The 77th (Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, was a Royal Artillery unit of Britain's part-time Territorial Army (TA) formed after the outbreak of World War II from a Yeomanry Cavalry regiment recruited in Lancashire. It landed in Normandy shortly after D Day and served through many of the largest battles of the campaign in North West Europe until VE Day.
Mobilisation
The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry (DLOY) was a TA cavalry regiment that dated back to 5 April 1798, when two Troops of Bolton Light Horse Volunteers were formed in response to the invasion threat from Revolutionary France. Their successors became the DLOY in 1834. The DLOY saw considerable action during World War I on the Western Front and in Egypt and Palestine. Postwar, many Yeomanry regiments were converted to other roles, particularly artillery, but as one of the senior regiments the DLOY remained horsed up to the outbreak of World War II.
The TA was embodied on 1 September 1939, just before the declaration of war, and the DLOY mobilised as a cavalry regiment in 42nd Divisional Area. While most of the remaining mounted Yeomanry regiments formed 1st Cavalry Division and left for service in Palestine in January 1940, the DLOY was left behind. On 15 January 1940 at Ramsbottom, Manchester, it transferred to the Royal Artillery (RA). It did not receive a regimental number until 15 April when (as most other TA units had already done) it split into two: 77th (Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery at Manchester, with A and C Sqns forming A and B Medium Batteries 78th (Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery at Haverfordwest, Wales, with B and D Sqns forming A and B Medium Btys
The two regiments were permitted to continue wearing the DLOY cap badge rather than the RA's 'gun' badge and a Rose of Lancaster collar badge rather than the RA 'bomb'. They also wore an embroidered shoulder title lettered 'DLO YEOMANRY'.
On the outbreak of war medium regiments were equipped with 60-pounder guns and 6-inch howitzers of World War I vintage (often one battery of each), but a modernisation programme was beginning and by 1941 these were being replaced with the 5.5-inch gun-howitzer.
Training
By the end of 1940 77th Medium Rgt with its signal section was attached to 53rd (Welsh) Division in Northern Ireland and remained there for over two years. Its batteries were redesignated P and Q Btys on 11 March 1942, then 103 and 104 Btys on 1 January 1943. By August 1942 it had its own Light Aid Detachment (LAD) of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
When 21st Army Group was formed in early 1943 for the planned Allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord), 77th (DLOY) Medium Rgt was assigned to 8th Army Group Royal Artillery, which was formed in Essex on 1 May 1943. An Army Group Royal Artillery (AGRA) was a powerful artillery brigade, usually comprising three or four medium regiments and one heavy regiment, which could be rapidly moved about the battlefield, and had the punch to destroy enemy artillery with counter-battery (CB) fire. AGRAs were provided to field armies at a scale of about one per Army corps. By now, medium regiments consisted of two batteries, each of two 4-gun troops, a total of 16 x 5.5-inch guns.
North West Europe
Operation Epsom
8 AGRA's units landed in Normandy after D Day in June 1944 and supported VIII Corps in Operation Epsom (26–30 June). When II SS Panzer Corps counter-attacked on 29 June, the attack of 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg was broken by the combined fire of 8 AGRA and the entire divisional artilleries of 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division and 11th Armoured Division. Next day the Germans could only make probing attacks, to which 8 AGRA responded with some 38,000 rounds of ammunition.
Operation Jupiter
8 AGRA supported 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division of VIII Corps during the follow-up Operation Jupiter (the recapture of Hill 112 on 10 July). From positions around Cheux the AGRA fired heavy concentrations on all the known centres of enemy resistance, such as the farm of Les Duanes, first objective of 5th Battalion Dorset Regiment. 10th SS Panzer Division was shattered by the weight of artillery directed against it. When a company of 5th Bn Wiltshire Regiment got into difficulties later in the day, it was extricated with corps-level fire support including guns of the AGRAs.