131st (Lowland – City of Glasgow) Field Regiment was a Royal Artillery (RA) unit of Britain's part-time Territorial Army (TA) created just before World War II. It was formed from part of 80th (Lowland – City of Glasgow) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, itself descended from the 1st Lanarkshire Artillery Volunteers, first raised in Glasgow, Scotland in 1859. After serving in home defence the regiment fought in Normandy (Operation Overlord) and through the campaign in North West Europe, distinguishing itself in the action at Asten. It was disbanded after the end of the war.
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 80th (Lowland – City of Glasgow) Fd Rgt this resulted in the following organisation from 31 March 1939:
80th (Lowland – City of Glasgow) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
Regimental Headquarters (RHQ) at Glasgow
317 (1st City of Glasgow) Field Bty at Glasgow
318 (2nd City of Glasgow) Field Bty at Maryhill
131st Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
RHQ at Glasgow
319 (3rd City of Glasgow) Field Bty at Glasgow
320 (4th City of Glasgow) Field Bty at Townhead
On the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, 131st Field Regiment mobilised in 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division (the duplicate of the TA's established 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division).
World War II
Home defence
Upon mobilisation, 15th (S) Division moved into the Scottish Borders to begin its training, with the artillery at Selkirk and Jedburgh. After three months it returned to winter quarters, which were chosen to meet the defence requirements of the Firth of Clyde and Firth of Forth: in the case of 131st Fd Rgt, this was to billets in the southwestern suburbs of Glasgow. The division marched out to the Borders to resume training in April 1940, with 131st Fd Rgt at Annan, attached to 46th (Highland) Brigade at Dumfries. The division was now one of those assigned to the 'Julius Caesar' defence plan, even though it still had virtually no equipment.
At the beginning of May the division was suddenly ordered to vacate its camps, which were required to house the troops being evacuated from the failed Norwegian campaign. It moved south to the area of Wiltshire and Berkshire under Southern Command. The German invasion of the Low Countries followed on 10 May, and four days later 15th (S) Division began moving again, this time by successive brigade groups to take up defensive positions on the south-east Essex coast under Eastern Command. 45th Brigade and the divisional troops first moved to Hertford, then from 26 May the complete division was positioned along the Essex coast under the command of XI Corps. The divisional artillery had the task of covering the whole divisional front from Southend-on-Sea to Harwich () from static positions with a very small number of guns. On 31 May the three field artillery regiments between them had six 18-pounder guns and twelve 4.5-inch howitzers, all of World War I vintage. After the Dunkirk evacuation this was the front line of Britain's defences.
The division remained in its positions through the autumn and into the winter of 1940-41. As the danger of invasion receded, training was stepped up with divisional exercises. In February 1941 the division moved north to take over defence of the Suffolk coast. By now 131st Fd Rgt possessed four modern Mk II 25-pounder guns, but it was not until September that the whole divisional artillery was equipped with 25-pdrs and Quad gun tractors. 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, but it was not until late 1940 that the RA had enough trained battery staffs to carry out the reorganisation. The regiment formed its third battery, 495 Fd Bty, on 27 February 1941, when it was stationed at Martlesham.