B Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, Was Formed As B Troopon 1St February 1793 and First Saw

B Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, was formed as B Troopon 1st February 1793 and first saw action in the Irish Rebellion at the Battle of Ross on 5th June 1798.

The Battery was soon deployed in the Peninsular Campaign 1808-09. At the Battle of Sahagun on 20th November 1808, Captain Thomas Downman led the Troop in a charge on the French Cavalry with their guns still attached. They succeeded in breaking the French lines and pursued the routing enemy army. The Battery’s two gun troops, Downman’s and Sahagun, are both named in honour of the Battle. The Battery subsequently fired the first artillery rounds of the campaign at the Battle of Benavente. Soon after, the Battery took part in the Battle of Corunna, after which the Battery’s echelon troop is named. Following the defeat of Napoleon, the Battery fought in the Crimean War and assisted in quelling the Boxer Rebellion in Chinain 1900, from which much of the Battery’s impressive silver collection originates.

B Battery fought throughout the First World War. In 1915 it was the first artillery unit to land on Gallipolli and the last to leave, firing more ammunition than any other unit. The Battery also saw action at the Battle of the Somme, and thereafter at Arras, Ypres, Cambrai and Passchendaele to name but a few.

The interwar years saw no rest for the Battery, doing two tours of Palestine peacekeeping during the Arab-Jewish campaign.

At the outbreak of the Second World War the Battery was involved from the outset, suffering severe losses at St Valery enabling the evacuation at Dunkirk. The Battery soon found itself fighting across North Africa and Europe, including at the Battle of El Tamar when the Battery took on a German panzer unit with its Priest 105mm guns in direct fire. At ranges of as low as 400yds the Battery destroyed 8 German tanks and damaged many more, losing four of its seven guns in the process. The Battery’s OP Troop is named El Tamar Troop in honour of the Battle. Following the North Africa campaign the Battery took part in the Battles for the Gothic Line and River Po in Italy.

Since the Second World War the Battery has deployed on operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Battery Commander Major H D Waller RHA

Battery Sergeant Major WO2 J C Morgan