Battalion
A battalion is a military unit. The use of the term "battalion" varies by branch of service. A battalion consists of 300 to 800 soldiers and is divided into a number of companies. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel. In some countries, the word "battalion" is associated with the infantry; the term was first used in Italian as battaglione no than the 16th century. It derived from the Italian word for battaglia; the first use of battalion in English was in the 1580s, the first use to mean "part of a regiment" is from 1708. A battalion is the smallest military unit capable of "limited independent operations", meaning it includes an executive, staff with a support and services unit; the battalion must have a source of re-supply to enable it to sustain operations for more than a few days. This is because a battalion's complement of ammunition, expendable weapons, rations, lubricants, replacement parts and medical supplies consists of only what the battalion's soldiers and the battalion's vehicles can carry.
In addition to sufficient personnel and equipment to conduct operations, as well as a limited administrative and logistics capability, the commander's staff coordinates and plans operations. A battalion's subordinate companies and their platoons are dependent upon the battalion headquarters for command, control and intelligence, the battalion's service and support structure; the battalion is part of a brigade, or group, depending on the branch of service. A battalion's companies are of one type, although there are exceptions such as combined arms battalions in the U. S. Army. A battalion includes a headquarters company and some sort of combat service support, combined in a combat support company; the term battalion is used in the British Army Infantry and some corps including the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, intelligence corps. It was used in the Royal Engineers, was used in the now defunct Royal Army Ordnance Corps and Royal Pioneer Corps. Other corps use the term "regiment" instead.
An infantry battalion is numbered ordinarily within its regiment. It has a headquarters company, support company, three rifle companies; each company is commanded by a major, the officer commanding, with a captain or senior lieutenant as second-in-command. The HQ company contains signals, catering, administration, training and medical elements; the support company contains anti-tank, machine gun, mortar and reconnaissance platoons. Mechanised units have an attached light aid detachment of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers to perform field repairs on vehicles and equipment. A British battalion in theatre during World War II had around 845 men, whereas, as of 2012, a British battalion had around 650 soldiers. With successive rounds of cutbacks after the war, many infantry regiments were reduced to a single battalion. Important figures in a battalion headquarters include: Commanding officer Second-in-command Adjutant Quartermaster Quartermaster Medical officer Administrative officer Padre Operations officer Regimental sergeant major Regimental quartermaster sergeant Regimental quartermaster sergeant Battalions of other corps are given separate cardinal numbers within their corps.
A battle group consists of an infantry battalion or armoured regiment with sub-units detached from other military units acting under the command of the battalion commander. In the Canadian Forces, most battalions are reserve units of between 100–200 soldiers that include an operationally ready, field-deployable component of a half-company apiece; the nine regular force infantry battalions each contain three or four rifle companies and one or two support companies. Canadian battalions are commanded by lieutenant-colonels, though smaller reserve battalions may be commanded by majors; those regiments consisting of more than one battalion are: The Royal Canadian Regiment Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Royal 22e Régiment The Royal Newfoundland Regiment Tactically, the Canadian battalion forms the core of the infantry battle group, which includes various supporting elements such as armour, combat engineers and combat service support. An infantry battle group will be commanded by the commander of the core infantry battalion around which it is formed and can range in size from 300 to 1,500 or more soldiers, depending on the nature of the mission assigned.
In the Royal Netherlands Army, a mechanised infantry battalion consists of one command- and medical company, three mechanised infantry companies, one support company
Wireless telegraphy
Wireless telegraphy means transmission of telegraph signals by radio waves. Before about 1910 when radio became dominant, the term wireless telegraphy was used for various other experimental technologies for transmitting telegraph signals without wires, such as electromagnetic induction, ground conduction telegraph systems. Radiotelegraphy was the first means of radio communication, it continued to be the only type of radio transmission during the first three decades of radio, called the "wireless telegraphy era" up until World War I, when the development of amplitude modulation radiotelephony allowed sound to be transmitted by radio. In radiotelegraphy, information is transmitted by pulses of radio waves of two different lengths called "dots" and "dashes", which spell out text messages in Morse code. In a manual system, the sending operator taps on a switch called a telegraph key which turns the transmitter on and off, producing the pulses of radio waves. At the receiver the pulses are audible in the receiver's speaker as beeps, which are translated back to text by an operator who knows Morse code.
Radiotelegraphy was used for long distance person-to-person commercial and military text communication throughout the first half of the 20th century. It became a strategically important capability during the two world wars, since a nation without long distance radiotelegraph stations could be isolated from the rest of the world by an enemy cutting its submarine telegraph cables. Beginning about 1908, powerful transoceanic radiotelegraphy stations transmitted commercial telegram traffic between countries at rates up to 200 words per minute. Radiotelegraphy was transmitted by several different modulation methods during its history; the primitive spark gap transmitters used until 1920 transmitted damped waves, which had large bandwidth and tended to interfere with other transmissions. This type of emission was banned by 1930; the vacuum tube transmitters which came into use after 1920 transmitted code by pulses of unmodulated sinusoidal carrier wave called continuous waves, still used today. To make CW transmissions audible, the receiver requires a circuit called a beat frequency oscillator.
A third type of modulation, frequency shift keying was used by radioteletypes. Morse code radiotelegraphy was replaced by radioteletype networks in most high volume applications by World War 2. Today it is nearly obsolete, the only remaining users are the radio amateur community and some limited training by the military for emergency use. Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy called CW, ICW transmission, or on-off keying, designated by the International Telecommunication Union as emission type A1A, is a radio communication method in which the sending operator taps on a switch called a telegraph key, which turns the radio transmitter on and off, producing pulses of unmodulated carrier wave of different lengths called "dots" and "dashes", which encode characters of text in Morse code. At the receiving location the code is audible in the radio receiver's earphone or speaker as a sequence of buzzes or beeps, translated back to text by an operator who knows Morse code. Although this type of communication has been replaced since its introduction over 100 years ago by other means of communication it is still used by amateur radio operators as well as some military services.
A CW coastal station, KSM, still exists in California, run as a museum by volunteers, occasional contacts with ships are made. Radio beacons in the aviation service, but as "placeholders" for commercial ship-to-shore systems transmit Morse but at slow speeds; the US Federal Communications Commission issues a lifetime commercial Radiotelegraph Operator License. This requires passing a simple written test on regulations, a more complex written exam on technology, demonstrating Morse reception at 20 words per minute plain language and 16 wpm code groups. Wireless telegraphy is still used today by amateur radio hobbyists where it is referred to as radio telegraphy, continuous wave, or just CW. However, its knowledge is not required to obtain any class of amateur license. Continuous wave radiotelegraphy is regulated by the International Telecommunication Union as emission type A1A. Efforts to find a way to transmit telegraph signals without wires grew out of the success of electric telegraph networks, the first instant telecommunication systems.
Developed beginning in the 1830s, a telegraph line was a person-to-person text message system consisting of multiple telegraph offices linked by an overhead wire supported on telegraph poles. To send a message, an operator at one office would tap on a switch called a telegraph key, creating pulses of electric current which spelled out a message in Morse code; when the key was pressed, it would connect a battery to the telegraph line, sending current down the wire. At the receiving office the current pulses would operate a telegraph sounder, a device which would make a "click" sound when it received each pulse of current; the operator at the receiving station who knew Morse code would translate the clicking sounds to text and write down the message. The ground was used as the return path for current in the telegraph circuit, to avoid having to use a second overhead wire. By the 1860s, telegraph was the standard way to send most urgent commercial and milita
Palm Island, Queensland
Palm Island is an Aboriginal community located on Great Palm Island called by the Aboriginal name "Bwgcolman", an island on the Great Barrier Reef in North Queensland, Australia. The settlement is known by a variety of other names including "the Mission", Palm Island Settlement or Palm Community. Palm Island is termed a classic "tropical paradise" given its natural endowments, but it has had a troubled history since the European settlement of Australia. For much of the twentieth century it was used by the Queensland Government as a settlement for Aboriginals considered guilty of such infractions as being "disruptive", being pregnant to a white man or being born with "mixed blood"; the community created by this history has been beset by many problems and has been the discussion point of political and social commentators. Of significant sociological concern is a lack of jobs and housing. Since its creation as an Aboriginal reserve, Palm Island has been considered synonymous with Indigenous disadvantage and violence.
At the same time it has been at the forefront of political activism which has sought to improve the conditions and treatment of Australia's Indigenous peoples as well as redress injustices visited on them broadly as a race and on Palm Island specifically. In Manbarra beliefs the Palm Island group were formed in the Dreamtime from the broken up fragments of an ancestral spirit, Rainbow Serpent; the island was named by explorer James Cook in 1770 as he sailed up the eastern coast of Australia on his first voyage. It is estimated that the population of the island at the time of Cook's visit was about 200 Manbarra people. Cook sent some of his men to Palm Island and'they returned on board having met with nothing worth observing.'From the 1850s locals were recruitment targets to leave the island to be involved with bêche-de-mer and pearling enterprises with Europeans and Japanese. By the end of the 19th century the population had been reduced to about 50. In 1909 the Chief Protector of Aborigines visited the Island to check on the activities of Japanese pearling crews in the area, reported the existence of a small camp of Aborigines.
In 1916 Queensland's Chief Protector of Aborigines found Palm Island to be "the ideal place for a delightful holiday' and that its remoteness made it suitable for use as a penitentiary" for "individuals we desire to punish". In 1914 the Government established an Aboriginal settlement on the Hull River near Mission Beach on the Australian mainland. On 10 March 1918, the structures were never rebuilt. Subsequently, the settlement relocated to Palm Island with the new population referred to as the Bwgcolman people. In the first two decades of its establishment the population of Indigenous inmates increased from 200 to 1,630. People from at least 57 different language speaking regions throughout Queensland were relocated to Palm. By the early 1920s, Palm Island had become the largest of the Government Aboriginal settlements. Administrators found its location attractive as Aboriginal people could be isolated, but Palm Island gained a reputation amongst Aborigines as a penal settlement, they were removed from across Queensland as punishment.
New arrivals came after being sentenced by a court, or released from prison, or were sent by administrators of other missions wishing to weed out their more ill-mannered or disruptive Aboriginals. These removals to the Palm Island Mission continued until the late 1960s. On arrival, children were separated from their parents and segregated by gender. Aborigines were forbidden to speak their language and from going into "white" zones; every day activity was controlled by administrators including nightly curfews and the vetting of mail. In the 1930s a local doctor highlighted malnutrition on the island, demanded that the Government triple rations for the islanders and that children be provided with fruit juice, but the request was denied. A bell tower was built to dictate the running of the mission, it would ring each morning at eight. Those who failed to line up had their food allocation cut. At nine each evening the bell would ring again signalling the shutting down of the island's electricity; the bell tower still stands in the local square to a relic of Palm's history.
It was recorded at the time that there was military-like discipline in the segregation between white and black, that inmates "were treated as rather dull retarded children". In 1926 a hospital was built at nearby Fantome Island. In 1936 Fantome Island became a medical clearing station where people sent to Palm Island were examined and treated if necessary. A leprosarium was established on Fantome in 1939. After World War II the hospital was closed, by 1965 only the leprosarium remained on Fantome, it was administered by a Roman Catholic nursing order until 1973 when the inhabitants were moved to Palm Island; the administrators had complete and unaccountable control over the lives of residents, punishments included the shaving of the girls' heads. On a surprise inspection of the Palm Island Prison during an official visit in the late 1960s, Senator Jim Keeffe and academic Henry Reynolds discovered two 12- to 13‑year‑old schoolgirls incarcerated in the settlement's prison by the senior administrator on the island, because "they swore at the teacher".
The following letter was written to a new bride by the "Protector".
Australian Army
The Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of the Defence Force commands the ADF, the Army is commanded by the Chief of Army; the CA is therefore subordinate to the CDF, but is directly responsible to the Minister for Defence. Although Australian soldiers have been involved in a number of minor and major conflicts throughout its history, only in World War II has Australian territory come under direct attack. Formed in March 1901, with the amalgamation of the six separate colonial military forces, the history of the Australian Army can be divided into two periods: 1901–47, when limits were set on the size of the regular Army, the vast majority of peacetime soldiers were in reserve units of the Citizens Military Force, expeditionary forces were formed to serve overseas, Post-1947, when a standing peacetime regular infantry force was formed and the CMF began to decline in importance.
During its history the Australian Army has fought in a number of major wars, including: Second Boer War, First World War, the Second World War, Korean War, Malayan Emergency, Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, Vietnam War, more in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since 1947 the Australian Army has been involved in many peacekeeping operations under the auspices of the United Nations, however the non-United Nations sponsored Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai is a notable exception. Australia's largest peacekeeping deployment began in 1999 in East Timor, while other ongoing operations include peacekeeping on Bougainville, in the Sinai, in the Solomon Islands. Humanitarian relief after 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake in Aceh Province, Operation Sumatra Assist, ended on 24 March 2005; the 1st Division comprises a deployable headquarters, while 2nd Division under the command of Forces Command is the main home-defence formation, containing Army Reserve units. 2nd Division's headquarters only performs administrative functions.
The Australian Army has not deployed a divisional-sized formation since 1945 and does not expect to do so in the future. 1st Division carries out high-level training activities and deploys to command large-scale ground operations. It has few combat units permanently assigned to it, although it does command the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment as part of Australia's amphibious task group. Forces Command controls for administrative purposes all non-special-forces assets of the Australian Army, it is neither an a deployable command. 1 Brigade – Multi-role Combat Brigade based in Darwin and Adelaide. 3 Brigade – Multi-role Combat Brigade based in Townsville. 6 Brigade – Mixed brigade based in Sydney. 7 Brigade – Multi-role Combat Brigade based in Brisbane. 16 Aviation Brigade – Army Aviation brigade based in Enoggera, Brisbane. 17 Combat Service Support Brigade – Logistic brigade based in Sydney. 2nd Division administers the reserve forces from its headquarters located in Sydney. 4 Brigade – based in Victoria.
5 Brigade – based in New South Wales. 8 Brigade – training brigade with units around Australia 9 Brigade – based in South Australia and Tasmania. 11 Brigade – based in Queensland. 13 Brigade – based in Western Australia. Additionally, Forces Command includes the following training establishments: Army Recruit Training Centre at Kapooka, NSW. Special Operations Command comprises a command formation of equal status to the other commands in the ADF, it includes all of Army's special forces assets. Under a restructuring program known as Plan Beersheba announced in late 2011, the 1st, 3rd and 7th Brigades will be re-formed as combined-arms multi-role manoeuvre brigades with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment forming the core of a future amphibious force; the force will be known as the Amphibious Ready Element and will be embarked on the Navy's new Canberra-class amphibious assault ships. Infantry, some other combat units of the Australian Army carry flags called the Queen's Colour and the Regimental Colour, known as "the Colours".
Armoured units carry Standards and Guidons – flags smaller than Colours and traditionally carried by Cavalry, Light Horse and Mounted Infantry units. The 1st Armoured Regiment is the only unit in the Australian Army to carry a Standard, in the tradition of heavy armoured units. Artillery units' guns are considered to be their Colours, on parade are provided with the same respect. Non-combat units do not have Colours, as Colours are battle flags and so are only available to combat units; as a substitute, many have Banners. Units awarded battle honours have them emblazoned on their Colours and Guidons, they are a memorial to the fallen. Artillery do not have Battle Honours – their single Honour is "Ubique" which means "Everywhere" – although they can receive Honour Titles; the Army is the guardian of the National Flag and as such, unlike the Royal Australian Air Force, does not have a flag or Colours. The Army, has a banner, known as the Army Banner. To commemorate the centenary of the Army, the Governor General Sir William Deane, presented the Army with a new Banner at a parade in front of the Australian War Memorial on 10 March 2001.
The Banner was
Rabaul
Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, on the island of New Britain, in the country of Papua New Guinea. It lies about 60 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash of a volcanic eruption in its harbor. During the eruption, ash was sent thousands of metres into the air and the subsequent rain of ash caused 80% of the buildings in Rabaul to collapse. After the eruption the capital was moved to Kokopo, about 20 kilometres away. Rabaul is continually threatened by volcanic activity because it is on the edge of Rabaul caldera, a flooded caldera of a large pyroclastic shield. Rabaul was planned and built around the harbor area known as Simpsonhafen during the German New Guinea administration which controlled the region between 1884 and formally through 1919. From 1910 Rabaul was the headquarters of German New Guinea until captured by the British Empire during the early days of World War I.
It became the capital of the Australian mandated Territory of New Guinea until 1937 when it was first destroyed by a volcano. During World War II it was captured by Japan in 1942, became its main base of military and naval activity in the South Pacific. Settlements and military installations around the edge of the caldera are collectively called Rabaul, although the old town of Rabaul was reduced to practical insignificance by the volcanic eruption in 1937; as a tourist destination, Rabaul is popular for its volcanoes, scuba diving and for snorkeling sites, spectacular harbour and other scenery, World War II history and fauna, the cultural life of the Tolai people. Before the 1994 eruption, Rabaul was a popular commercial and recreational boating destination. Tourism is a major industry in East New Britain generally. Rabaul's proximity to its volcanoes has always been a source of concern. In 1878 before it was established as a town, an eruption formed a volcano in the harbour. For older eruptions, see Rabaul caldera.
In 1910 the German colonial government during the administration of Governor Albert Hahl moved offices, the district court, a hospital and customs and postal facilities from Herbertshöhe to Simpsonhafen. That settlement was thus enlarged with official buildings and housing and renamed Rabaul, meaning mangrove in Kuanua as the new town was built on a reclaimed mangrove swamp. At the outset of World War I, at the behest of Great Britain, Australia — as one of the Dominions of the British Empire — defeated the German military garrison in Rabaul and occupied the territory with the volunteer Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force. Following Germany's defeat at the end of the war, the occupied territory was delegated in 1920 to Australia as a League of Nations Mandate. Rabaul became the capital of the Territory of New Guinea. Visits to and stays in Rabaul during this period were amply described in books by many authors, including Margaret Mead. Gunantambu, the famous house of “Queen” Emma Forsayth and her husband, contained furniture owned by Robert Louis Stevenson and left to her family in Samoa.
Destroyed in the 1937 volcano eruption, its remains became a tourist attraction after World War II and remained so until the 1994 further volcanic destruction of Rabaul. "Rabaul volcano is one of the most active and most dangerous volcanoes in Papua New Guinea." Having erupted and destroyed Rabaul in 1937, five years before the occupation by Japan, "Rabaul exploded violently in 1994 and devastated the.... Since the young cone Tavurvur located inside the caldera has been the site of near persistent activity in form of strombolian to vulcanian ash eruptions; the caldera has an elliptical form and is surrounded by a steep volcanic ridge several hundred meters high."Under the Australian administration, Rabaul developed into a regional base. In 1937, catastrophic volcanic eruptions destroyed the town after the two volcanoes and Vulcan, exploded. 507 people were killed, there was widespread damage. Following this, the Australian administration for the Territory of New Guinea decided to move the territorial headquarters to the safer location of Lae.
All long-term steps to re-establish the territorial headquarters at Rabaul were forestalled during World War II. By the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. So, by December 1941, women and children were evacuated. In January 1942 Rabaul was bombed, on 23 January the Battle of Rabaul began and Rabaul was captured shortly thereafter by thousands of Japanese naval landing forces. During their occupation the Japanese developed Rabaul into a much more powerful base than the Australians had planned after the 1937 volcanic eruptions, with long term consequences for the town in the post-war period; the Japanese army dug many kilometres of tunnels as shelter from Allied air attacks, such as the bombing of Rabaul. They expanded the facilities by constructing army barracks and support structures. By 1943 there were about 110,000 Japanese troops based in Rabaul. On 18 April 1943, the United States executed Operation Vengeance, in which Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was shot down and killed by a United States P-38 Lightning over south Bougainville.
Yamamoto had taken off from Rabaul on an inspection tour, United States Navy cryptographers had intercepted and decrypted Japanese communications giving h
Australian Army during World War I
The Australian Army was the largest service in the Australian military during World War I. The First Australian Imperial Force was the Army's main expeditionary force and was formed from 15 August 1914 with an initial strength of 20,000 men, following Britain's declaration of war on Germany. Meanwhile, the separate, hastily raised 2,000-man Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, landed near Rabaul in German New Guinea on 11 September 1914 and obtained the surrender of the German garrison after ten days. In addition, small military forces based on the pre-war Permanent Forces and part-time Citizen Forces were maintained in Australia to defend the country from attack; the AIF consisted of one infantry division and one light horse brigade. The first contingent departed Australia by ship for Egypt on 1 November 1914, where it formed part of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps; the infantry division fought during the Gallipoli Campaign between April and December 1915, reinforced by a second division, raised, as well as three light horse brigades.
After being evacuated to Egypt the AIF was expanded to five infantry divisions, forming part of the I and II ANZAC Corps, which were committed to the fighting in France and Belgium along the Western Front in March 1916. Meanwhile, two mounted divisions remained in the Middle East to fight against Turkish forces in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Combined into the Australian Corps in 1917, the AIF divisions in France and Belgium were used to spearhead operations, playing a significant role in the defeat of the German Army in 1918. By the end of the war the AIF had gained a reputation as a effective military force. Following the armistice on 11 November 1918, a process of demobilisation began, with the last Australian personnel being repatriated in late 1919. In all, 416,809 Australians enlisted during 334,000 served overseas; the AIF sustained 210,000 casualties, of which 61,519 were killed or died of wounds, a casualty rate among the highest of any belligerent for the war. The Commonwealth of Australia was founded on 1 January 1901.
On 1 March, 29,010 colonial soldiers, consisting of 1,544 professional soldiers, 16,105 paid militia and 11,361 unpaid volunteers, were transferred to the new Australian Army. However, the units continued to be administered under the various colonial Acts. Major General Sir Edward Hutton, a former commander of the New South Wales Military Forces, was appointed as the first commander of the Commonwealth Forces, assuming command in early 1902 with Army Headquarters subsequently formed at Victoria Barracks in Melbourne; the Defence Act 1903 brought all of the state units under one piece of legislation. It stipulated that the force could only be maintained by voluntary enlistment and that it could not serve outside Australia. In this it established the pre-eminence of the Citizen Forces, ensuring that the Australian Army would consist of part-time militia and volunteer forces, which would be supported by a small permanent force limited to filling staff and garrison roles, it ensured that any force sent overseas could only be done so on a voluntary basis.
Yet despite significant reorganisations of the post-Federation Army in 1903 and 1906, the force-in-being was seen as dysfunctional and inadequate, suffering from perceived institutional problems regarding structure and administration, as well as limited financial resources, lack of modern equipment, poor training. In time this led the government to decide to adopt an new military system. In 1911, two significant changes followed a report by Lord Kitchener following his inspection of local forces in 1909; the Royal Military College, Duntroon was established to train staff officers, a system of universal national service began with boys aged 12 to 18 becoming cadets, men aged 18 to 26 serving in the Citizen Forces. These reforms were part of a process of raising a large civilian militia to defend the country against a feared attack by Japan; this force was based on conscription, was intended to be complete in 1920. The resources devoted to this plan exceeded those allocated to preparations to raise an expeditionary force to serve outside Australia.
In total, a peacetime force of around 80,000 citizen soldiers, with a wartime establishment of 135,000, was to be raised and would include 84 infantry battalions, 28 light horse regiments, 49 field batteries and seven howitzer batteries, 14 field engineer companies, seven communication companies, various support troops. This force was to be organised into brigades, with no divisional headquarters raised, although it was envisioned that up to six divisions could be formed if required; the infantry was planned to be organised into 21 brigades of four battalions each, while the light horse would form seven brigades. The field artillery would be organised into 14 brigades, while eight of the field batteries would be attached to the light horse brigades, the howitzer batteries would not be brigaded. A small permanent force of 3,200 men would operate in support; the new scheme entailed reorganisation of the military districts, with the 1st Military District based on Queensland, the 2nd on New South Wales, the 3rd on Victoria, the 4th on South Australia, the 5th
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