About This Unit
THe 12th Field Regiment was raised at Holsworthy New South Wales on 18th APril 1966, comprising a HQ Battery and 102nd and 104th Field Batteries. The first CO was Lieutenant Colonel J.D. Kelly DSO.
Warned for service , it deployed to South Vietnam from March 1968 to March 1969, during which time it included 161 (NZ( Fd Bty under command. The Regiment was involved in Operation Tang Thoan 1 at Fire Support Base Coral in May-June 1968 during which the 102nd Fd Battery came under heavy direct assault by a Regimental sized North Vietnamese Army atacking force which overran the neigbouring 1 RAR Mortar Platoon and threatened to do the same to the Battery. Desperate action by the gunners including firing point balnk at the attackers with Splkintex and HE rounds prevented what could have been a disaster, and a counterattack mounted by the Battery recovered a gun lost in the initial assault.
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