The 1st Wiltshire Battery, Royal Field Artillery, and its successors were part-time Territorial Force units of the British Army from 1908 to 1950.

[b] The brigade headquarters (HQ) was also based at Swindon, taking over The Armoury at 62 Prospect Place previously used by two Volunteer companies of the Wiltshire Regiment.

[6][13][14] All those Territorials who had not volunteered for overseas service, together with the recruits who were flooding in, formed reserve or 2nd Line units, the titles of which were the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix.

In June 1917 the brigade was joined by 79 (Howitzer) Bty transferred from VI (Howitzer) Bde, a Regular unit that had remained in India and was also attached to 16th Indian Division, giving the following organisation:[6][8][14][18][19] The 45th Division also remained in garrison in India, supplying drafts to the First Line and other theatres throughout the war until its units had virtually disappeared.

One of these was Sergeant William Gosling, a Swindon man, who was attached to V/51 Heavy Trench Mortar Battery in 51st (Highland) Division, when he won the Victoria Cross on 5 April 1915 during the bombardment for the Battle of Arras.

[19] Field artillery was of relatively little use on the Frontier because of its flat trajectory and the need for large teams of horses to move the guns, with consequent forage problems.

The following year the TF was reorganised as the Territorial Army (TA) and the units were renumbered:[4][11][26][27][28] 55th (Wessex) Field Brigade 220 (Wiltshire) Bty was commanded by the Marquess of Ailesbury, DSO, TD.

Partial mechanisation was carried out from 1927, but the guns retained iron-tyred wheels until pneumatic tyres began to be introduced just before the outbreak of World War II.

In the case of the 55th (Wessex) this was done on 22 July 1939 by splitting off the two Wiltshire batteries to form 112th Field Rgt, with Regimental Headquarters (RHQ) at Swindon.

[35] Once the Battle of France was lost and the BEF was being evacuated from Dunkirk, 43rd (W) Division was one of the few reasonably well-equipped formations left in Home Forces to counter a German invasion of the United Kingdom (its three field regiments had 48 25-pounders between them on 31 May 1940 against an establishment of 72).

It formed part of the mobile GHQ Reserve disposed on the line from Northampton through North London to Aldershot, from which brigade groups could be despatched to any threatened area.

[38][39][40][41] By the end of 1940 the division was stationed in East Kent, where it remained for the next four years, first in defensive mode, later training intensively for the Allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord).

It was later noted that its habitual training area round Stone Street, outside Folkestone, bore a marked resemblance to the Bocage countryside in Normandy where it would later fight.

[35][42][43][44] It was only in the autumn of 1940 that the RA began producing enough battery staffs to start the process of changing regiments from a two-battery to a three-battery organisation.

[35][47][48][49][50] The division's first major offensive action of its own was Operation Jupiter, to take Hill 112, which had been briefly captured by British armour during 'Epsom' but had to be abandoned.

It was supposed to break through and seize bridgeheads over the River Orne, but the massive barrage only stunned and failed to suppress the defenders from 10th SS Panzer Division.

The DCLI held out through the night but by mid-afternoon on 11 July all the anti-tank guns on the hill had been knocked out, the tanks had to retire to the reverse slope, and the defence was almost over.

[52][53][54][55] After a short rest 43rd (W) Division moved to XXX Corps to launch an attack towards the dominating height of Mont Pinçon as part of Operation Bluecoat.

[61][62] The breakout achieved, XXX Corps drove flat out for the River Seine (Operation Loopy), with 43rd (W) Division sent ahead to make an assault crossing at Vernon.

The roughly 100 vehicles of 112th Field Rgt moved with the bulk of the divisional artillery in Group Two and arrived too late to participate in the bombardment covering the initial assault crossing on the evening of 25 August.

The divisional artillery assembled on the hillside overlooking Vernon and fired with the assistance of air observation post aircraft against the counter-attacks on the other side of the river.

By 28 August the Sappers had bridged the river, the armour had begun to cross in numbers and 130th Bde was clearing the high ground opposite, allowing 112th Field Rgt's reconnaissance parties to follow up.

The first elements moved up to Brussels to protect headquarters, then the division concentrated at Diest to take part in Operation Market Garden, beginning on 17 September.

The whole divisional artillery opened up at 21.00, while the sappers crossed and recrossed the river in stormboats ferrying around 2300 exhausted survivors of 1st Airborne back to the south bank.

[70][71][72][73][74] In the aftermath of Market Garden, 43rd (W) Division was stationed on 'The Island' (between the Rivers Waal and Nederrijn), fighting off some serious counter-attacks in early October.

[75] 43rd (W) Division was relieved on 10 November and then shifted east with XXX Corps to cooperate with the Ninth US Army by capturing the Geilenkirchen salient in Operation Clipper.

By 22 November any further advance was impossible due to the waterlogged state of the country, which then had to be defended in conditions resembling the worst of the Western Front in World War I.

From 20 December a battle group under 43rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance Regiment with 112nd Field Rgt, two anti-tank troops and two infantry companies covered the river with a series of OPs and small detachments holding possible crossing places.

The advance began on 30 March: after initial traffic jams, the groups either overcame or bypassed German rearguards and Lochem was liberated on 1–2 April.

[91][92][93] The pursuit continued through April and ended with the division's capture of Bremen against spasmodic opposition and XXX Corps' drive into the Cuxhaven peninsula.