ABSTRACT
In these first fifteen years the British Army had been a very professional force for what had been its primary role, and what it was in the event to do well: an army for Asia or North Africa, for the defence of India's North-West Frontier against invasion, and in Egypt against an attack by Mussolini, mounted from Libya. A common feature of all these operations, from the North-West Frontier to Palestine and Belfast, was the responsibilities that fell upon the regimental officers, even the most junior. The divisional artillery, three regiments, had either the new 25 pdr. gun or an improved 18 pdr. gun capable of firing 25 pdr. ammunition; the antitank batteries had only the inadequate 2 pdr. gun. In the Royal Artillery acceptance into a Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) regiment was as much a social as a professional status. Horses, so much a part of Royal Artillery life in action, routine life and ceremonial, were replaced in mechanisation.
