43rd (Howitzer) Brigade Royal Field Artillery
XLIII (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery was a brigade[lower-alpha 1] of the Royal Field Artillery which served in the First World War.
It was originally formed with 30th, 40th and 57th (Howitzer) Batteries, each equipped with 4.5-inch howitzers, and attached to 1st Infantry Division. In August 1914 it mobilised and was sent to the Continent with the British Expeditionary Force, where it saw service with 1st Division until broken up. 57th Battery was withdrawn in May 1915, and assigned to 128th (Howitzer) Brigade.
In May 1916, the artillery brigades of infantry divisions were reorganised; the pure howitzer brigades were disbanded, and their batteries attached individually to field brigades, in order to produce mixed brigades of three field batteries and one howitzer battery. Accordingly, the brigade was broken up and the batteries dispersed; 30th to 39th Brigade, and 40th to 26th Brigade.
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- ↑ The basic organic unit of the Royal Artillery was, and is, the Battery.[1] When grouped together they formed brigades, in the same way that infantry battalions or cavalry regiments were grouped together in brigades. At the outbreak of World War I, a field artillery brigade of headquarters (4 officers, 37 other ranks), three batteries (5 and 193 each), and a brigade ammunition column (4 and 154)[2] had a total strength just under 800 so was broadly comparable to an infantry battalion (just over 1,000) or a cavalry regiment (about 550). Like an infantry battalion, an artillery brigade was usually commanded by a Lieutenant-Colonel. Artillery brigades were redesignated as regiments in 1938.
