50 Missile Regiment Royal Artillery

50 Missile Regiment Royal Artillery (sometimes nicknamed '50 Miserable'[1]) was an artillery regiment of the British Army. From the late 1950s it was stationed with the British Army of the Rhine in Germany, at Northumberland Barracks, Menden, equipped with 8-inch towed howitzers, the Honest John, and, from 1976, the MGM-52 Lance surface to surface missile. It generally comprised three to four artillery batteries and a headquarter battery.

50th Regiment Royal Artillery
Active1 April 1947 – 31 March 1993
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch British Army
TypeArtillery
Regimental HeadquartersCarlisle

History

On 1 April 1947 RHQ 4th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA was redesignated RHQ 50th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA. It was located at Stoneleigh Park Camp, Coventry.[2]

In April 1952 while stationed at Troon it was converted to a medium regiment, with BL 5.5-inch Medium Guns.[2] In 1959 it was moved to Northumberland Barracks, Menden, gaining the Honest John missile soon afterwards, and there in 1964 it was redesignated a missile regiment.[2] Almost as soon as the regiment became a missile artillery regiment, it moved to the 4th Armoured Division.[3]

24 Missile Regiment RA was amalgamated in February 1977 with 50 Regiment, as the Honest John was phased out.[4] In the early 1980s it was part of the Artillery Division.[5] Still stationed at Menden in 1991,[6] it was placed in suspended animation in 1993.[4] Towards the end of its history the regiment gained the nickname of the "Lincolnshire and Humberside Gunners" and started recruiting mainly from that area as a result, when it was disbanded no other regiment took its areas.[7]

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References
  1. Beevor, Inside the British Army, Corgi Books, 1991, p. 372.
  2. "British Army units from 1945 on - 50th Regiment RA". British-army-units1945on.co.uk. 1993-03-31. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  3. The British Army in German (BOAR and After): An Organizational History 1947 - 2004. West Midlands, United Kingdom: Tiger Lily. 2005. p. 61. ISBN 0-9720296-9-9.
  4. Watson, Graham E; Rinaldi, Richard (2005). British Army in Germany. Tiger Lily.
  5. Isby and Kamps, Armies of NATO's Central Front, Jane's Publishing Company, 1985.
  6. "Regiments (Hansard, 11 July 1991)". Api.parliament.uk. 1991-07-11. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  7. BOAR 1989 (PDF). p. 12.
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