RAA LIAISON LETTER – 2025 - 2026 CANNONBALL SUPPLEMENT JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL AUSTRALIAN ARTILLERY HISTORICAL COMPANY 144 Anniversary Day Year Action / Event / Ceremony Meanwhile RAA field and anti-aircraft gunners fought tirelessly. RAA gunners were also proud to be known as 'Rats of Tobruk'. 111th 01 May 1915 At Gallipoli, on the night of 1 May two guns of Major Bessell-Browne's 8th Battery are hauled by 160 men to a point below the crest of the 400 plateau. In the first two days in action there were twenty-two gunner casualties. 141st 12 May 1885 Gunner Edward Lewis became the first Australian gunner to die on active service. He was a member of the field battery in the NSW Contingent that was deployed to the Sudan. He died of an illness and was buried in Sudan. 58th 13 May 1968 12-16 May: The 1968 battle of Coral-Balmoral in Vietnam included attacks on Fire Support and Patrol Base Coral. In the early hours of 13 May, a North Vietnamese Army battalion attacked through the 102nd battery position and the adjacent 1RAR Mortar Platoon. The mortar platoon lost five killed and eleven wounded. The 102nd Battery gunners courageously fought off the assault including fighting to reclaim one of its guns that had been overrun; it had two wounded. Over the course of the battle the nearby 12th Field Regiment headquarters had two killed and three wounded. In 2008, 102 Battery was granted the Honour Title ‘Coral’ for the dedicated service and sacrifice made by its members at the Battle of Coral. 85th 20 May 1941 The German airborne invasion of Heraklion on the island of Crete began at dawn on 20 May. Major Hipworth, commanding the 7th LAA Battery described the battle: "In those five hours of hell the AA gunners stuck to their guns while four hundred enemy machines dived and swooped, spraying deadly bullets and bombs. Late in the afternoon there was a short lull, which was soon broken by the sonorous roar of aeroplane engines. Suddenly out of the haze hanging low over the Mediterranean more than one hundred and fifty German troop-carriers flew slowly into view . . . Every gun opened fire just as the parachutists started to jump, and within five minutes sixteen huge machines . . . were blazing furiously and rapidly losing height." 111th 21 May 1915 An Australian Siege Artillery Brigade (Heavy) consisting of a HQ and two Siege Batteries is raised from members of the Royal Australian Garrison Artillery who volunteered for service abroad with the Australian Imperial Force. The initial contingent also included some volunteers from the Royal Australian Field Artillery. It departed to Lydd, Kent, in July 1915 for training and equipping with guns. The Brigade was reinforced during the war with volunteers drawn equally from the permanent Royal Australian Garrison Artillery and the Australian Garrison Artillery of the Citizen Military Forces. 71st 24 May 1955 The 105th Field Battery is raised. 62nd 24 May 1964 A rotating operational deployment of a light anti-aircraft battery to RAAF Butterworth in Malaysia during Confrontation with Indonesia commences with 111th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery RAA in 1964 and ends five years later with the return to Australia on 6 May 1969 of 110th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery RAA. 77th 25 May 1949 1st Field Regiment RAA raised, as first regular Army field branch regiment. 20th 25 May 2006 108 Field Battery (G Company), 4th Field Regiment (operating as infantry) deploy in 2006 as part of the International Stabilisation Force in East Timor and the deployment of the Anzac Timor Leste Battle Group to which RAA batteries on occasion provided an infantry company. This commitment continued for seven years until April 2013. 72nd 26 May 1954 The current pattern of headdress badge is approved on 26 May 1954. It incorporates a field gun with a scroll above that bears the battle honour UBIQUE (Everywhere) and a St Edwards Crown. The scrolls below the gun bear the motto Quo Fas et Gloria Ducunt (Where Right and Glory Lead). 84th 30May 1942 The Japanese conducted an aerial reconnaissance of Sydney Harbour in the early hours of the day. The small plane from a submarine off Sydney was spotted by members of an artillery battery at Georges Heights, but it is mistakenly identified as an American aircraft. 107th 31 May 1919 Reflecting the close cooperation established in WW1, an alliance between The Royal Regiment of Artillery of the British Army and the Artillery of the Commonwealth of Australia is granted by His Majesty King George V is notified in Army Order 58/1919. 52nd 31 May 1974 The title 'Air Defence' replaces 'Anti-Aircraft' in unit designations.
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