The 61st Carnarvon and Denbigh (Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, was a Welsh unit of Britain's part-time Territorial Army (TA) formed after World War I from existing Royal Garrison Artillery and Yeomanry Cavalry units. In World War II it fought in the Battle of France and was evacuated from Dunkirk. It returned to North-West Europe in June 1944, participating in the battles in the Orne valley and the bocage south of Caumont before the breakout from the Normandy beachhead, operations to close up to the Maas, and the assault crossing of the Rhine (Operation Plunder). The regiment continued in the postwar TA, and a successor unit continues in today's Army Reserve.
Origin
The Welsh (Carnarvonshire) Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) and the Denbighshire Hussars were units of Britain's part-time Territorial Force (TF), which had served in World War I. When the TF was reformed on 7 February 1920, the prewar Welsh (Carnarvonshire) RGA was initially reformed as 12th (Carnarvon and Denbigh) Medium Brigade, RGA, which was to have had its headquarters (HQ) and two batteries at Colwyn Bay and one battery at Bangor. However, when the TF was reconstituted as the Territorial Army (TA) the following year the unit was redesignated 61st Medium Brigade, RGA, with probably only one battery (241st Medium Bty) at Bangor. Similarly, the Denbighshire Hussars, a Yeomanry Cavalry regiment headquartered at Wrexham, was reformed as a mounted unit in the TF, even though it had ended World War I fighting as infantry. Wartime experience showed that the army had too many mounted units, and so only the 14 most senior Yeomanry regiments were retained in the TA as horsed cavalry, the remainder being converted to other roles. On 1 March 1922 the Denbighshire Hussars were converted to artillery and merged with the new medium brigade to form 61st Carnarvon and Denbigh (Yeomanry) Medium Brigade, RGA as with the following organisation:
HQ at Drill Hall, Colwyn Bay, from Denbighshire Hussars
241st (Carnarvon) Med Bty at Bangor, from 61st Medium Bde
242nd (Carnarvon) Med Bty (Howitzer) at Llandudno, from Denbighshire Hussars
243rd (Denbigh) Med Bty (H) at Colwyn Bay, from Denbighshire Hussars
244th (Denbigh) Med Bty (H) at Wrexham from Denbighshire Hussars
The commanding officer (CO) was Acting Lieutenant-Colonel W.F. Christian, DSO, of the RGA, with Major W.H. Hughes (the Welsh Heavy Battery's prewar CO) as senior major. No prewar officers of the Denbigh Yeomanry were carried over to the new brigade. On 1 June 1924 the RGA was subsumed into the Royal Artillery (RA) and the titles were adjusted. The brigade was defined as 'Army Troops' in 53rd (Welsh) Divisional Area and 53rd (Welsh) Divisional Signals also included 212th Medium Artillery Signal Section, Royal Corps of Signals, to service the brigade. The establishment of a medium brigade was four 4-gun batteries, one equipped with 60-pounder guns and three with 6-inch howitzers, all of World War I patterns. These were finally fitted with pneumatic tyres in 1937.
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 brigades from 1 November 1938. The TA was doubled in size after the Munich Crisis, and most regiments formed duplicates. During 1939 61st (C&DY) Med Rgt divided as follows:
61st (Carnarvon & Denbighshire) Medium Regiment
Regimental HQ at Colwyn Bay
242 (Carnarvon) Med Battery at Llandudno
243 (Denbigh) Med Battery at Colwyn Bay
69th Medium Regiment
RHQ at Bangor
241 (Carnarvon) Med Battery at Bangor
244 (Denbigh) Med Battery at Wrexham
Each battery would consist of two 4-gun Troops.
World War II
Mobilisation
When the TA was mobilised on 1 September, just ahead of the outbreak of World War II on 3 September, the regiment mobilised at Colwyn Bay. Under the command of the recently promoted Lt-Col G.E. Fitzhugh (who had commanded 243 Bty before the war) it crossed to France to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Although classed as 'Army Troops' it was attached to 2nd Infantry Division in I Corps.