Action! Action! Action!
The History of the Employment of Australian Artillery 1871 – 2021
Royal Australian Artillery Historical Company
Nicholas Floyd and Paul Stevens
Newport, NSW: Big Sky Publishing, 2024
Paperback 288pp RRP: $19.99
Reviewer: John Henry, January 2025
The publishing of this book has been funded and managed by the Royal Australian Artillery Historical Company. Its authors are Major General Paul Stevens (Retired) and Lieutenant Colonel Nick Floyd, but as their Acknowledgement at the end of the book discloses, they have secured and blended into the book the input of an extensive range of people able to contribute expert knowledge and advice. As the Foreword by Brigadier John Cox (Retired), Chair of the RAA Historical Committee, explains, it is primarily targeted at aspiring professional Gunners, but is also for all Gunners, whether serving or retired, and can also provide family and friends of Gunners with some understanding of service as a Gunner. Brigadier Cox comments that the book provides a strong sense of the arc of the profession’s history but also satisfies a requirement to understand the essentials of its past and might assist leaders to perceive possible futures.
The book is just what its subtitle describes, set out in a chronological and easily readable narrative, but this is just the framework on which is built a work that cannot fail to achieve the purposes Brigadier Cox identifies. The chapters each deal with a discrete successive period, beginning with a one paragraph summary. So as not to disrupt the flow of the narrative, but so as to add to its understanding, there are separate inserts that accompany each chapter, generally of a page, that each explain some technical aspect or give a brief account of illustrative aspects of the conduct of a Gunner of that period who has distinguished himself either by leadership or bravery.
Not just is the book a readable account in plain English. It explains the inevitable acronyms and provides a Glossary. It also brings in the relevant domestic and at times international political background helpful to understand changes in artillery weaponry, organizations and roles.
The Appendices include tables of the organization of Gunner units at significant dates, a table of significant artillery dates, both in Colonial and Commonwealth history, the Glossary, and the Footnotes. The care and scholarship that has gone into the writing of this book is evidenced by the footnotes to be found throughout the book, anything from thirteen for Chapter 6 to 57 for Chapter 15. There are 101 footnotes to the Appendices. In each case they give the source of the footnoted piece of information given in the chapter.
No Gunner should be without a copy of this book.
The RUSI – Vic Library is most grateful to the publisher for making this work available for review.
