79th (Lowland) Field Regiment was a Royal Artillery (RA) unit of Britain's part-time Territorial Army (TA) during World War II. It was descended from the 1st Ayrshire and Galloway Artillery Volunteers, first raised in Scotland in 1859. It served in Home Forces for most of the war, undergoing training in mountain warfare and air-portable operations before eventually going into action at sea level in the Battle of the Scheldt. It then took part in the fighting in the Rhineland (Operations Blackcock and Veritable), and then the drive to Bremen. It was reformed in the postwar TA, and continued until 1967.
Origin
The 1st Ayrshire and Galloway Artillery Volunteers were formed as part of the Volunteer Force in 1859. By the outbreak of World War I it had become 2nd Lowland Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) in the Lowland Division of the Territorial Force. During World War I it served with the division (later the 52nd (Lowland) Division) in Egypt and Palestine.
The 2nd Lowland Brigade reformed in 1920, and was redesignated as the 79th (Lowland) Brigade, RFA, the following year when the TF was reconstituted as the Territorial Army (TA). It continued to be part of 52nd (Lowland) Division and had the following organisation: HQ at Drill Hall, 111 South Harbour Street, Ayr 313 (Ayr) Bty at Ayr 314 (Irvine) Bty at High Street, Irvine 315 (Kirkcudbright) Bty at Drill Hall, Kirkcudbright 316 (Kilmarnock) (Howitzer) Bty at John Finnie Street, Kilmarnock
In 1924 the RFA was subsumed into the Royal Artillery (RA), and the word 'Field' was inserted into the titles of its brigades and batteries. The establishment of a TA divisional artillery brigade was four 6-gun batteries, three equipped with 18-pounders and one with 4.5-inch howitzers, all of World War I patterns. However, the batteries only held four guns in peacetime. The guns and their first-line ammunition wagons were still horsedrawn and the battery staffs were mounted. Partial mechanisation was carried out from 1927, but the guns retained iron-tyred wheels until pneumatic tyres began to be introduced just before World War II.
In 1938 the RA modernised its nomenclature and a lieutenant-colonel's command was designated a 'regiment' rather than a 'brigade'; this applied to TA field brigades from 1 November 1938.
Mobilisation
The TA was doubled in size after the Munich Crisis of 1938, and most regiments split to form duplicates. Part of the reorganisation was that field artillery regiments changed from four six-gun batteries to an establishment of two batteries, each of three four-gun troops. For the 79th (Lowland) Fd Rgt this resulted in the following organisation from 12 June 1939:
79th (Lowland) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
Regimental Headquarters (RHQ) at Ayr
313 (Ayr) Field Bty
314 (Irvine) Field Bty
130th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
RHQ at Kilmarnock
315 (Kirkcudbright) Field Bty
316 (Kilmarnock) Field Bty
World War II
Training
On the outbreak of war 79th (Lowland) Field Regiment mobilised in 52nd (Lowland) Division. Apart from a period in June 1940 when the rest of the division was briefly deployed to France (and the regiment was attached to 49th (West Riding) Division from 8 to 23 June), the regiment served with it throughout the war. The division mobilised in Scottish Command but moved south to Southern Command in April 1940, then to Aldershot Command at the beginning of June until it went to France. When the bulk of the division returned from the abortive attempt to form a Second British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, it was assigned to II Corps in the mobile reserve around London, where 79th (L) Fd Rgt rejoined it on 1 July. After the Battle of France the original BEF had been evacuated from Dunkirk without any of its heavy equipment. With 70 of its establishment of 72 modern Mk II 25-pounder guns, 52nd (L) Division was one of the best-equipped forces left in Home Forces. On 3 November, after the immediate risk of invasion had receded, 52nd (L) Division returned to Scottish Command where it constituted the army reserve while undergoing training.
One of the lessons learned from the Battle of France was that the two-battery organisation did not work: field regiments were intended to support an infantry brigade of three battalions. As a result, they were reorganised into three 8-gun batteries. On 6 July, when it was stationed at Chippenham in Wiltshire, 79th (L) Fd Rgt reorganised as A, B and C Btys, but by March 1941 these had been numbered as 313, 314 and 457 Fd Btys.