The Venue

Larkhill has been used as a training area for the British Army since the first tented camp was established in 1899.  In 1914 the first wooden and permanent buildings were built, and the camp expanded rapidly through the First World War and years that followed.  A military light railway was established in 1915 to carry troops between the camps and training areas at Larkhill and nearby Bulford.  Between 1909 and 1914 there was an aerodrome at Stonehenge to explore military applications for balloons and the powered aircraft.  In the early 1930s the British Ordnance QF 25-pounder was developed and tested by the school of artillery at Larkhill.

In 1919 the Royal School of Artillery was established at Larkhill, and in 2003 the Headquarters for the Royal Artillery was moved from Woolwich in south-east London to the camp.

The garrison is currently made up the RA Headquarters, Royal School of Artillery and six Regiments of Gunners (including 14RA which is the training regiment for the artillery).  The Garrison Artillery Volunteers have the base at Larkhill where they research, restore and train on legacy artillery pieces and keep alive ‘reversionary means’ of firing guns – something that will become important in a future conflict if modern computer/GPS aided system were interdicted.

A temporary RA museum is housed in the historic aircraft hangers close to the camp, and the garrison is also home to an impressive collection of silver, paintings and other memorabilia in the Grade II listed Officer’s Mess and Garrison Church.

The Visit

The visit will include a tour of the (temporary) RA Museum, a presentation on military flying at Larkhill and viewing the ‘gatekeeper’ collection of historic guns, followed by lunch in the Officer’s Mess and a tour of the Mess's paintings and silver collection.  The afternoon activities will include a tour of current modern gunsheds and an introduction to the 105mm Light Gun, after which we will have a tour of historic gun sheds and a presentation on the work of the Garrison Artillery Volunteers before closing the visit with tea.  There is no cost for the day, but those attending would need to pay for their own lunch.

The Guild will conduct a recce of the Operation Market Garden area from 1-3 November 2024.  During the recce we will visit known and lesser known locations along the Market Garden corridor, beginning at Joe's Bridge, going all the way up to and including Arnhem.  It will be fast paced to see as much as possible, to make it easier for you to plan your next battlefield tour.

The programme:

31 October: Arrival

1 November: Joe's Bridge. 30th Corps breakout and 101st Airborne battles along Hell's Highway

2 November: Nijmegen and the 82nd Airborne division

3 November: Arnhem and Driel, the 1st Airborne and the Polish para brigade

4 November: Departure

Air Control from the Sea: Tactical Air Command & Control during Operation Neptune

The talk will examine the development of expeditionary air command and control (C2) in the European Theatre in 1942 and 1943; examine the problems facing the planners for the air aspects of Operation Neptune; describe the solutions arrived at; explain how they were implemented; examine the problems that occurred, and the successes; the implications of these factors in the different conduct of day and night air defence; and briefly describe the subsequent uses of sea-based air C2 in the final year of the war in Europe.  It will be shown that the solutions employed to deliver continuous C2 of Allied airpower, in the transition from bases in UK to ones in France, were specific to that situation.  And, whilst the ability to control air support assets from the naval HQ ships proved to be of limited value the ability to control day and night fighters from the Fighter Direction Tenders was of significant value and employed for much longer than envisaged.

Next year’s Conference and AGM will place from 24-26 January 2025 near Newbury.  As well as the enjoyable customary features such as quiz, validation presentations and annual formal dinner with awards, we are investigating some innovative new ideas, more detail of which will follow once we have finalised them.  We plan to have a ‘pre-conference’ battlefield walk with Dr Chris Scott.

The conference is a chance to catch up with pals, hear interesting talks and presentations as well as those done for validation, potentially learn about a new battlefield at Newbury, gain some insights into the latest developments and share your expertise and understanding with those wanting to build their skill and knowledge base.

Importantly, a chance to get away for a weekend of friendship and camaraderie with colleagues from the battlefields and the wider community.  Don’t miss out on this excellent annual occasion.

The application form for Members can be found on recent Newsletters.

Provisional date 13 August 2025 - more details to follow

Operation Frankton was the famous WW2 raid on German blockade running shipping in Bordeaux, France.  The raid was carried out by the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment (RMBPD), which was part of Combined Operations.  Inserted by the submarine HMS Tuna, five folding kayaks, (Cockleshells) paddled up the Gironde and attacked the cargo ships with limpet mines.  The recce is a detailed study of the intelligence, planning, execution and outcomes of a strategic mission that ended with only two of the ten men surviving the mission, including “Blondie” Haslar and Bill Sparks, (who used an MI9 escape line), with six being executed by the Germans and two dying from hypothermia.

The St Nazaire raid (Operation Chariot) was an attack by Combined Operations to destroy the dry dock in the port of St Nazaire to prevent it being used by the German battleship Tirpitz and force her to return to Northern Germany for maintenance.

Intention:

The focus of this recce is the 1942 raiding actions undertaken at both Dieppe and Bruneval.  There will be a visit to St Valery-en-Caux, where the French Army fought alongside the 51st Highland Division in June 1940.

We will travel out on the DFDS overnight ferry Friday from Newhaven to Dieppe and return Sunday night - a weekend recce.  This would be Friday 24th night sailing, arriving Saturday morning, We will kick-off with a pre-breakfast special raid on Yellow Beach, and try to recreate some of the atmosphere that No 3 Commando and Peter Young must have experienced in August 1942!  We will look at aspects of the No 4 Commando landing and actions on the Orange Beaches.

The Sunday will concentrate on John Frost's  Bruneval Raid.

Returning on the Sunday night ferry arriving in the wee hours of Monday 27th October.  Of course that happens to be the weekend where the clocks go back!