The War Diary of the 166th Newfoundland Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, is a record of the activities of the three Batteries of the Regiment which were identified as "P Battery"; "Q Battery" and "R Battery" and commonly referred to as : "Peter" ; "Queen" and "Roger" Batteries in conformity with the phonetic alphabet used in the British Army. The Batteries were recorded in War Office records as by numbers, i.e. : 135 Battery; 136 Battery and 137 Battery.
Each Battery was equipped with eight, 25 pdr. guns divided into two "Troops" of four. Each Troop had two "Sections" - Right and Left Sections - with two guns each.
The Battery Commanders, usually Officers with the rank of Major, submitted daily reports on the activities of their Batteries.
At Regimental Headquarters the Commanding Officer - or C.O. - recorded any occurrences of significance in a Regimental Diary for transmission to upper echelon bodies, Divisions, Corps etc. to which our Regiment was attached at that time.
The C.O. of the 166th for most of the period covered by the War Diary was Lt. Colonel H.G. Lambert, D.S.O. who was affectionately referred to as "ZEKE" as his vehicle carried the identifying letter "Z".
Lt.Col. Lambert left the Regiment in January, 1944 because of ill health and he was replaced by Lt.Col. R.W. Hitchcock, M.C., who served for the remainder of our service in Italy.
When the War ended the 166th left the Front near Bologna and was billetted a few miles from Naples at a village called Cancello. Here, the Regiment's guns, vehicles and equipment were turned in to an Army Storage Depot while the Men waited for a ship to take them to England and home. When a Troopship finally arrived at Naples it was discovered that it was the HMT Duchess of Richmond, the Ship which carried some of the drafts across from Halifax and now transformed from a Luxury Liner to a less than luxurious Troopship. Gone were the White Sheets, the Dinner Menu's and the Table Stewards. But we were 'homeward bound', many having been away for five and a half years.
While we waited at Cancello, Bill Coleman and Tom Godden in the Battery Office completed the typing of the Regimental Diary. With a slight bending of the rules a copy of this important and interesting Document, instead of being hidden in some remote Archive, is now available to be read and enjoyed and this piece of History preserved for posterity.