Shown below are significant events for the month of May.
| Anniversary | Date | Year | Occurence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 156 | 1870 | In May 1870, the British Government announces it would shortly be withdrawing all Imperial troops from Australia. The last British troops departed in September 1870. As the Sydney Morning Herald commented at the time, it was ‘Australia’s first step toward nationality’. | |
| 85 | 1941 | In May 1941, the WW2 German siege of the Tobruk fortress in North Africa continued with daily close quarter fighting. Effective but costly innovative tactical cooperation between RAA anti-tank gunners and infantry featured while attacking the German salient or defending against German attacks. Meanwhile RAA field and anti-aircraft gunners fought tirelessly. RAA gunners were also proud to be known as ‘Rats of Tobruk’. | |
| 111 | 1.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. |
| 141 | 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. |
| 58 | 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. |
| 85 | 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.” |
| 111 | 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. |
| 71 | 24.May | 1955 | The 105th Field Battery is raised. |
| 62 | 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. |
| 77 | 25.May | 1949 | The first regular Army field branch regiment, the 1st Field Regiment RAA, is raised. |
| 20 | 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. |
| 72 | 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). |
| 84 | 30.May | 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. |
| 107 | 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. |
| 52 | 31.May | 1974 | The title ‘Air Defence’ replaces ‘Anti-Aircraft’ in unit designations. |