The 212th Field Artillery Battalion
Page 2
The War is over - The 212th is reactivated as a National Guard Unit
No longer an Armored Field Artillery Battalion but instead a 105mm towed battalion. The unit was activated in 1946 with Headquarters and Alpha Battery in the New Bedford Armory, Bravo Battery in Middleboro, Charlie Battery and Service Battery in Brockton
The first Summer encampment was at Camp Edwards Mass. on Cape Cod in 1948. The unit was very small at this point and Headquarters Battery went to summer camp with about 25 EM and 2 Officers. Equipment was next to none and transportation to summer camp was by mostly private transportation. The unit was part of the 26th Yankee Division for the first camp and even the division was no where near full strength either. After 1948, the unit started getting more equipment in the form of trucks, jeeps, howitzers and communication equipment. Of course there was still never enough but it gave us an opportunity to do something. By 1950 we were joined by the 211th Field and the 213 Field, but the sad part of that was that both of these units were called to active duty for the Korean conflict. By now we were assigned to the 182nd Regimental Combat Team; Review parades, firing on the range, the gas chamber,,,all that good stuff. The 212th durimg this time was used for performing to for the elected officials that came to summer camp for "Governors Day", with fire missions off of OP1 at Camp Edwards. One direct fire mission that turned out to be a shocker was when they hit a tree, the target, on the first round fired. Another presentation was called walking fire, where the artillery fired just in front of the advancing infantry troops..they were certainly trusting souls. It was about this time that we changed summer camp locations and went to Ft. Devens. Now if you are not familiar with the artillry range at Ft. Devens, let me tell you...There is only one firing position, and the rounds go over a heavily traveled Route 2. Can you imaging what a short round would do? The year is 1958 and the unit discontinued firing at Ft. Devens and moved to tents at Camp Edwards to finish out the two week summer camp. Showers were out of the question for there were no barracks, but Al Guy gave it some thought and made a bath tub out of a 1/4 ton trailer. Of course the water was a bit chilly but it served the purpose.
It was during this camp that our shells started a fire out in the range area, and firing had to cease until it could be extinguished. It wasn't long until we got the call to go out into the range and help put out the fire that we had started.Captain Pierce led the way and the way was through the range area itself with dud shells popping off all around the column of vehicles. I had an easy job later on and took a three quarter ton back into camp for a pot of lemonade. I ended up using the lemonade to wet down the canvas roof of the truck so it wouldn't catch fire for the fire actually jumped over the road and we found ourselves surrounded by flames. The mid Cape highway was only a two lane highway at the time and the roadway was loaded with fire trucks and heavy smoke. At least we got the next day off.



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