1st Field Artillery Regiment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1st Field Artillery Regiment
Active	February 21, 1836
Country	Belgium
Branch	Land Component
Type	Artillery
Role	Field artillery
Part of	7th Brigade
Garrison/HQ	Bastogne
Motto	Ubique primus
Mortar	Mortier 120 RT
Battles	Battle of Normandy
Commanders
Current commander	Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Denis

The 1st Field Artillery Regiment (Dutch: 1ste Regiment Veldartillerie, French: 1 Régiment d'Artillerie de Campagne) is an artillery regiment in the Land Component of the Belgian Armed Forces. The regiment is the field artillery regiment of the 7th Brigade.

The unit is stationed in Bastogne and uses the Mortier 12O RT heavy mortar.

[edit] History

The 1st Field Artillery Regiment was established on 21 February 1836, when the Regiment of Artillery was split up into three new regiments. The regiment participated in both World Wars. During the Second World War, it remained active after the Eighteen Days' Campaign, the campaign of the Belgian army in May 1940 when Belgium was invaded by Germany. The First Belgian Battery, which was created in the United Kingdom in February 1941, participated as part of the Brigade Piron in the Battle of Normandy and in fights in Belgian and Dutch Limburg during the liberation of Western Europe. For this reason, the regiment's first battery, A Battery, is known as Batterie Libération (French for "Liberation Battery").