RAA LIAISON LETTER – 2025 - 2026 CANNONBALL SUPPLEMENT JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL AUSTRALIAN ARTILLERY HISTORICAL COMPANY 146 Anniversary Day Year Action / Event / Ceremony assault division and usually located with the CRA's staff. On each bombarding ship there was a Bombardment Liaison Officer (BLO) party of a captain and four other ranks. Each Shore Fire Control Party (SFCP) consisted of a captain, a sergeant and six or seven other ranks, mainly signallers, and these were deployed with the landing brigades and battalions. 85th 19 Jun 1941 19 June to 6 July: The Victoria Cross is awarded to Lieutenant Arthur Roden Cutler, 2/5th Aust Field Regiment, ‘For most conspicuous and sustained gallantry during the Syrian Campaign and for outstanding bravery during the bitter fighting at Merdjayoun when this artillery officer became a byword amongst the forward troops with whom he worked.’ Cutler’s exploits over two weeks included repairing a vital field telephone communications line under heavy fire, repulsing enemy tank-attacks with an anti-tank rifle, setting up an outpost to bring artillery fire onto a road used by the enemy, and employing a 25-pounder field gun to demolish an anti-tank gun and post that threatened the Australian advance. Cutler was seriously wounded during the Battle of Damour, losing a leg as a result. 96th 19 Jun 1930 In 1936 the permanent and part-time elements of the Australian Artillery adopt a hat badge incorporating a field gun with a scroll bearing the battle honour UBIQUE (Everywhere) and a Tudor Crown above and scrolls below the gun bearing the motto CONSENSU STABILES (Strong in Agreement) and the word AUSTRALIA. 141st 23 Jun 1885 The 1885 NSW Sudan Contingent arrives back in Sydney with 9-pounder guns gifted to the battery as replacements for their old guns by the British in the Sudan. 111th 24 Jun 1915 Probably for the first time, Australian artillery fire is directed from an aircraft in WW1 at Gallipoli in 1915. 110th 28 Jun 1916 Captain Selmes, the commander of the 101st Howitzer Battery, described an incident on 28 June 1916: it was caused by the bugbear of all Howitzer Battery Commanders - "A premature". . . We were using a highly sensitive fuse "No 44" which had a centre pin to set off the mercury cap. I had fired some 40/50 rounds and then ordered a switch - the gun in question was close to a honeysuckle hedge and apparently a trailer must have caught the pin and caused the shell to burst about 50 yards from the muzzle. BANG, and when the smoke cleared, I found poor Small, a fine chap from North Shore C of E Grammar School, quite dead, and Gunner McCully rather badly wounded. 87th 30 Jun 1939 A process known officially as pneumatization, begins in concerted fashion when the Military Board issues an instruction for mechanization of field artillery in 1939. Moving the guns was to become faster and easier. Earlier the Military Board announced mechanization of the Army but it was a slow process. Mechanization meant the issue of tractors and motor vehicles to each brigade and the replacement of the wooden steel rimmed wheels with rubber pneumatic tyres. Notes Note 1 The School of Artillery 100 Years on. The School of Artillery has its origins in the NSW School of Gunnery, which was established at Middle Head, Sydney, on 8 September 1885 following the attachment of experienced Royal Artillery instructors to the Colony. The School operated between Middle Head and Victoria Barracks before moving to South Head in 1895. It became the School of Gunnery in 1902 and remained at South Head until World War Two. During World War Two, the diversity of capability and the volume of trainees saw the School split to ultimately form a Field, Medium and Survey School at Holsworthy, an Anti-Aircraft School at Randwick, a Coast Artillery School at South Head, and an Anti-Tank School at Puckapunyal. In 1945 the separate Schools combined once more into a single School of Artillery at North Head, Manly. The school moved to Puckapunyal in late 1997, starting courses in 1998, where it remains to this day.
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