Introduction

For about seventy years after 1788, defence of the Australian colonies was almost solely a matter for the British government and its representatives in Australia. However, as self-government was devolved at different times to the various colonies their interest in defence was soon piqued, especially after British troops in Australia were dispatched to deal with the Maori uprisings in the 1840s, the last British troops departed in 1870, and various other European nations started to take a greater interest in collecting colonies in the Pacific.

Colonial participation in defence began in the mid-1850s with the Russian scare arising from the Crimean War and after the Gold Rush had created lucrative targets for maritime raiders in the growing colonial capitals. Although the departure of British troops was hastened by the refusal of the colonies to pay for their maintenance, increasing prosperity had provided the colonies with means to finance small contributions to their own defence. The defences comprised coast artillery, to secure the maritime approaches of the various coastal settlements, and volunteers to deal with any armed parties that might be landed.

As the range and accuracy of guns increased the guns were moved to the outer harbours and following the withdrawal of Imperial troops, small professional forces were employed to maintain them and guard against surprise attacks. These garrisons could be bolstered by volunteers when needed. The infantry and other units had time to mobilize and were therefore composed primarily of volunteers.  Consequently, the first permanent units of the various colonies and then of the Commonwealth were artillery and they would continue to dominate the permanent peacetime forces until after WWII.

The first moves in the direction of continent wide defence arose when the Royal Navy switched from sail to steam and required secure refueling stations throughout its maritime domains. All the Australian colonies contributed to the cost of constructing and manning the coastal fortifications at Albany, Western Australia, and Thursday Island in Torres Strait in the early 1890s. The School of Gunnery was opened at Middle Head, Sydney Harbour, in 1886 and as the movement of trained gunners between the colonies increased, calling for some level of standardization and economy, other colonies sent students to the School rather than establish their own. The culmination of these trends was the establishment of the Royal Australian Artillery on 24 August 1899 with the colonial permanent artilleries of Queensland, NSW and Victoria becoming regiments of the RAA until Federation made this division redundant.

As well as providing for their own immediate defence and support of Royal Navy vessels operating in Australian waters, the Australian colonies also came under pressure to provide forces for Empire defence.  Although reluctant to make any standing commitments, NSW provided the first contingent to Empire defence in 1885 sending an infantry battalion and a field artillery battery to the Sudan. Although the contingent arrived too late to see action, it marked the first contribution of Australian gunners to Empire defence. The same unit, ‘A’ Battery, was dispatched to South Africa in December 1899 to join British forces fighting the Boers. It served there for 18 months and has the distinction of being the oldest permanent unit of what became the Australian Army.

During the Boer War ‘A’ Battery was generally scattered in two gun sections supporting units in pursuit of elusive Boer commandos but they had a few sharp clashes. These included the last desperate effort by General De Wet to inspire an uprising in the Cape Colony. The main technical development of the Boer War was the emergence of indirect fire, a measure designed to shelter the gunners from rifle and machinegun fire while serving the guns. However, it would not become standard doctrine until WWI.

The entries in this section are representative of the emerging colonial defence forces and their contribution to the Sudan and the Boer War.

The Boer War lasted 32 months and 16 378 Australian men and 60 nurses participated of whom 600 were killed or died of wounds or illness during the war and 800 were wounded.

Introduction

With the declaration of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901, the military forces of the former colonies gradually came under the control of the Commonwealth government. With a population of less than 4 million people and very limited sources of taxation, as well as being wary of Empire demands, the forces of the new nation would comprise a citizen army with a small permanent cadre restricted to service in Australia. The initial cadre was less than 1500 men, most of who were ‘to look after forts, guns and armaments’ (Horner 1995, 51).

Apart from the coastal forts, the only permanent forces raised by the Commonwealth were three field batteries and it was not until compulsory military training was introduced in 1911 that the citizen forces began to expand and undertake periodic but very basic training.

Nevertheless, this mix of regular and militia gunners sufficed to man the forts around Australia and provide the cadre of the 101 officers and 2682 men who volunteered to venture overseas in 1914 with the Australian Imperial Force as the artillery of the 1st Division.

After about six months training, the 1st Division took part in the initial landings on the Gallipoli peninsula on 25 April 1915 but their inability to penetrate very far inland left little room for the deployment of artillery at Anzac Cove. Nevertheless, the number of guns crammed into the valleys and ridges was gradually increased to provide valuable and occasionally decisive support in attack and defence and against the growing number of Turkish guns. Naval gunfire support and air observation also emerged as integral elements of the team stopping the Turks from driving the Allies into the sea. The 1st Australian Field Artillery Brigade also supported the British, French and Australian forces at Cape Helle for several months.

The 2nd Division had been formed during the Gallipoli campaign and when Anzac Cove was evacuated in December 1915 these two divisions had to rebuild and retrain and provide a large slice of the cadre for the new 4th and 5th Divisions and they were all moved to the Western front from March 1916 onwards. The 3rd Division was being formed in Australia and would finish its training in the UK. Being a technical arm, the artillery struggled to induct the new recruits, many of who had transferred from infantry and the light horse, but succeeded in doing so in time to support their divisions on the Western Front from June 1916 onwards although there was much still to learn at all levels of command about the application of artillery. (Note that no Australian artillery units served with the mounted troops that remained in the Middle East.)

The first Australian artillery unit on the Western front and the last to leave the line was the siege or heavy artillery made up mostly of regular gunners drawn from the coast defences once it was determined that the German Navy would pose little threat to Australian ports. However, there were only two batteries of heavies and a group headquarters. Although Australia provided its own divisional artillery the medium and heavy units needed to destroy or neutralise fortifications and enemy batteries were provided by the British. Other British divisional artilleries also supported Australian operations so there were often as many, if not more, British guns supporting AIF operations as there were Australian. Australian artillery also supported the operations of other allied forces too.

By the time the Australian divisions arrived in France the war on the Western Front had been going for nearly two years. The initial German offensive had been blunted and an outflanking race had ended in a draw with a continuous front line extending from Belgium to the Swiss border. Over the next two years both sides tried to wear down the other and achieve a decisive breakthrough.

The Australian divisions were first engaged at Fromelles in mid-1916 before moving to the Somme (Pozieres and Mouquet Farm). In early 1917 they followed the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg line and engaged in the Battles of Bullecourt that followed. The war then settled again into a siege with constant attacks and counter attacks for very little reward until the Germans broke the line in March 1918. Australian forces and others were rushed to seal the gap and succeeded in doing so after some desperate fighting, including at close quarters by the Australian artillery.

Having halted the last German offensive of the war, the allied counter-offensive commenced on 8 August 1918 with the Australia Corps playing a pivotal role. By this time the development of artillery tactics and command and control arrangements had reached its zenith. The long preparatory bombardments of the first years of the war that negated surprise and made forward movement next to impossible once initial objectives had been taken, especially in low ground and bad weather, had given way to predicted barrages and devastating counter-battery bombardments that largely nullified the German artillery.

These developments had been made possible by developments in the application of fire (moving barrages, concentrations, etc) and in accuracy thanks to developments in measuring the muzzle velocity of guns, mapping and aerial photography to fix the location of guns and targets, meteorology to allow for weather conditions, aerial observation by balloon and aircraft, sound ranging and flash spotting of enemy guns, and coordination between the artillery and infantry and tank commanders.

By the end of the war about 30 000 Australians had served in the artillery and the number of units had expanded from three embryonic field artillery brigades in 1914 to 20 in 1916. Trench mortars units were formed and anti-aircraft and anti-tank functions were also added to their responsibilities as aircraft performance improved and tanks made their appearance on the battlefield. However, other techniques, such as sound ranging and survey had remained a largely British responsibility.

The gunners included here are representatives of the various branches of artillery and their contribution to winning the artillery battle that opened the way for the final break-through that ended the war.

Introduction

When WWI ended, the immediate task of the government was to return and demobilise the AIF and resume national development only barely begun before the outbreak of the war. It also commissioned former AIF leaders to review Australia’s defence and recommend a structure for the army. 

The review recommended the retention of the AIF structure manned by a compulsory militia and volunteers with a small professional cadre. Although these recommendations were accepted, economic realities soon saw the target strength of the force cut from 127 000 militia and a permanent cadre of 3500, to 31 000 and 1600 respectively. The permanent field and coast artillery was reduced from 1088 to 518 and two of the three permanent field batteries were disbanded and the remaining battery reduced to two guns.

Nevertheless, there were some small advances with the addition of medium artillery brigades, survey companies, an anti-aircraft battery, and some motorization but it was not until the threat from Japan took more concrete form with its invasion of Manchuria in 1931 that defence funding slowly increased from its much reduced ‘Depression’ levels. Most of this increase was devoted to upgrading the coast artillery and supporting forces.

Despite these stringent times a level of gunner expertise was maintained by the militia and permanent cadre that enabled the raising of the initial contingents of the 2nd AIF and the expansion of the Army as the war progressed. 

When war was declared in 1939 another AIF had to be raised for overseas service with four divisions being dispatched by early 1941. The three divisions sent to the Middle East had to draw their guns from British stocks and spent 16 months in transit and training before being committed to operations. They were engaged in the initial campaigns against the Italian forces in North Africa, in the ill-fated Greek/Crete campaign, in the defence of Egypt during Rommel’s advance, and in the Syrian campaign. When Japan entered the war in December 1941, the 6th and 7th Divisions returned to Australia while the 9th Division remained until the battle of El Alamein in November 1942.

When Japan lunged south in December 1941, Australia fully mobilized eventually forming a total of 10 divisions and numerous other army and corps units, including coast batteries, anti-aircraft regiments and searchlight regiments, for the defence of Australia and its approaches and, subsequently, for the counter-offensive.

The coast defences were reinforced and their readiness increased and small garrisons, some including artillery, were dispatched to Timor, Ambon, Port Moresby, Rabaul, and other islands. When Singapore surrendered on 13 February 1942 the 8th Division and its artillery went into captivity. The Japanese quickly captured the arc of islands to the north of Australia excluding the southern half of the island of New Guinea and the first bombing raids on northern Australia started on 19 February.

When the attempt to take the remainder of New Guinea by sea was thwarted at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 and the prospect of further naval operations on this scale were ended at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, Japanese forces advanced on Port Moresby from the north coast over the rugged Owen Stanley Range. Artillery played only a minor part in the final stages of the withdrawal from Kokoda and could not support the push back across the Owen Stanleys but once allied forces were established on the north coast and earlier at Milne Bay artillery came back into play.

However, the nature of the terrain and lack of air and naval transport limited the number of guns that could be deployed and the amount of ammunition that could be supplied. Nevertheless, artillery played a crucial role in all the campaigns in the Southwest Pacific involving Australian troops from Labuan to Bougainville.

When it became clear that Japanese forces could not mount an invasion of Australia, the home defences, particularly coast and anti-aircraft defences, were manned by those too young or too old or unfit for front line service or by women and later disbanded. By war’s end it is estimated that between 120-150 000 men and women served in the artillery which included 34 field and three medium regiments, three survey and 15 anti-tank regiments, 13 anti-aircraft regiments and around 40 fixed and 19 mobile coast defence batteries, and many other units and schools (Horner 1995, 422-5).

During the war 2297 gunners were killed in action and many more wounded. 

The gunners included in the following pages served in one or more of the theatres of war where Australian forces fought and some were veterans of WWI. They also represent a variety of units and forms of enlistment.