The IV Home Counties (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery was a new volunteer unit formed in Kent as part of the Territorial Force (TF) in 1908. It saw active service on the Western Front during World War I and was reconstituted as medium artillery in the interwar years. Later it converted to anti-aircraft artillery, in which role it served in The Blitz, North Africa and Italy during World War II and continued under various designations until its disbandment in 1969.
Origin
IV Home Counties Brigade was a volunteer unit of the Royal Field Artillery raised at Erith to provide Howitzer support to the TF's Home Counties Division. It had the following composition: 4th Kent (Howitzer) Battery 5th Kent (Howitzer) Battery 4th Home Counties (Howitzer) Ammunition Column
World War I
On the outbreak of World War I, most of the Home Counties Division was sent to Gibraltar and India to relieve Regular troops for service in Europe. However, the howitzer brigade did not accompany the division; instead it was posted to the 27th Division forming at Winchester from these troops returned from India. The brigade (without guns) provided the Divisional Ammunition Column and embarked for France on 21 December 1914. During 1915 the 27th Division was engaged in the Battle of St Eloi (14–15 March) and the Second Battle of Ypres (22 April–25 May).
On 3 August 1914, TF units were authorised to raise 2nd Line units composed of men ineligible for overseas service and new recruits. Units forming the 2nd Home Counties Division (later numbered 67th) began to gather, and the 2nd/IV Home Counties Bde formed at Erith, though it had no guns or ammunition. However, in June 1915 the 1st/IV Home Counties Bde returned to England from France and joined the new division.
By the end of 1915 the 67th Division was still not fully trained or equipped, and on 22 December the 1st/IV Bde left the division to prepare for overseas service independently. The following day the 2nd/IV Bde joined the division, based at Seal, Kent. At the end of January 1916, the 1st/IV handed over its eight obsolete 5-inch howitzers to 2nd/IV, and received new 4.5-inch howitzers in their place. On 10 March it disembarked at Le Havre and joined the British Expeditionary Force's Fourth Army.
On 9 June 1916, the brigade joined 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, which had recently arrived in France from the Mediterranean and had no artillery. At the end of the month the brigade was renumbered as 223rd or CCXXIII (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. The two batteries (1/4th Kent and 1/5th Kent) became A (H) Battery and B (H) Battery. However, they were immediately reassigned so that the rest of the divisional artillery brigades (from the disbanded 63rd (2nd Northumbrian) Division) each had a howitzer battery, while the brigade ammunition column was absorbed into 63rd Divisional Ammunition Column. A Battery went to CCCXVIII Bde, which adopted the number CCXXIII Bde. Henceforth the brigade comprised three six-gun 18-pounder batteries (A, B and C) from the North of England and D (H) Battery (formerly 1/4th Kent (H) Bty), which was later joined by half of 2/4th Durham (H) Bty to make it up to six guns. In this composite form the brigade served with 63rd Division for the rest of the war, participating in the final phase of the Battle of the Somme (November 1916), the Battle of Arras (April 1917), the final phases of the Battle of Passchendaele (November–December 1917), the German spring offensive (March–April 1918) and the final Hundred Days Offensive (August–November 1918).
In May 1916, 2nd/IV Home Counties Bde was numbered 338th or CCCXXXVIII (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, but during the year it too was broken up, its two batteries being reassigned to CCCXXXV and CCCXXXVI (formerly 2nd/I and 2nd/II Home Counties) brigades. These brigades never went overseas but remained in the UK, supplying drafts to frontline units.
Interwar years
52nd (Kent) Medium Brigade, RGA
The 63rd Division was demobilised in early 1919 and CCXXIII Brigade went into suspended animation. The unit was reformed on 7 February 1920 as a medium artillery brigade in the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), initially numbered 13th, but with the re-establishment of the TF as the Territorial Army in 1921, the unt was re-designated 52nd (Kent) Medium Brigade, RGA with the following composition: HQ at Erith 205 (Chatham and Faversham) Medium Battery at Sittingbourne – formerly Home Counties (Kent) Heavy Battery, RGA 206 (Erith) Medium Battery (Howitzer) – formerly 4th Kent Battery 207 (Erith) Medium Battery (Howitzer) – formerly 5th Kent Battery 208 (Bromley) Medium Battery (Howitzer) at Penge – formerly Kent Cyclist Battalion