[25][26][27] The battery and ammunition column completed mobilisation on 14 August and moved out to its war station at Stirling in the Scottish Coastal Defences the following day.

[21][23][28][29] 1/1st Lowland Hvy Bty was sent to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front, disembarking at Le Havre in France on 16 February.

[31][30] 48th Heavy Artillery Group was assigned to support VII Corps' Attack on the Gommecourt Salient in the forthcoming 'Big Push' (the Battle of the Somme).

On Y2, 48th HAG engaged 18 separate targets, and 1/1st Lowland Hvy Bty fired 220 rounds, but this was far below the 400 per battery permitted, because of continuing difficulties of observation.

From 07.25 1/1st Lowland Hvy Bty spent the day firing mainly at battery positions around Le Quesnoy Farm at ranges around 8,000 yards (7,300 m).

After the preliminary bombardment, howitzers laid a standing barrage on the German trenches at Zero hour while the 60-pounders swept and searched in depth to catch machine gunners and moving infantry.

By early October the Australians were taken out of the line for rest, handing their artillery including 93rd Bde over to the II US Corps for the Battle of Cambrai, in which the Americans advanced up to the River Selle.

[9][20]) The CO (Lt-Col J.B. Cameron, DSO, TD) and senior major (E.G. Thompson, MC) of the new brigade were prewar officers of the 1st Lowland (City of Edinburgh) Hvy Bty.

[9][66][68][61] On 10 May 1940, the Phoney War ended with the German invasion of the Low Countries, and the BEF followed the pre-arranged Plan D and advanced into Belgium to take up defences along the River Dyle.

To hold the line of the Aire Canal north of Saint-Omer the BEF organised a scratch force of rear elements ('Polforce'), including 51st (L) Hvy Rgt, to defend the crossings.

The defenders at St Momelin were relieved by French troops on 25 May and fell back into the 'pocket' round Dunkirk from which the BEF was preparing evacuation (Operation Dynamo).

By the Autumn of 1940, 51st (L) Hvy Rgt with its attached Royal Corps of Signals section had joined Western Command, facing the possibility of German invasion by sea and air.

[89][91] After the breakout from the Normandy beachhead, I Corps was tasked with clearing the port of Le Havre on 10 September (Operation Astonia), again supported by 4 AGRA engaged in counter-battery (CB) fire.

[95] At the end of October, 51st (L) Hvy Rgt was detached from 4 AGRA to support II Canadian Corps in its attack on Walcheren (Operation Infatuate).

It returned to 4 AGRA in I Corps on 4 November and deployed around Etten-Leur, with a section of 7.2s west of Breda, directing harassing fire (HF) against German movements on the Moerdijk bridges.

[62] For Operation Veritable (the clearance of the Klever Reichswald), 51st (L) Hvy Rgt (less one 155mm battery) reverted to 4 AGRA, which was assigned to XXX Corps to support 51st (Highland) Division.

However, the battle slowed down into a series of short-range night and dawn attacks through flooded country from one 'island' village to another behind a barrage: 'it was a slog in which only two things mattered, training and guns ...

From 12 to 17 April the regiment supported 49th (West Riding) Division's assault crossing of the River Ijssel and clearance of the enemy pocket at Arnhem.

[62] The regiment moved to the Otterloo area, where there was little firing apart from night HF tasks, though 4 Bty sent a fighting patrol on foot to comb nearby woods for Germans.

It came into action on 17 July, together with six field regiments, in support of an attack on the Fossa Bottaceto, south of Catania, by 6th and 9th Bns Durham Light Infantry and the tanks of 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters).

The operation bogged down in close country and an attempt to restart it the next night broke down when the artillery was directed to fire on the Bottaceto itself, while German troops were still in position in front of it.

[110] After Sicily had been secured, Eighth Army moved to the invasion of mainland Italy, with 6 AGRA supporting XIII Corps, tasked with crossing the Strait of Messina to land around Reggio di Calabria on 3 September (Operation Baytown).

The assembled guns fired vast amounts of ammunition without reply, and the assault troops met little opposition on the lightly held shore.

In the first half of December, during the Moro River Campaign, 2nd New Zealand Division supported by 6 AGRA and 66th (L) Medium Rgt made sustained but unsuccessful attempts to take the hilltop town of Orsogna.

Additional AOP aircraft were allocated, and 6 AGRA benefited from 'Rover David', a 'cab rank system' for direct fighter-bomber support that could be called down on fleeting targets.

During four days of preparation for 2nd New Zealand Division to assault the Arezzo position (10–14 July), the guns fired on enemy artillery batteries to cover the lull.

The attack was an anti-climax, the terrain offering more resistance than the enemy, but the steep nature of the ground made accurate artillery support difficult, and there was heavier fighting on 15 July before the Germans broke contact and retreated.

[115] When 78th Division came back into the line in October, taking over positions in the Santerno Valley, 66th (L) Medium Rgt was directly attached to it, though the precarious bridges across the Santero made the relief and subsequent supply a very slow business.

)[18][55][118][122][123] When the TA was reduced into the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve (TAVR) on 2 April 1967, 278th Fd Rgt became Q (City of Edinburgh) Battery in a combined Lowland Regiment, Royal Artillery, which was disbanded in 1975.

[7][8] While training with 3rd Division in 1942, 66th (Lowland) Medium Rgt wore a blue diamond-shaped shoulder flash bearing the numeral 7 embroidered in red.