59th Army Group Royal Artillery

59th Army Group Royal Artillery
Active	1944–1946
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Role	Artillery headquarters
Engagements	North West Europe (World War II)
Commanders
Notable commanders	Brigadier William Pike

59th Army Group Royal Artillery was an artillery formation of the British Army in World War II. Having operated in the North West Europe theatre in late 1944, it was switched to India to command artillery units preparing for the liberation of South-East Asia.

The British War Office realised even before D-Day that the army's manpower situation was so bad that some formations in 21st Army Group would have to be disbanded sooner or later. At the end of August 1944 the junior infantry division, 59th (Staffordshire), was selected to be broken up to provide reinforcements for other formations. However, the Headquarters, Royal Artillery, (HQRA) and the field artillery regiments of the division were converted into an Army Group Royal Artillery (AGRA) attached directly to Second Army under the designation 59 AGRA with the following composition:

Units were regularly attached to and detached from AGRAs, so their order of battle was very fluid. For example, in the second half of October, 59 AGRA was operating with the following units under its command:

However in early November, 61 and 110 Field Regiments returned in place of 84 and 121 Medium Regiments.

On 8 September 1944, 59 AGRA set up its HQ at Chateau St Lubin at Louviers. Brigadier E.T. Boylan, previously Commander, Royal Artillery, (CRA) of 59 Division, left for another division and was replaced as CAGRA by Brig Harold Thicknesse from XII Corps staff, who had won a DSO with 126th (Highland) Field Regiment in the North African Campaign.

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