4th Field Regiment 'Old Boys' Association Newsletter

question and probably one asked by many diggers who spent their time in gun batteries. So, in answer to Vince’s, and perhaps many others, question, I have put together a summary of what HQ Battery did, in this case, during our time in SVN from March 1970 through to March 1971. While structures in other Regiments at the time would have been similar, the similarity to today’s equivalent of a HQ Battery is a distant past. The 4 th Field Regimental structure in SVN in 1970/71 was this:  A Regimental Headquarters,  A Headquarters Battery,  A Detachment of 131 st Divisional Locating Battery,  106 Field Battery,  107 Field Battery.  161 Field Battery RNZA (The Kiwis)  Various United States Artillery units attached at various times. The Regimental Head Quarters (RHQ) was the administrative head of the Regiment where CO (Brien Forward), 2IC (Don Quinn), RSM (Don Donkin) had their administrative offices. They all had other operational duties as well. RHQ was coordinated by the Adjutant (Don Banks), Assistant Adjutant Bryan Slattery and Chief Clerk (Max Beck) and the very important Pay Sergeant (Tony Hoy). RHQ coordinated the administration of all the batteries including leave, pay, R & R and eventually RTA details. The hierarchy were assisted by Bombardier and Gunner clerks. Headquarters Battery (HQ Bty) covered a wide range of services both administratively and operationally. The main elements of HQ Bty were:  Regimental Quartermaster’s (QM) Store,  Regimental Aid Post, (RAP)  Regimental Transport,  Technical Support Troop (TST),  Regimental Policemen (RPs),  HQ Bty Orderly Room  Various operational segments including: o The Artillery Tactical Headquarters (Arty Tac) o Enterprise, o HQ Bty Q Store o A Ready Reaction Force. o BSMs work parties – when individuals were not rostered on their normal shifts. The QMs store had the task of keeping the gun batteries operating with everything (well, nearly everything) they needed. This included rations, ammunition (big and small), water, clothing and equipment. The QM (Paul Glendenning) was assisted by a team led by the Regimental Quarter Master Sergeant (RQMS) Ian Rickerby and a team of Sergeants, Bombardiers and Gunners. The chief coordinator of rations was the Warrant Officer Caterer (WOCat) (Squizzy Taylor) who obtained – sometimes by dubious means- and arranged distribution of rations to each of the batteries.