v/v HTMB information please

[Brian87]

I'm trying to trace this veteran's war.

James Bottomley  Reg No 161759 originally joined 4 Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery. He was hospitalised twice having been gassed in the May and June of 1918.

He was then injured again when a shell fell on his foot (it would appear from his record) whilst he was in V/V HTMB, which I'm presuming HTMB standing for Heavy Trench Mortar Battery. He was subsequently invalided back to England.

Try as I might I cannot find any information on  "V/V HTMB". Who were they, or were they know by a different name?

Any help would be gratefully received.

Brian

Moderator Comment: Copyright images removed. See https://www.rootschat.com/forum/copyright.php

[tonepad]

Heavy Trench Mortar Batteries were originally under the control of Divisions and were designated V/nn where nn was the number of the Divison. For example V/24 in the 24th Division. The three Medium Batteries were designated X, Y and Z.

A reorganization took place in February 1918 where HTMBs now came under the control of Corps.
V/V HTMB would now be in V Corps.

This ties in with James Bottomley serving in V/V HTMB in August 1918.


Tony

[Brian87]

Tony, thanks for the information.
That makes sense and I say that because I had asked the same question on another forum and got the following:

"Sadly that is not a Unit Title. We are unable to tell you what V/V HTM? [sic] is as it is not an official abbreviation of a unit title.

I do not think that entry indicates a Trench Mortar Battery as if you look on the line below it shows the Unit as "Ditto or do" and then states "Admitted" you are not admitted to a Unit, you are Admitted to a Medical Facility ..........."

That really didn't seem to add up to me, but having no military background I couldn't really move forward on my research.

Many thanks once again.
Brian

[MaxD]

You can pick up snippets of V/V HTMB operations in WO 95/757 the war diary of Commander Heavy Artillery 5 Corps.

MaxD

[Brian87]

Thanks Max, that opens up a whole new avenue to explore.

Very grateful for the help.

Brian

[MaxD]

Never that straightforward with RGA batteries!

VV was placed under tac control of 58 Heavy Artillery Group (58 Brigade RGA) when it joined 5 Corps on 3 Mar 1918.  (WO 95/393/8 is the relevant war diary).  It fired its first round on 9 May.  The next mention of the battery is on 9 Sep 1918 when your man had come, dropped a shell on his foot and departed!

MaxD

[Brian87]

Thanks Max

Joined in 1917, hospitalised twice in May and June '18, dropped shell on foot and invalided back to England. Hmm, not much of a story compared to some but I still wouldn't want to have experienced any of it.

The irony of all this is that I have a handwritten war diary of a soldier, I know not who, describing the trenches, the boredom, the excitement and the tragedy of war. It certainly wasn't that of James Bottomley.

Thanks again for the reference, I'll have a look there now.
Brian