About This Unit
105 Anti Tank / Tank Attack / 51 Composite Anti-Aircraft Regiment
Like most of its counterpart Militia / AMF Anti Tank Regiments, 105 went through various titles and iterations in response to changing views and threat levels during the course of the War, making it very difficult, 80 years later, to track and make sense of the changes.
Raised in 1941 before the outbreak of war in the Pacific, but after ecent experience in the Middle East, it seemed reasonable to suppose that there may be a continental enemy armoured threat at some point in the future. Armoured Divisions were raised equipped and manned.
Initially equipped with the 57mm 6 pounder, the first significant change was nomenclature. Someone in authority decided it would be a good idea to confer a more 'aggressive' / 'offensive' title on these units, than 'Anti Tank' which apparently sounded more 'defensive' than was desirable, so in 1943 the title 'Tank Attack' was adopted across the board.
As war in Europe and Africa receded and the war in the Pacific was top of mind in the public's and government's consciousness, and the reality of the paucity of any Japanese armoured threat was realised after Milne bay in October 1942, more change was afoot as the Army configured to deal with more likely threats.
Thus Anti-Aircraft batteries and regiments were raised, and the 105 Tank Attack Regiment reconfigured and re-equipped as the 51st Composite Anti Aircraft Regiment in Sept 1943.
The newly titled unit then deployed to take over AA resources on Horn Island (Qld).
As the enemy threat recederd they were withdrawn to Narellan NSW where they disbanded in January 1945