It served on the Western Front, including the Battles of Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, the Lys, and the Allied Hundred Days Offensive in 1918.

[1][2] The Durham RGA was the only British coast defence unit to engage the enemy during the war, when the Imperial German Navy bombarded Hartlepool and Scarborough on 16 December 1914.

[5][6] By the autumn of 1914, the campaign on the Western Front was bogging down into Trench warfare and there was an urgent need for batteries of heavy and siege artillery to be sent to France.

The WO authorised 1st line TF RGA companies that had volunteered for overseas service to increase their strength by 50 per cent.

76th HAG was positioned north of Bois de Berthonval, supporting Canadian Corps, which was to carry out the opening attack on Vimy Ridge.

Maximum use was made of observation balloons and aircraft,[d] when weather permitted, to pinpoint opposing batteries for the heavies.

The ruling principle was that isolated enemy batteries should be dealt with first, since those that were closely grouped could be more easily and economically neutralised with high explosive and gas shell just before the assault.

Huge amounts of ammunition were stockpiled before the operation, including 10,000 rounds for the nine 60-pdr batteries with Canadian Corps specifically to meet possible counter-attacks.

[22] Canadian Corps succeeded in taking almost all its objectives on the first day, and Vimy Ridge with its magnificent observation over enemy territory was in Allied hands.

However the division had strong artillery support including 79th Bde RGA, which replied vigorously to the attack, bombarding the German billets and gun positions each night, and continuing harassing fire (HF) shoots throughout the day.

[13][15][30] 79th Brigade joined the reconstituted Fourth Army on 18 August, soon after the beginning of the final Allied Hundred Days Offensive that lasted to the end of the war.

On 29 September IX Corps carried out an assault crossing of the St Quentin Canal, with 79th Bde amongst the mass of artillery supporting the operation.

The first day of the battle went well, one German counter-attack being broken up when all available guns were turned onto it, but the attackers were still short of their objective, the Sambre Canal.

The attack went in at 01.20 in moonlight, after the heavy guns had done the usual CB and HF bombardments, and the results were extremely satisfactory.

[40] As the regimental historian relates, 'The guns of Fourth Army demonstrated, on 23 October, the crushing effect of well co-ordinated massed artillery.