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30 Battery (Rogers's Company) Royal Artillery is a unit of the British Army founded in 1759, and currently part of 16th Regiment Royal Artillery operating the Rapier missile. ==Origins and early years== The company was raised on 1 January 1759 as Captain F.J. Buchanan's company, 2nd Battalion (there were only three at that time), Royal Artillery. The Battery was used to provide numerous attached personnel to other units, much as it does today, and, as such the Battery's history can be traced from many far-flung destinations across the globe. At its time of inception the country was embroiled in the Seven Years' War, which ran from 1756-1763. Wrangling with the French was by no means a new thing, but it was during this seven-year period that the Battery or elements of it saw action in two arenas, namely Minorca and then Gibraltar. In 1756 both the military and the Government were deceived by the French into believing that an attack on England was imminent. The French amassed some 50,000 troops near the Channel ports and this was enough to force the English into deploying artillery in a coastal defence role. As it transpired this amassing of troops was more than likely a decoy for the force that was subsequently sent to the Mediterranean, which by comparison was virtually unguarded. The French objective was the smaller of the two significant Balearic Islands, Minorca. The in site garrison force at Fort St Phillip comprised 24 × 32-pounders, 50 × 18-pounders, 40 × 12-pounders, 36 × 8-pounders, and 10 × 6-pounders. This was not an inconsiderable force to defend an island, but was overpowered in a matter of months and eventually surrendered. By the terms of the capitulation, the British Garrison was repatriated to Britain by way of Gibraltar, an indulgence granted by the French as a token of their respect for the brave defence. It also interesting to note that the soldiers were also rewarded by the Board of Ordnance, who granted them an extra half a days wage per day of the siege. The company subsequently became involved with an attempt to regain control of Minorca over the following two years. Between 1785 and 1791 the Battery was stationed at Gibraltar. Elements of the Battery are believed to have been stationed at Gibraltar before then and were therefore involved in the Great Siege by the Spanish and the French, which lasted nearly four years from 1779-1783. At this time there were only 25 officers and 460 NCOs and men to man 452 guns and mortars. In addition they were only getting limited supplies of food smuggled in from North Africa. The Battery was rarely recorded in action as one cohesive unit, but with sections being seconded as operational commitments dictated and this trend was to continue. For example, in 1778, records show that five soldiers from 30 Battery served for the first seven months of the year aboard the bomb vessel based in New York. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「30 Battery (Rogers's Company) Royal Artillery」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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