway.

Toosey was the senior Allied officer in the PoW camp at Tha Maa Kham (known as Tamarkan) that housed the men building the bridge.

This was described in a book by Pierre Boulle and later in the Oscar-winning film The Bridge on the River Kwai in which Alec Guinness played the senior British officer.

[29][60] The men of 135th Field Rgt were progressively split up as the work on the railway was completed in 1943 and parties of PoWs were moved to other labouring jobs in Thailand, Formosa and Japan.

[2][63] The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) design for headstones for members of 135th Field Rgt includes both the RA and Hertfordshire Yeomanry badges.