Artillery Battery Yuma for AZ National Guard

[Olefin]

The Arizona National Guard would have been looking for any possible reinforcements when they tried to stop the Mexican Invasion. One possible source would be the Ultralightweight Field Howitzers that were being trialed at Yuma starting in late 1996.

There was a competition undergone there among two British companies and one US for an ultralight air portable 155mm gun. Considering how much transport was tied up overall in the US most likely those guns would still be there after the competition and would have been pressed into use during the Mexican invasion.

http://www.pmulcahy.com/towed_guns/b...owed_guns.html has detail on one of the weapons, the Vickers version, which was eventually chosen in the UK.

Battery Yuma, 2nd Battalion, 180th Field Artillery AZ National Guard

Guns - three 155mm Howitzers

one Vickers Ultralightweight Field Howitzer

one Royal Ordinance Light Towed Howitzer (gun is now the M777 howitzer in current US service)

one Lockheed Martin Defense LW155 Howitzer

Three Prime Movers, ten assorted support and ammunition carriers

Personnel - 21 to crew the three guns, 38 support personnel - survivors of Battery A along with 30 YPG personnel involved in the test program

During the Mexican advance, most of the effort in AZ was directed on the axis north thru Tucson and Phoenix, with relatively minor forces advancing against Yuma. Equipment at YPG was used by YPG personnel against those forces, delaying their advance for several weeks as the Mexican units had no heavy artillery of their own to counterbattery the few heavy guns at the Proving Grounds.

Eventually as the AZ National Guard forces were overwhelmed and forced to retreat to Flagstaff and Lake Havasu the forces at YPG were withdrawn with them to Lake Havasu.

As the 2nd Battalion, 180th Field Artillery reorganized there in 1999 the three prototype 155mm howitzers which had proved so crucial in defending YPG for so long were consolidated into the Yuma Battery along with the few suriviving members of Battery A, which had lost all its guns during the fighting and the retreat.

Other equipment from Yuma is also part of the AZ NG forces in the Lake Havasu region.