Manchester Artillery
| 7th Lancashire Artillery Volunteers (The Manchester Artillery) II East Lancashire Brigade (The Manchester Artillery), RFA 52nd (Manchester) Field Regiment, RA 252 (Manchester) Field Regiment, RA 209 (Manchester Artillery) Battery, RA | |
|---|---|
Waistbelt of the Lancashire Volunteer Artillery, post-1891 | |
| Active | 17 August 1860–present |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Branch | Volunteer Force/Territorial Force |
| Role | Garrison artillery Position artillery Field artillery Anti-Aircraft Artillery |
| Garrison/HQ | Hyde Road, Ardwick, Manchester |
| Engagements | |
The Manchester Artillery is a Volunteer unit of the British Army first raised in the City of Manchester in 1860, whose successors continue to serve in the Army Reserve today. It became a brigade of the Royal Field Artillery in the Territorial Force in 1908, and in World War I it served in Egypt in 1915–17 before being broken up. Its second line unit went to the Western Front in 1917, seeing action at Ypres, against the German Spring Offensive, and leading the pursuit in the Allies' victorious Hundred Days Offensive. Just before World War II the Manchester Artillery again formed a duplicate. While the parent regiment served in the Battle of France including the Dunkirk evacuation, and later in the Middle East and the Italian campaign, its duplicate fought in Normandy and North West Europe. Both regiments were reformed postwar, but after a number of amalgamations they and several other Manchester-based units were reduced into 209 (Manchester Artillery) Battery in the present-day Army Reserve.