6-Gun Battery Most Likely

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30762, 28 May 1965, Page 1

6-Gun Battery Most Likely

(From Our Own Reporter)

WELLINGTON, May 27.

A six-gun battery of the 16th Field Regiment, which with ancillaries would number 120 men, is likely to be New Zealand’s contribution to the allied force in South Vietnam.

The battery will be equipped .with Italiandesigned 105-milli-metre howitzers, each gun towed by a light utility vehicle-type gun tractor.

The whole force is capable of being lifted by the flight of three Lockheed Hercules Cl3O aircraft now completing trials at Whenuapai. Asked tonight when the force would go, the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) said he could not give a date. It was yet undecided, he said, whether the force would go by sea or air. He had made the offer—a reply to a request for aid by the South Vietnam Government—only just before Parliament opened today. Mr Holyoake, who passed the text of his message to the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Nordmeyer) soon after he made the announcement, said tonight he did not know exactly what form tomorrow’s debate on South Vietnam would take. He wished to give the Opposition full opportunity to debate the matter. It is customary for the length of speeches in a debate of this nature to be 20 minutes. The leaders of each party would probably be granted an extension which would mean that Messrs Holyoake and Nordmeyer would speak for half an hour or more. At a press conference late this afternoon, Mr Holyoake said the battery would comprise about 120 men, but he declined to say how many artillery guns would be sent, according to the Press Association. He also declined to say from which regular army artillery unit the battery would be taken. “They haven’t been told vet, and the first they will hear will be my report.” he said. Asked if the Cabinet de- .<

cision to send a combat unit to Vietnam had been unanimous, the Prime Minister said: “1 don’t think you would find evidence of there having been any dissent or dissenters.” Mr Holyoake said New Zealand’s Ambassador to South Vietnam - (Sir Stephen Weir) had presented the Government’s offer to the South Vietnamese authorities in Saigon at the same time as the. announcement was made in the House of Representatives. If the regular component of the 16th Field Regiment is called on to go to Vietnam it could move out of Papakura camp with little more preparation than was needed for recent deployment exercises when it used Air Force transports to put guns and men in the field within New Zealand. The men’s passports, documentation, Vaccinations and inoculations are constantly kept up to date. There are about 80 regular force gunners in the 161st Battery at Papakura and most would be eligible for overseas service. The remainder of the 120man detachment would be drawn from supporting arms of transport, electrical, and mechanical engineers and signals.