The 10th Coast Regiment,

Royal New Zealand Artillery The Royal Regiment of New Zealand Artillery is the artillery regiment of the New Zealand Army. It is effectively a military administrative corps, and can comprise multiple component regiments. This nomenclature stems from its heritage as an off ...

was a territorial

coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of c ...

regiment of the

New Zealand Army , image = New Zealand Army Logo.png , image_size = 175px , caption = , start_date = , country = , branch = ...

. The regiment was formed in 1940 as 10th Heavy Regiment, New Zealand Artillery and controlled the coastal defence batteries around Wellington Harbour. The regiment was progressively expanded and by the end of the war had batteries all over the lower

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

. The regiment was reduced to a

cadre Cadre may refer to: *Cadre (military), a group of officers or NCOs around whom a unit is formed, or a training staff *Cadre (politics), a politically controlled appointment to an institution in order to circumvent the state and bring control to th ...

in 1957 and disbanded in 1967, along with the other coastal artillery regiments (

9th 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

and

11th 11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. It is the first repdigit. In English, it is the smallest positive integer whose name has three syllables. Name "Eleven" derives from the Old English ', which is first attested i ...

History

Since the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the coastal defences of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

had come under a single battery, 15 Heavy Battery (15 Coast Battery prior to 1934). In March 1940, 15 Heavy Battery was broken up into three batteries and the overall force increased in manpower. The 10th Heavy Regiment was formed in July 1940 to command the Wellington defence batteries, which included both coastal artillery and anti-aircraft artillery. In 1941, the regiment was expanded to include the coastal artillery batteries which covered other ports in the lower

. At its peak size in 1943, the regiment consisted of eight batteries in nine locations: *70 Battery (Palmer Head: three 6" Mk XXI) *71 Battery (Fort Dorset: two 6" Mk VII, two 4" Mk VII and four

12-pounder 12-pounder gun or 12-pdr, usually denotes a gun which fired a projectile of approximately 12 pounds. Guns of this type include: *12-pounder long gun, the naval muzzle-loader of the Age of Sail *Canon de 12 de Vallière, French cannon of 1732 *Cano ...

guns) *72 Battery (

Fort Ballance Fort Ballance is a former coastal artillery battery on Point Gordon on Wellington's Miramar Peninsula. Built in 1885 following fears of an impending war with Russia, Fort Ballance is one of the best preserved of a string of nineteenth century coa ...

: two 4" Mk VII, one twin 6-pounder and two 75 mm guns) *73 Battery (Opau, two 6" Mk VII guns) *77 Battery (

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: two 6" Mk VII and four

40 mm Bofors Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

. Gisborne: one 5" Mk VIII gun) *78 Battery (

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, two

155 mm 155 mm (6.1 in) is a common, NATO-standard, artillery caliber. It is defined in AOP-29 part 1 with reference to STANAG 4425. It is commonly used in field guns, howitzers, and gun-howitzers. Land warfare The caliber originated in France after ...

, four 40-mm Bofors *140 Battery (

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

: one 5" Mk VIII Gun *165 Battery ( Wrights Hill, two 9.2" Mk XV guns) The regiment name was changed to 10th Coast Regiment in October 1944 and in the same year, the coastal defences were effectively mothballed. After the war it was decided that only the defences at Wellington should be kept in an operational state by a small peacetime garrison. In 1948 the territorial force was reorganised. All the New Zealand Artillery became part of the Royal New Zealand Artillery and the batteries were renumbered as: *101 Battery (Fort Dorset) *102 Battery (Palmer Head) *103 Battery (Fort Ballance) *104 Battery (Wrights Hill and the twin 6-pounder at Fort Ballance) It was decided in 1957 that the coastal artillery regiments were no longer necessary. The armament and equipment were placed on a care and maintenance basis, while the regiment was reduced to a

. Over the coming years, the equipment was scrapped and much of the facilities and land were sold off. The regiment eventually dropped to a single quartermaster sergeant, but continued to exist on paper until it was formally disbanded in 1967.

Notes

; Citations ; References * * * * Artillery regiments of New Zealand Coastal artillery regiments Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations disestablished in 1967 {{NewZealand-stub