A Field Battery, Royal Australian Artillery

'A' Battery, Royal Australian Artillery
Active 1 August 1871 – present
Country  Australia
Branch Army
Type Artillery
Role Field Artillery
Size 1 Artillery Battery
Part of 7th Brigade
Garrison/HQ Enoggera Barracks
Motto(s) Semper Paratus
Engagements

Sudan Campaign
Second Boer War
World War I

World War II

Malayan Emergency
Confrontation

Vietnam War

'A' Field Battery is an artillery battery of the Australian Army. The unit has been in existence since 1871, having originally been raised as part of the New South Wales colonial defence force. Today it is part of the 1st Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, attached to the 7th Brigade based at Enoggera, Queensland. It was previously an airborne unit, but no longer maintains that role.

History

Formation and early history

'A' Field Battery was originally formed in August 1876 as No 2 Battery, New South Wales Artillery, which was primarily a garrison battery although from time to time it undertook mounted drills with hired horses. A field battery formed from all three batteries of the New South Wales Artillery, including No 2 Battery, served in the Sudan Campaign but saw only limited action as the war was near its end when it arrived, and was disbanded when it returned to NSW. The first permanently established and horsed field battery was formed within No 2 Battery NSWA in February 1889. In 1899 the battery was renamed A Battery, New South Wales Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery and departed for the Second Boer War on 30 December, 1899. During the war, the battery was involved in several important actions, such as playing an important role in the capture of the Boer commander de Wet's artillery pieces.[1] 'A' Battery lost one man killed in action, two died of disease, and 45 men returned to Australia due to illness. For its service in South Africa, the Royal Australian Artillery, represented primarily by A Battery NSW Regiment RAA, but also including the Machine Gun Section, Queensland Regiment RAA, and many individuals of the Queensland, NSW and Victoria Regiments RAA, was presented a Kings Banner. The belief that the RAA was the only Commonwealth artillery unit to have been honoured in this way is entirely incorrect. Kings Banners were awarded to the Royal Canadian Field Artillery, the Royal Canadian Garrison Artillery, the Cape Field Artillery, the Cape Garrison Artillery, and the Natal Field Artillery.[2][3][4][5]

First World War

Following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, volunteers from the battery were to be posted to 10th Battery, Australian Imperial Force, and 7th Battery, Australian Imperial Force, both forming in Queensland for the 1st Light Horse Brigade and 3rd Field Artillery Brigade respectively. In late August 1914 however these volunteers, along with volunteers from Numbers 2 and 3 Batteries of the Royal Australian Field Artillery, combined to form the new 1st Battery, 1st Field Artillery Brigade AIF.[6] This battery was among the first units of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) to leave Australia. Following a period of training and preparation in Egypt with the rest of the AIF, the unit served with distinction at Gallipoli (where initially only one gun was able to be brought to shore)[2] and in France and Belgium on the Western Front. The original No 1 Battery RAFA at Sydney virtually ceased to exist during the war, its members serving with many other units of the AIF.

Following the war, the battery was reconstituted and provided a mounted escort in Sydney during the Prince of Wales visit to Australia in 1920.[7][8] There is an entirely anecdotal story that during the Prince's visit, in acknowledgement of the battery's service in South Africa and during the First World War, the battery was granted the right to wear the white lanyard on the left shoulder. As a result, the battery is the only unit of the Royal Australian Artillery to do this although there is no evidence to support the assertion, and it was not until 1963 that the AHQ Dress Committee were persuaded to allow it. In reality the RAFA were already wearing a white lanyard on the left shoulder at the time of HRH visit, and it was worn unofficially prior to the Second World War by many units and corps of the Australian Army, not just artillery. In 1931 new Standing Orders for Dress directed that lanyards were to be worn on the right shoulder – 1st Field Cadre RAA retained its lanyard on the left shoulder at that time.[7][9]

Second World War

During the period between the wars, the battery undertook several changes in name, eventually being designated A Field Battery Royal Australian Artillery Regiment. At the outbreak of the Second World War A Field Battery came under the command of the School of Artillery, Holsworthy, in their mobilization role as Depot Battery. However, in August 1943 A Field Battery was reorganized to form the 2nd Australian Mountain Battery, and it arrived in New Guinea in September of that year. The battery served in New Guinea from 1943–1944, subsequently moving to Bougainville, British Solomon Islands for operations until the end of the war in August 1945.[7]

Service since 1945

Following the end of the war, and returning to its original name, the Battery was part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. It saw service during the Malayan Emergency, the Indonesian Confrontation and in Vietnam. In late 1987 the Battery assumed the role of parachute deployable artillery for the Airborne Battle Group, and has had personnel serve in non-artillery roles in East Timor / (Timor Leste), as well as deploying in artillery roles to Afghanistan and Iraq.[7]

'A' Field Battery is currently equipped with M777A2 155mm Howitzers. These guns have currently not seen operational service with the Australian Army.

Although the current A Battery RAA is the direct successor to a battery raised in 1876, it has been the only remaining active sub-unit of the former New South Wales Artillery in existence since HQ 25th Coast Regiment was disbanded in September 1953, and the regular coast batteries, including the descendant of the original No 1 Battery NSWA, were reduced to nil strength or broken up as cadres of integrated ARA/CMF coast batteries at the end of 1951. It therefore perpetuates the whole of the New South Wales Artillery which was raised on 1 August 1871.

Lineage

1876–1891 — No 2 Battery, New South Wales Artillery[10]
1891–1893 — The Field Battery, New South Wales Artillery[11]
1893–1899 – 'A' Battery, New South Wales Artillery [12]
1899–1902 – 'A' Battery, New South Wales Regiment of Royal Australian Artillery (Field) [13]
1902–1903 – 'A' Battery, Royal Australian Artillery [14]
1903–1910 – 'A' Instructional Cadre, Royal Australian Artillery Regiment [15]
1910–1911 — No 1 Battery, Australian Field Artillery (Permanent) [16]
1911–1920 – No 1 Battery, Royal Australian Field Artillery [17]
1920–1927 – 1st Battery, Royal Australian Field Artillery [18]
1927–1930 — 1st Field Battery, Royal Australian Artillery [19]
1930–1936 — 1st Field Cadre, Royal Australian Artillery [20]
1936–1939 — 1st Field Cadre, Royal Australian Artillery Regiment [21]
1939–1942 — 'A' Field Battery, Royal Australian Artillery Regiment [22]
1942–1943 – Depot Battery, LHQ School of Artillery (Field, Medium, Survey) [23]
1943 — 2nd Aust Mountain Battery (Mechanised) [24]
1943–1945 – 2nd Aust Mountain Battery (Mechanised) (Australian Imperial Force)[25]
1945–1946 – 2nd Mountain Battery [26]
1946–1949 — 'A' Field Battery, Royal Australian Artillery Regiment [27]
1949–1955 — 'A' Field Battery, 1st Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery
1955–1958 — 100 (A) Field Battery, Royal Australian Artillery [28]
1958–1965 — 'A' Field Battery, 1st Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery [29]
1965–1966 — 'A' Field Battery, 45th Light Regiment, Royal Artillery
1966–1967 — 'A' Field Battery, 6th Light Regiment, Royal Artillery
1967–1969 — 'A' Field Battery, 19 Composite Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery
1969–1974 — 'A' Field Battery, 12th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery
1974–1999 — 'A' Field Battery, 8th/12th Medium Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery
1999–2002 – 'A' Field Battery, Royal Australian Artillery [30]
2002–2010 — 'A' Field Battery, 4th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery[7][31]
2011–Present — 'A' Battery, 1st Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery

See also

References

  1. ↑ "AWM Unit Information — A Battery, RAA, Second Boer War". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  2. 1 2 Armour, Brian. "A Short History of 'A' Field Battery, RAA". Department of Defence. Archived from the original on 2008-11-20. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  3. ↑ Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery Standing Orders Volume 1, May 2015, para 407
  4. ↑ Neil Orpen, Gunners of the Cape: The Story of the Cape Field Artillery, CFA Regimental History Committee, Cape Town SA, 1965, p74
  5. ↑ Nöthling, Cmdt CJ [ed], Ultima Ratio Regum (The Last Argument of Kings): Artillery History of South Africa, Military Information Bureau, SADF, Pretoria, 1987, p291
  6. ↑ 1st Battery, 1st Field Artillery Brigade AIF had originally been raised from militia and civilian volunteers from the Sydney area on 19 August 1914, but was broken up amongst the rest of the brigade on 25 August when a decision was made to form the battery entirely from the RAFA. See AWM4: 13/29/1 Part 1; war diary 1 Fd Arty Bde for August–December 1914, entries dated 17, 24, 25, and 27 August 1914, and in particular the entry dated 1 September 1914, which does not show 1st Battery as a component of the bde for duties or parades, and that of 2 September 1914 recording the formation of 1st Battery. 38.5% of the other ranks were drawn from No 1 Battery RAFA, 33% from No 2 Battery RAFA, and 28% from No 3 Battery RAFA. One man was a former soldier of the South African permanent forces, and the officers were provided by Nos 2 and 3 Batteries RAFA, 4th Australian Field Artillery Brigade of the militia, and RMC Duntroon.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "The History of 'A' Field Battery, Royal Australian Artillery". 'A' Field Battery Association. Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  8. ↑ The statement on the A Battery Association site that No 1 Battery was the personal escort to HRH during his visit, and that it provided a saluting battery during the laying of the foundation stone for Parliament House is entirely false. No 1 Battery, along with the mounted police and several hundred light horsemen, provided a mounted escort during the Royal Progress through Sydney on the day of his arrival, and another in conjunction with the mounted police some days later at Randwick during HRH visit to the races. It also provided a dismounted guard at Government House during his residence there, alternating with the Royal Australian Garrison Artillery. The same duties were carried out in Melbourne by No 2 Battery RAFA, and in Brisbane by No 3 Battery RAFA. Many guards of honour, and guards at the Government House in each state were provided by the RAGA, with the Light Horse and Australian Field Artillery providing mounted escorts. The battery did not proceed to Canberra with HRH, and the authors of this statement must be confused with either the laying of the foundation stone for Canberra on 12 March 1913, or the opening of the first Parliament at Canberra by the Duke of York on 9 May 1927, on both occasions of which No 1 Battery provided the saluting battery.
  9. ↑ The white lanyard was not approved solely for the Royal Australian Artillery until 1952, when it was authorised to be worn for the securing of a whistle by those of the rank of sergeant and above, see MBI 86/1952, Standing Orders for Dress (Provisional). In 1956 the Military Board allowed lanyards to be worn by all ranks as an embellishment, although those below the rank of corporal originally had to provide it at their own expense. The white lanyard worn prior to the Second World War by light horse, artillery, signals, army service corps, and tank corps, was completely unofficial, the use of which had begun in the Great War amongst artillery and infantry. In 1925 Standing Orders for Clothing, Part 3, Dress, allowed a lanyard to be worn by those who carried whistles, but it was to be khaki. It seems however that both the units themselves, and the Military Board, took a Nelsonian approach to the question of the whitened lanyard, probably because it provided virtually the only splash of colour on the otherwise drab khaki service dress worn by the army at that time.
  10. ↑ NSW Government Gazette No 290 dated 22 August 1876. The original battery of NSW Artillery raised in 1871 assumed the number 1 on this date, being reduced to nil strength as 1st Coast Artillery Battery RAA effective 7 December 1951, and deleted from the ORBAT as 128th Mobile Coast Battery by 30 June 1957
  11. ↑ Effective new establishments introduced on 9 January 1891 the field battery component of No 2 Battery became an independent unit of the NSWA, while the garrison component was absorbed into the newly raised Depot Battery NSWA. The former No 3 Battery NSWA, raised 1877, became the new No 2 Battery, being broken up effective 7 December 1951 as 2nd Coast Artillery Battery RAA, see Historical Record of the New South Wales Regiment of Royal Australian Artillery, Sydney 1903, p13-14.
  12. ↑ Change in designation was effective 24 June 1893 with the formation of the Brigade Division Field Artillery, consisting of 'A' Battery NSWA, 'B' and 'C' Batteries NSWA (Partially-Paid), and from January 1894, 'D' (Cadet) Battery
  13. ↑ NSW General Order No 91 of 7 September 1899
  14. ↑ Effective 1 July 1902 vide GO 101/1902 of 04 Jul 02, para 4, as amended by GO 124/1902 of 31 Jul 02, para 3; and Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No 44 of 12 September 1902
  15. ↑ Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No 1 of 9 January 1903, reduction to be effected by 30 June 1903
  16. ↑ Military Order No 405/1910 of 25 November 1910
  17. ↑ MO 160/1911 of 25 April 1911
  18. ↑ Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No 85 of 14 October 1920
  19. ↑ AAO 357/1927 of 16 July 1927, effective 1 July 1927
  20. ↑ AAO 330/1930 of 19 July 1930, amending AAO 74/1930, Annual Training Establishments – Permanent Forces
  21. ↑ AAO 12/1936 of 31 January 1936
  22. ↑ AAO 32/1939 of 28 February 1939, effective 1 February 1939
  23. ↑ LHQ Appointments Order No 7/1942, entry relating to the appointment of the BC Depot Battery on 27 February 1942
  24. ↑ LHQ SM19531 of 05 Aug 43. 93 other rank personnel of Depot Battery formed 2 Aust Mtn Bty (Mech) on 9 August 1943, and were joined by 28 other ranks ex- 9 Aust Fd Regt (AIF), and five ORs drawn from other units of Second Aust Army. The BC was from 2/5 Aust Fd Regt, the remaining five officers joined in New Guinea from units serving in that theatre. Note that Depot Battery LHQ School of Artillery (Field) remained extant until approximately 8 August 1944 when it formed the cadre of 1st Aust Young Soldiers Training Battery
  25. ↑ GRO G.741/1943 of 05 Nov 43
  26. ↑ 54 Battery, 2/4th Aust Field Regiment, at Balikpapan was reduced to a cadre pending disbandment on 1 October 1945, was repopulated and redesignated 6th Independent Field Battery on 3 October 1945, and redesignated 2nd Mountain Battery on 25 October 1945, moving to Morotai in October/November 1945. The original 2 Aust Mtn Bty (Mech), still at Bougainville and being reduced to a cadre prior to return to Australia, was directed to reform and replace 6 Indep Fd Bty in BCOF on 6 October 1945 but this instruction was changed on 22 October to direct that it was now to be deleted from the ORBAT and five volunteers only, with the battery funds and certain memorabilia, joined the new 2 Mtn Bty on Morotai in mid-November 1945. Accordingly there were two units bearing the title 2 Mtn Bty on the ORBAT during October/November 1945. See the following war diaries – AWM52: 1/2/4/8; Adv LHQ GS(SD) war diary for September 1945; AWM52: 1/2/4/9; Adv LHQ GS(SD) war diary for October 1945; AWM52: 1/1/19/56; Directorate of Organization AG 1(a), war diary for October 1945; AWM52: 1/5/4/104; HQ 3 Aust Div G Br war diary for October 1945, Appendix B, Action Diary; AWM52: 1/5/4/104; HQ 3 Aust Div G Br war diary for November 1945, Appendices B and K; AWM52: 1/3/4/13; HQ First Aust Army G Branch (SD and Trg) war diary for September 1945; AWM52: 1/3/4/15; HQ First Army G Br (SD and Trg) war diary for November 1945; AWM52: 1/3/11; HQ First Aust Army Q Br war diary, November 1945, Daily Return of Movements – Return No 547; AWM52: 1/1/1/65 Part 2; LHQ G (Ops) and G (SD) war diary for October 1945; AWM52: item 1/1/19/58, Directorate of Organization AG 1(a) war diary for November 1945; AWM52: 1/2/3/22; Adv LHQ GS(Ops) Sec, war diary for November 1945, Part 1, HQ Morotai Force
  27. ↑ Amendment No 7 to the AMF ORBAT Pt 1 of October 1945, promulgated as HQ AMF SM224 of 02 Feb 46
  28. ↑ AHQ memo A240/1/257(G3) of 24 Dec 54, effective 31 January 1955. Appendix A (Sheet 2) to AHQ A240/1/257(G3) of 15 Nov 54, Renumbering of Units of Royal Australian Artillery, provides for the new title of A Fd Bty, 1 Fd Regt, to be 100(A) Fd Bty, 1 Fd Regt, stating at Note (b) that "It is considered desirable that this battery have a number. In order to preserve the pre-war PMF association it will also retain the letter 'A'."
  29. ↑ AHQ letter A240/6/58 of 08 Dec 58, see also AWM95: 3/1/14; Commanders Diary, A Field Battery RAA, 1–31 December 1958, entry dated 16 December 1958 noting AHQ approval for redesignation. The battery became independent effective 1 September 1957 for deployment to Malaya
  30. ↑ Org Instn 37/99 effective 04 Nov 99
  31. ↑ AHQ Org Instn 52/02, effective 01 Nov 02

Further reading

  • Cubis, Richmond (1978). A History of 'A' Battery NSW Artillery (1871–1899), Royal Australian Artillery (1899–1971). Sydney: Elizabethan Press.
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