O Battery (The Rocket Troop) Royal Horse Artillery

O Battery (The Rocket Troop) Royal Horse Artillery
Active 7 June 1813 – present
Country United Kingdom
Branch Army
Type Headquarters
Part of 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery
Anniversaries Leipzig Day 16 October
Battle honours Ubique
Commanders
Notable
commanders

Richard Bogue

Edward Charles Whinyates

O Battery (The Rocket Troop) Royal Horse Artillery is the Headquarters Battery of the British Army's 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery. It is currently based in Assaye Barracks in Tidworth Camp.

Current role

Provide Logistics, clerical, command and control support to 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery.

History

General Congreve had developed the Congreve rocket. In 1813 there were three rocket units and on 1 January 1814 they were created into two troops of Royal Horse Artillery. One of these was disbanded in 1816, but the 2nd Troop absorbed most of the soldiers.

  • 1813 - The Battery fought as the only British Army unit present at the Battle of Leipzig as 'The Rocket Brigade' under Captain Richard Bogue RHA. They were attached to the bodyguard of Bernadotte, Crown Prince of Sweden. During the battle Bogue was killed in action and lieutenant Fox-Strangways took command. The troop were awarded the battle honour Leipzig but this ceased, when the Royal Regiment of Artillery were awarded the battle honour Ubique. However, the Battery still uses the Swedish Flag with the RHA cypher with the Honi soit qui mal y pense replaced with The Rocket Troop and Leipzig 1813 replacing Royal Horse Artillery on the Battery flag. During the Eve of Battle Dinner (17 October) the Battery toasts "the King" (of Sweden) with akvavit and on the anniversary of the battle the reigning monarch of Sweden sends greetings to the battery.
  • 1815 - The Battery fought with some of its rockets at the Battle of Waterloo, under Capt Edward Charles Whinyates.
  • 1854 - The Battery fought with its rockets at the Battle of Inkermann.[1]

During the Crimean War, Second Afghan War, the Boer War and World War I and World War II the troop fought as a normal gun battery.

Cold War

Recent and current conflicts

  • 1972/1973/1975/1977/1987/1993 - The Battery deployed to Northern Ireland under Operation Banner
  • 1978 - The Battery moved to Dortmund.
  • 1980 - The Battery moved to Larkhill, as part of the AMF(L)
  • 1982 - The Battery moved to Münster
  • 1989 - The Battery deployed to Cyprus as part of UNFICYP
  • 1990 - The Battery deployed to the Persian Gulf on Operation Granby

The troop merged with Headquarters Battery in 1993 to form O Headquarters Battery (The Rocket Troop) Royal Horse Artillery.

Balkan Wars

  • 1994 - The Radar Troop deployed to the Former Republic of Yugoslavia as part of UNPROFOR
  • 1996 - The Battery deployed with 1st Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery to Bosnia.
  • 1998 - Once again, the Battery deployed with 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery to Bosnia.
  • 2000 - The Battery deployed with 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery to the Balkans, as the Pan Balkans Regiment.
  • 2002 - The Battery deployed to the Balkans for a final time.

Operation TELIC in Iraq

  • 2004 - The Battery deployed on Op Telic 4
  • 2007 - The Battery deployed on Op Telic 10

See also

References

  1. ↑ It is somewhat ironic that as the commander of the Royal Artillery in the Crimea, Fox-Strangways, was killed in 1854 at the Battle of Inkermann by the Russians, by whom he had been decorated, and alongside whom he had so bravely fought as an ally, 41 years earlier at Leipzig.

Bibliography

  • Clarke, W.G. (1993). Horse Gunners: The Royal Horse Artillery, 200 Years of Panache and Professionalism. Woolwich: The Royal Artillery Institution. ISBN 09520762-0-9.
  • "1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery". Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom). Retrieved 18 November 2015.
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