Australia Twilight War & After...

[Olefin]

Very nice site on Australian Forces that gives some good information of the setup of their armed forces

http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/structure/one_army.asp

I.e. The Infantry Battalion


1993 Rifle Section:

9 Other Ranks
2 x Minimi light support weapon
1 x M79 grenade launcher
2 x 66mm rocket launcher


Rifle Platoon:
Platoon Headquarters (1 Officer, 2 Other Ranks)

3 x Section

Rifle Company:
Company Headquarters (2 Officers, 4 Other Ranks)

3 x Rifle Platoon

Battalion:

39 Officers, 662 Other Ranks

Battalion Headquarters

Administration Company
Transport Platoon
Quartermasters Platoon
Catering Platoon
Technical Support Platoon
Medical Platoon

Support Company

Signals Platoon
Mortar Platoon
Assault Pioneer Platoon
DFSW (Direct fire support weapon) Platoon
Reconnaissance and
Surveillance Platoon

4x Rifle Company

1993
Armoured Personnel Carrier (Cavalry) Squadron **

Section:
6 Other Ranks
3 armoured personnel carriers


Troop:
Troop Headquarters (1 Officer, 5 Other Ranks, 3 armoured personnel carriers)

3 x Section

Squadron:
9 Officers, 132 Other Ranks

Squadron Headquarters (9 armoured personnel carriers)
Support Troop (17 armoured personnel carriers, 3 tracked load carriers)
Administration Troop (4 armoured personnel carriers, 12 tracked load carriers)
Tech Support Troop (6 armoured personnel carriers, 1 cargo carrier, 1 armoured recovery vehicle)

4 x Armoured Personnel Carrier Troop

I am assuming the 9 officers and 132 other ranks are what is in addition to the 4 x APC troops it mentions

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Olefin

Very nice site on Australian Forces that gives some good information of the setup of their armed forces

http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/structure/one_army.asp
1993 Rifle Section:

9 Other Ranks
2 x Minimi light support weapon
1 x M79 grenade launcher
2 x 66mm rocket launcher

Varied from unit to unit. Some units had the grenadier armed with M16/M203. Many units were still using the old structure of one GPMG (M60 in reserve units, MAG 58 in regular) and no Minimi.

Originally Posted by Olefin

Rifle Platoon:
Platoon Headquarters (1 Officer, 2 Other Ranks)

In my experience the PHQ consisted of the Officer (1st or 2nd Lt), 2IC (Sergeant), Signalman (private) and a runner (usually the most senior private and next in line for promotion to Lance Corporal).

Originally Posted by Olefin

Rifle Company:
Company Headquarters (2 Officers, 4 Other Ranks)

3 x Rifle Platoon

Plus support section (9 men) which (in addition to either F88 or L1A1 rifles) was armed with 84mm Carl Gustav's (4 of) and GPMGs (4 of) and occasionally had a Landrover 110 plus trailer attached (to carry tripods, extra ammo, etc)

Originally Posted by Olefin

Support Company

Signals Platoon
Mortar Platoon
Assault Pioneer Platoon
DFSW (Direct fire support weapon) Platoon
Reconnaissance and Surveillance Platoon

Occasionally included an SFMG Platoon armed with GPMGs and tripods for use mainly in the indirect role at ranges up to 3,000 metres. This was separate to the Anti Armour Platoon (armed with 84mm Carl Gustav).

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Mention was made of RAAF Base Curtin in an earlier post. I'd like to offer some clarification of Curtin's status. It is not an active duty base and no squadrons are meant to be based there during peacetime.
It is one of three 'bare bases' that the RAAF maintain as forward deployment bases. The three bases and their locations are now available on on the net so there's no security breach in posting them here.
They are: -
RAAF Scherger near Weipa, Queensland
RAAF Curtin near Derby, Western Australia
RAAF Learmonth near Exmouth, Western Australia

More information can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAAF_Bare_Bases

[Legbreaker]

Ladies and gentlemen. Anyone who is considering visiting Australia in the near future, please be advised drop bear mating season has just commenced. It's an especially dangerous time to be walking in forested areas.

Attachment 1849

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

It's an especially dangerous time to be walking in forested areas.

Thank God they don't hunt in packs. That's all I'll say.

[Jason Weiser]

Originally Posted by Targan

Thank God they don't hunt in packs. That's all I'll say.

So, do they come at night mostly?

[Olefin]

Interesting pic there

To get back to the thread topic the East Africa/Kenya sourcebook I am working on, as part of its description of forces, has a small section detaliing how the Australians were not able to send any forces to aid the US and Brits in Kenya until 1999 due to both the war they had with Indonesia and because of the damage they took from taking three nukes from the Soviets on three of their biggest refineries, one of which took out most of Rockingham and HMAS Stirling along with it, with the strike being carried out by a single ICBM in December of 1997 with three warheads, and causing 500,000 casualties in the process.

In other words big enough to really hurt (thats 1 out of every 60 Aussies killed along with a big naval base along with a lot of industry) but not catastrophic to where the country falls apart.

[Jason Weiser]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Ladies and gentlemen. Anyone who is considering visiting Australia in the near future, please be advised drop bear mating season has just commenced. It's an especially dangerous time to be walking in forested areas.

Attachment 1849

Wait? 1 in 10? Are you telling me, assuming a population of 30 so million... approx. 3 million Aussies have been attacked? Man you may need to try the rabbit solution on those critters before they start depopulating the country!

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Jason Weiser

Wait? 1 in 10? Are you telling me, assuming a population of 30 so million... approx. 3 million Aussies have been attacked? Man you may need to try the rabbit solution on those critters before they start depopulating the country!

Actually, we only just cracked 21 million a short time ago. And yes, about 2 million Australians (mostly city dwellers who've stupidly wandered out into the bush alone) have had an "encounter". Most get away with little more than a scratch and a pressing need for a change of underwear (only through dumb blind luck though for the most part), but there are a few deaths every month, and many more serious maulings, especially of the unaware tourists who think backpacking in the wilds without protection is a good idea...

In some respects, Drop Bears are our best solution to illegal immigrants, ever since the government stopped the navy putting .50 cal "warning holes" in their boats anyway.

[Webstral]

21 million. Wow. About the population of Texas, give or take. And that makes Australia a larger-than-average nation. Sometimes I think every American ought to live in a very small, poor nation (not Australia, lest my Australian cousins interpret the physical proximity of their nation's name with the adjectives "very small" and "poor" as meaning those adjectives apply to the jewel of the Southern Hemisphere) for at least a year to get a better perspective on things.