50 Missile Regiment Royal Artillery


50 Missile Regiment Royal Artillery was an artillery regiment of the British Army. From the late 1950s it was stationed with the British Army of the Rhine in Germany, at Northumberland Barracks, Menden, equipped with 8-inch towed howitzers, the Honest John, and, from 1976, the MGM-52 Lance surface to surface missile. It generally comprised three to four artillery batteries and a headquarter battery.

History

On 1 April 1947 RHQ 4th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA was redesignated RHQ 50th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA. It was located at Stoneleigh Park Camp, Coventry.
In April 1952 while stationed at Troon it was converted to a medium regiment, with BL 5.5-inch Medium Guns. In 1959 it was moved to Northumberland Barracks, Menden, gaining the Honest John missile soon afterwards, and there in 1964 it was redesignated a missile regiment. Almost as soon as the regiment became a missile artillery regiment, it moved to the 4th Armoured Division.
24 Missile Regiment RA was amalgamated in February 1977 with 50 Regiment, as the Honest John was phased out. In the early 1980s it was part of the Artillery Division. Still stationed at Menden in 1991, it was placed in suspended animation in 1993. Towards the end of its history the regiment gained the nickname of the "Lincolnshire and Humberside Gunners" and started recruiting mainly from that area as a result, when it was disbanded no other regiment took its areas.