In August 1999, the government axed the Royal Tournament which incorporated
the exciting Royal Naval field gun display. After that time, a small group of
ex-trainers and field gunners decided to attempt to continue field gunning on a
civilian basis.
The necessary equipment was acquired and recruiting started at the end of 2000.
By April of 2001, the first civilian field gun crew started their training at
Fort Nelson in Portsmouth. Displays using 1 crew were carried out each Saturday
at Fort Nelson and also at the Dawlish Carnival in Devon.
In 2002 field gun was re-sited at Fort Brockhurst in Gosport and 2 crews began
training, with displays being held on weekends and again at Dawlish. During 2002
the field gun crew also travelled to the Rhine Army Summer Show in Paderborn,
Germany.
In 2003 field gun again was re-sited on Castle Field, Southsea at the request of
Portsmouth City Council and again displays were carried out on weekends from1st
April to end of September.
2004 saw training taking place on Castle Field with 1 crew, having given the
previous years' crew time of to 're-coup' . Our intention was to train only 1
crew and then in 2005 amalgamate all ex field gunners to form 2 full crews to
run against each other during the 2005 season.
2005 saw field gun being performed each weekend at Castle Field and in
particular at the International Festival of the Sea (200th Year celebration of
the battle of Trafalgar) being held in HM Naval Dockyard Portsmouth at the end
of June, beginning of July. An exciting display over 3 days saw 6 competitive
field gun runs being completed with the best running time of 3min 33secs being
achieved on the final day.
The Portsmouth crew also completed a very rewarding weekends field gunning at
R.A.F. Cosford in June 2006 at the R.A.F Cosford show
Since 2005 Action Field Gun has established very strong links with the South
African Regular Army. 2 Visits in 2006 and 2 further visits in 2007 has seen the
successful training of 2 South African Regiment crews who will be competing in
July 2008 against our own action gun crew.
