64th Airlanding Light Battery RA

The 64th Field Battery, RA was formed in India and assigned to the 5th Field Regiment, RA in 1940. In December 1940 it was assigned to the 157th Field Regiment, RA which left for the Middle East in April 1941.

The 157th Field Regiment, RA was disbanded in August 1942 and the 64th Battery was assigned to the 165th Field Regiment, RA which was stationed in the Middle East until being assigned to the 231st (Independent) Infantry Brigade Group, in May 1943. It left this Unit on the 24 September 1943 and was assigned as an Independent Field Regiment under control of Allied Forces Headquarters in Italy.

In December 1942 the 64th Field Battery was formed into a Light Battery formation, within the 165th Field Regiment, RA and served in the Italian campaign until the 21 June 1944, when it was assigned to the 2nd (Independent) Parachute Brigade Group, then stationed near Rome.

It was re-titled ‘A’ Airlanding Light Battery, RA. On the 4 December 1944 and then the 64th Airlanding Light Battery, RA on the 5th February 1945.

For ‘Operation Dragoon’ in Southern France, which took place on the 15 August 1944, the Battery would be flown in 14 x British piloted Horsa gliders and 26 x American piloted Waco gliders.

NOTE: It normally took 27 x Horsa gliders to fly-in a British Light Artillery Battery.

In addition three Forward Observation Officer Parties would parachute with the Brigade, and all of them landed in or near the assigned Drop Zone ‘O’. The glider lift did not go as smoothly. They were due over the area a few hours after the parachute drop, but due to thick fog over the landing area the Horsa glider serial was ordered to return to its base in Italy. The Waco glider serial carried on. One of them broke up over the sea and two men from the Battery fell to their deaths, and another man was killed when his glider overturned on landing, with another thirteen injured on landing, including the Battery Commander, but he discharged himself from the MDS and returned to the Battery the next day!

The Horsa serial eventually arrived ten hours later, along with the main glider lift and landed successfully on LZ ‘O’ near the village of Le Mitan. The battery set up position just to the south of Le Mitan, so that it could give fire-support for the units attacking Le Muy, just over 2 km’s to the south. The Battery was in action for the next week, before orders came through for a return to Italy, where they arrived on the 28/29 August 1944.

The next action that the Battery took part in was ‘Operation Manna’ in Greece. The Battery loaded all its kit and equipment aboard an LST on the 12/13 October 1944, and sailed for Pireaus, landing there on the 17 October, and moved to Athens the next day. As the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade Group had been sent to Greece as part of a stabilizing force to fill the power vacuum left by the retreating Germans, the Battery found itself employed in an infantry role.

On the 5 December 1944, the Battery were about to embark on an LST, when their orders were changed and they moved back into Athens. It was in the afternoon that the acting Battery Commander, Capt. Martin was informed by Headquarters 23rd Armoured Brigade that, ‘ELAS are enemy’. A stadium had been taken over to be used as a POW cage, but came under attack from the ‘enemy’ and two men of the Battery were killed. It was on the 7 December that the Battery got the opportunity to fire their own guns when they engaged several ‘enemy’ positions in the surrounding area. A party of the Battery became engaged in a siege at Averoff Prison, for nearly fourteen days, during which one of their officers was killed. They were finally relieved by a force of infantry and tanks from the 23rd Armoured Brigade on the 18 December.

The Battery, along with the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade Group remained in action in Greece until a ceasefire was arranged on the 15 January 1945.

The Battery returned to Italy on the 6 February 1945, landing at Taranto and then moving to Foggia.

In October 1945 the 64th Airlanding Light Battery, RA reverted to being a Field Battery

Commanding Officers.

Major. HD Fenton.                           1944

Major. DM Duncan.                         1944 - 1945

This article was kindly supplied by R Hilton