18 pounder field gun

The first shots of the British Army on the Western Front were fired on August 22nd outside of Mons, Belgium by the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards.

At the outbreak of war, Britain had sent a small army (the British Expeditionary Force) of 70,000 soldiers to oppose the German armies invading France and Belgium.

This Force included four Irish Cavalry regiments and nine Irish Infantry battalions. Artillery pieces such as the 18 pounder field gun pictured here would have been used during World War I and armed by 10 soldiers. The 18 pounder was also used by the British during the Easter Rising and the Irish Civil war.