Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Mills
Hello Mike,
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The once proud Arty Regiments no longer exist and are now issued with 81mm tubes and are called a "Light Battery" and there is only one on them and they are now attached to the Infantry. The gunners are still referred to as gunners and can still wear the White lanyard.
...
Dave.
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Canada has seen an ebb and flow in the artillery regiments too. In the 1950's the regiments had towed 75mm, 105mm and 155mm pieces. Then they mechanized with M109s. Heady times. The airborne gunners had little Italian guns with a distinctive muzzle brake. The reserves kept the 105s for skills training and saluting, these eventually were life-extended with longer barrels and upgrades. Somewhere in all this there was a British-made 105, but never very many of them. (Rob Love keeps finding bits and pieces of Canadian-made 105s in junkyards around the home base of the artillery.)
Just as the Cold War ended the Guns found themselves without much of a job, just like the armoured corps. Units were cycled through Cyprus as infantry battalions, and then smaller and smaller elements deployed to exciting places like Bosnia. When the Airborne Regiment was disbanded by a determinedly unsympathetic government (spit), there was no place for the air transportable guns. Then the M109s were parked. The regulars tooks back the 105s.
Conventional thinking was stood on its head as other specialist functions across the forces were reassigned. The pioneers in the infantry battalions were shut down and their role given to the already busy combat engineers. One of the regular recce squadrons was intentionally undermanned to provide manning numbers for intelligence units. The "mortar dogs" in the battalions were reassigned to the companies, and their role assigned to the artillery.
The arrival of Afghanistan gave the guns a reprieve when someone decided they really needed to reach out and touch badguys at long range. A handful of new US-made M777 155s were acquired and put to very good use. But for close-in work, it was 81mm mortars fired by artillery-men in gun pits. Maybe not a traditional role, but still welcome.