Tiger-pie

Private Thomas "Blue" Kelsey reloads the main gun of an Australian Light Armoured Vehicle after completing a range practice.

An Australian Light Armoured Vehicle drives through smoke.

Corporal Andrew Gellert waits for range practice to continue.

Private Thomas Dockery and Private Lukas Woolley engage targets to the front during a combined infantry and armoured vehicle range practice.

Guess my name? Trooper Raymond Callow, an Australian Light Armoured Vehicle driver - peers out from his driver's seat during range practice.

An Australian Light Armoured Vehicle idles and crew members wait for clearance to to leave the firing point after completing their live-fire range practice.

Australian soldiers maintain a safety perimeter behind the firing point, while local Iraqis arrive to watch the Australian troops go through their firing range practice.

Private Stuart Sweatman carries his minimi F-89 off the firing point after completing his part in the range practice.

An officer watches a Bushmaster Infantry Mobility Vehicle prepare to relocate during a range practice.

Popping smoke.

84mm Carl Gustov crews fire their weapons.

An 84mm Carl Gustov crew reloads.

A Private scans the range. Note customised camouflage on webbing.

Australian Light Armoured Vehicles wait for the order to move into position for the beginning of a range practice. An up-armoured Uni Mog can be seen on the range with soldiers erecting Figure 11 targets to the right.

Australian Light Armoured Vehicles wait for the order to move into position for the beginning of a range practice.

Combat Team Waler ASLAV.

Combat Team Waler - part of Overwatch Battle Group (West) 4, participate in a range day to allow troops to hone their skills in the application of fire control processes. Soldiers also practice the employment of Direct Fire Weapon Systems (DFWS) within a combined arms team.

Check this thread http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=16476 Post #83 has some WW1 type rate badges. Regards; Johnsy

In the unlikely event that you would need to scuttle a ship in the present, it would be a matter of flashing up the firemain booster pump and flooding simply by opening firemain outlets. An additional method to expedite flooding would be the use of plastic explosive (which all ships carry) to cut through the hull. Regards; Johnsy

I will in the short term have these mounted in properly with unit badges, patches and photos. I will then be able to display them without feeling embarrassed at my school-boy effort of framing medals. Regards; Johnsy

Dug these out of the attic today and thought I would share them with you blokes. These were framed about thirty years ago when I was lad, the top medals being to my Uncle Ken Johns and the bottom set to my Uncle Aubrey Rickard. There is an extra 39-45 Star that is original, but un-named. No-one could tell me who it belonged to, but it was in a cigarette tin with Ken's medals. Regards; Johnsy

Not as dreaded as the 'golden rivet'...

Note that I am only viewing this from my perspective that I gained at the time. Speaking from the perspective of someone who was there, yes it could have very nearly resulted in a conflict. It was a very tense situation during the opening days of the operation. Even got to the point that we, RAN personnel, went ashore and conducted armed patrols. I sudder to think what might have happened if we had a contact. If a battle had broken out I think it would have been a close-run thing, that is to say that the Aussies would have been hard pressed as they would have been up against numerical superiority. Having said that, Indon garrison troops tend to be poorly trained, ill disiplined, short on mobility and equipment. Add militia / irregulars into the mix and we would have had to kill them at a ratio of about 6 - 1 to break even. If so, why? It would have been a local push by the Indons, or an escalation of contacts that might have sparked a conflict locally. It would be very unlikely that it would last long, an example of this would be the border clash in the north-western region, as neither government wanted a full scale war. We were, and remain, trading partners. Money talks, you know the rest... 1966 we came close, they were firing the the F-111's for a bombing mission on Jakata.

Newest addition to the fleet, HMAS Maryborough.

The signals blokes would have been topside definately, the bugler would have probably been with them on the flag deck. I'm not sure about the stokers, it just depends on what parts of the ship were hit. They may have been closed up on the ships motor barge, or they may have been below in the hull. It would be rare that a shell would punch below the waterline, the impact with water would set off the fuze. Regards; Johnsy