page_title: Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery
section_title: 44th Siege Battery, RGA
hierarchical_section_title: Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery / World War I / 44th Siege Battery, RGA
caption_attribution_description: 'Hilda', a 12 inch Mk I Howitzer on Railway Hill, in the Ypres sector. 'Hilda' was accustomed to taking up different positions on the railway line and firing on special targets in the enemy territory. Place made: Western Front: Western Front (Belgium), Ypres Area, Ypres
context_page_description: The Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery claims to be the oldest volunteer artillery unit of the British Army. It served coastal and siege guns in World War I and World War II, and also served in the infantry role.
context_section_description: The battery was formed on 12 July 1915 at Sheerness from a cadre provided by the Tynemouth RGA and Regular RGA gunners brought back from the defences of Gibraltar and Malta. It went out to the Western Front on 24 January 1916, manning two 12-inch railway howitzers and was involved in the preparatory bombardment for the Battle of the Somme later that year.
  The battery remained in action throughout the Somme fighting of 1916. Thereafter the heavy howitzers were in great demand it was frequently shifted around the railway network behind the Western Front from one army to another. It ended the war attached to Fifth Army supporting the great Allied Hundred Days Offensive.
  44th Siege Battery continued in the Regular Army after the Armistice, becoming 16th Medium Battery in 4th Medium Brigade, RGA, in 1920.
caption: 12-inch Railway howitzer on the Western Front, 1917.
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