Rrr The 39th (Deptford) Divisional Artillery (39th DA) was a Royal Artillery force raised as part of 'Kitchener's Army' in early 1915. Recruited in Deptford, South London, the units served with the 'Pals battalions' of the 39th Division on the Western Front for two years. They saw action at the Somme, Ypres, and the German spring offensive, including the Battle of the Avre, described as 'one of the finest artillery stories of the whole war'. The units then operated as an independent artillery formation during the Allied Hundred Days Offensive. Background On 6 August 1914, less than 48 hours after Britain's declaration of war, Parliament sanctioned an increase of 500,000 men for the Regular British Army, and the newly appointed Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum issued his famous call to arms: 'Your King and Country Need You', urging the first 100,000 volunteers to come forward. This group of six divisions with supporting arms became known as Kitchener's First New Army, or 'K1'. The flood of volunteers overwhelmed the ability of the army to absorb and organise them, and by the time the Fifth New Army (K5) was authorised on 10 December 1914, many of the units were being organised as 'Pals battalions' under the auspices of mayors and corporations of towns up and down the country. The 39th Division was one of the last K5 divisions to be formed, being authorised on 27 April 1915. Most of the division's infantry units were Pals battalions raised from London and South Coast of England, with a few from other parts of the UK, and all the Royal Artillery (RA) units were raised in Deptford, South East London. Recruitment The Metropolitan Borough of Deptford set up a recruiting committee in December 1914, and the Mayor, Councillor William Wayland, announced at a council meeting on 18 May 1915 that he had been approached by Kitchener with a proposal for recruiting an infantry battalion or artillery brigade, which the council endorsed. Next day the official War Office (WO) authorisation was issued to the Mayor and Borough of Deptford to raise a brigade of the Royal Field Artillery (RFA), to be numbered CLXXIV (174th). A recruiting office was set up in Deptford Town Hall and the local response was extremely good: 200 men had enlisted by 27 May. By August the borough had raised the whole artillery for an infantry division, including