2nd Battalion 

Royal Victoria Regiment

"Pentropic"

 

by Major Neil Leckie

 

In the early 1950s Australian troops fought in the Korean War as part of the 27th Commonwealth Brigade, 1st Commonwealth Division. After Korea, as a part of ‘forward defence’, Australia maintained a battalion in Malaya as part of the 28th Commonwealth Brigade. Despite these continuing links with British forces, Australia decided to adopt a structure compatible with US forces.

 

In 1956 the US adopted the pentomic divisional structure. This consisted of five combined arms ‘battle groups’, which were relatively self-contained, and included combat support elements. Greater emphasis was placed on strategic mobility. The number of men in a division was reduced by almost 3000, at the expense of command and control and combat service support. The US considered that these changes would increase ‘foxhole strength’.

 

In 1956, Australian Army planners looked at two options for the reorganisation of the ARA field force:

Plan A: two brigade groups supplemented by national servicemen serving with the ARA for two years; and

Plan B: one brigade group (plus a battalion in Malaya) using ARA personnel only.

 

The CMF would retain a three division structure, with some units disbanded and strength reduced from 82,000 to 51,000. The NSTS would continue on a reduced scale, with 12,000 entries per year. Modern weapons and support items were needed. In September 1957 the minister for the Army, Mr John Cramer, announced a mobile regular brigade group, implementing Plan B. With the NSTS scaled down, 2000 ARA personnel were released for other duties.

 

A three year defence plan was announced on 26 November 1959, based on a new strategic assessment. It included abolition of the NSTS, a 35 percent increase in ARA strength, and a 50 percent increase in the volunteer strength of the CMF. Introduction of the Pentropic organisation was foreshadowed. On 22 March 1960 the Sydney Morning Herald reported the abolition of 30 CMF battalions and the closure of 54 of the 292 training depots, due in part to abolition of the NSTS (which finally ceased in June 1960). This effectively reduced the CMF from 50,000 to 20,000 men.

 

On 29 March Mr Cramer announced that Australian equipment and organisation would be along US lines. The Army was reorganised into two Pentropic divisions, each of five battle groups. Divisional strength was 14,000, compared with 13,000 for the tropical establishment (TE), or jungle, division. The Army planners did not know that in 1961 the US would scrap the pentomic organisation, and Australia would be the only country with a five sided structure. A US journal published on 17 June 1961 was the first notice of this change received by the government.

 

In the CMF, territorial battalions and regiments were replaced by state based regiments, the Royal Queensland Regiment (RQR), RNSWR, RVR, RSAR, Royal Western Australian Regiment (RWAR), and Royal Tasmania Regiment (RTR). The 10th Medium Regiment was also formed.

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The ARA formed two battle groups and the necessary combat and logistic units. The 1st Division consisted of the two ARA battle groups, 1 RAR at Holsworthy and 3 RAR at Enoggera, and three CMF battle groups, 1 RQR (HQ Brisbane), 2 RNSWR (HQ Sydney) and 3 RNSWR (HQ Sydney). The 2nd Division was converted to HQ Communication Zone, and the 3rd Division had five CMF battle groups, 2 RQR, 1 RVR, 2 RVR, 1 RSAR and 1 RWAR. An ARA TE battalion was maintained in Malaya, on a four company structure compatible with the British Commonwealth’s Far East Strategic Reserve (FESR). A further ARA TE battalion was raised as a rotation battalion.

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Both divisions had combat support groups, which were combat and support units that could be allotted to a division if required, while the communication zone included units to maintain the rear area of an operational zone. The CMF strength was set at 25,000 for 1960-61, and 30,000 for 1961-62. By June 1964 it was 27,500.

Claimed benefits of the Pentropic organisation were greater firepower, quicker dissemination of information (one fewer level of command) and greater flexibility. Problems encountered related to mobility, the wide span of command, inadequate communications, the limited range of artillery support and the negative attitude of personnel towards the organisation.

 

Within the infantry of a division, the five battle groups were each about one and a half times the strength of the old battalions, with over twice the firepower (80 sections rather than 36). A Pentropic division had 400 sections rather than the 324 under the old organisation. The battle groups theoretically had greater manoeuvrability, offensive capability and protection, while allowing for wastage. Each had five rifle companies of four rifle platoons and a weapons platoon. The support company had anti-tank, assault pioneer, mortar and signals platoons. Overall, however, the Pentropic division was not as effective in jungle warfare as had been hoped.

 

The former country Victoria battalions formed the five rifle companies of 2 RVR, which were named to retain their local identities. The HQ was formed in Melbourne from HQ 6th Brigade, located at Sandringham. The initial plan for 2 RVR was:

 

HQ and HQ Company          Sandringham;

Support Company                 Ballarat;

A Company                             Ballarat and Maryborough;

B Company                             Bendigo, Castlemaine and Kyneton;

C Company                             Mildura and Red Cliffs;

D Company                             Kerang and Swan Hill; and

E Company                             Geelong.

 

Within two weeks the 2 RVR organisation had changed to:

 

HQ and HQ Company:         Sandringham;

Support Company                 Ballarat (ex 8th/7th Battalion);

A Company                             Geelong (ex 23rd/21st Battalion);

B Company                             Ballarat and Maryborough (ex 8th/7th Battalion);

C Company                             Mildura and Red Cliffs (ex 8th/7th Battalion);

D Company                             Bendigo, Castlemaine, Kyneton and Kerang

(ex 38th Battalion); and

E Company                             Shepparton, Echuca and Cobram

(ex 59th Battalion).

 

The staff for the new battle group was drawn from the existing battalions and brigade HQ. Stuart McDonald, a former CO of the 8th/7th Battalion, commanded the 6th Brigade at that time, and became the first CO of 2 RVR.

 

Recruiting did not go as well as expected, and in 1961, D Company, in Bendigo, Castlemaine and Kyneton, transferred to the 6th Company RAASC. A new D Company was raised in Brighton. The Kerang, and Kyneton in 1962, depots were closed and A Company in Geelong transferred to the RAA in 1964. Support Company was relocated to the Brighton depot from Ballarat, with Administration Company (originally HQ Company) from Sandringham. Due to the new structure and staff changes, no camp was held by 2 RVR in the second half of the year.

 

In 1960, 2 RVR in Ballarat consisted of B Company (less 8 Platoon at Maryborough) and Support Company. After the reorganisation, WO 2 George Horwood was transferred from CSM D Company to CSM B Company. He was also a member of the battalion’s long range raiding party (LRRP), commanded by Captain Don (DB) Edwards. The first course was run in Geelong by an ARA officer, Major Welsh, who introduced himself by saying that he was a regular army officer, and he demanded the highest standard of military discipline. One of the participants was WO 2 Jim Smith, a British Army DCM recipient from the Second World War, and a warder at the Geelong Jail next door. On hearing this introduction, he said to Sergeant Wilkie ‘We’ll have to cut the **** down a peg or two!’ And they did!

 

On one occasion the LRRP members created a problem when they fired blanks and upset some stud cattle. On another night patrol one of the members lost his glasses in the dark. As he could not see without them, Horwood told the soldier to hang on to a nearby tree, and not move until the patrol returned, as there were deep ravines nearby, and they would look for the glasses in daylight. On arrival back at the location some eight hours later, they found the digger still holding onto the tree, located on flat, open countryside.

 

On 1 July 1961 Colonel Sydney (Spin) Buckler took command of the battalion, replacing McDonald, who was posted as aide de camp to the governor general in June. As the senior officer of a cut-off force of the 2/14th Battalion on the Kokoda Track, Buckler got some of his men back to safety after almost two weeks out of contact. He was the only one able to return to find the wounded who had been left behind. Unfortunately, the Japanese had murdered them. While serving in Korea as a battalion commander he earned the nickname ‘spin’ for charging his soldiers with misdemeanours and fining them a ‘spin’, or ₤5 ($10). The fine was sent home to the soldier’s mother.

 

In the 1950s he was CO of 14 NSTB. The hill behind the battalion lines at Puckapunyal was named Buckler Hill. It was decided that a commemorative cairn would be built on the hill to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Stones were carried up the hill by men of the battalion. The cairn was unveiled on Coronation Day, 2 June 1953, by Ballarat born Brigadier Charles Kappe, commanding the 1st Brigade, and his wife. Mount Kappe at Puckapunyal is named after him. Because of the shape of the cairn and the hill, it was affectionately known as ‘Tit’ Hill for years to come. In Lieutenant Colonel Darrell Strickland’s time as CO of 22 RVR (around 1969), after the battalion had moved into S Block at Puckapunyal, the 22 RVR assault pioneer platoon reconstructed the cairn.

 

Under Buckler, in September 1961 Support Company moved to Warrnambool, leaving in Ballarat only B Company, less a platoon in Maryborough. The battalion attended a 3rd Division camp at Eildon as a Pentropic company with the five companies (from Geelong, Ballarat, Mildura, Bendigo and Shepparton) each providing a platoon. The country was extremely hilly and rugged. Wilkie remembers being told that the division’s members consumed 30,000 dozen cans of beer during the exercise. During the camp, the CMF deputy CO was Lieutenant Colonel Alex Lochhead, MM, the ARA XO was Lieutenant Colonel Tim Wilson, and the RSM was WO 1 M. Dent. Lochhead’s MM was awarded for actions on the Kokoda Track with the 39th Battalion. He ended the war as a lieutenant in the 2/2nd Battalion.

 

In 1962 HQ and Administration Company moved to George Street, Fitzroy, while Support Company moved to Brighton. D Company, which was originally to be raised in Bendigo, was raised at Brighton. The problem of the title Bendigo Company was never resolved.

 

A composite B Company participated in the 2 RVR camp in 1962. It started with a 32 kilometre march-in to Mount Hickey. Weapons fired during the camp included the SLR (and the Energa grenade fired from it), Bren and Owen guns, and the rocket launcher, while the mortar platoon fired their mortars. A nine-day patrol school, run by Major Bullard, was held near Puckapunyal. At 0530 on the first day of the course the members found themselves marching towards the top of Mount Hickey (or Mount Tallarook). After a lunch break at Dabyminga Creek, and a chance to rest aching and blistered feet, they pushed on. The little jaunt over the top of Mount Hickey and down to Trawool was the precursor to later exercises named ‘Little Kokoda’. Buckler chose the name.

 

He also instituted a voluntary walk called ‘A message from Garcia’, from Mount Puckapunyal to Mount Hickey and back, a distance of almost 60 kilometres. Men walked in pairs, and Buckler, then almost 60, selected Wilkie to walk with him. Wilkie reported that the colonel was hanging on to his webbing and, although he was almost exhausted, he was basically pulling Buckler up the hills. The trek took 23 hours to complete.

In 1962, C Company also sent 67 members from Mildura to the other end of the state, for a 14 day camp at Cape Schanck, on the southern extremity of the Mornington Peninsula. The base camp was Fort Pearce, at Point Nepean. The camp consisted of a number of exercises, the first called Operation Coastline. This gave the troops training in locating tracks that could be used by a force landing on the peninsula and moving inland. Another exercise saw two of the company’s platoons pitted against each other during advance, attack, defence and withdrawal training in the thick scrub between Point Nepean and Cape Shanck. It was the first visit to the sea for some Mildura soldiers. Private Dixson’s photograph was used in the magazine Australia Post.

Lochhead had a senior position in a flour mill, and his peak work dates coincided with camp dates, so he could not attend. He was replaced by Strickland, who had served with both the 38th and 59th Battalions before the Pentropic system. He raised the second country Victorian battalion, 22 RVR, in 1966.

 

The 1963 Eildon camp was known as the ‘Wet Camp’. It was reported that 250 millimetres of rain fell in four days. Bill Whitfield was the company clerk for Major Brian Colbert’s B Company. Just before the camp he broke his leg. He shouldn’t have attended, but the OC considered him essential, and he came to camp with the two padres. Unfortunately, the wet meant that Bill’s crutches sank into the mud each time he left the company HQ tent. The sergeant cook, Arthur Hems, brought three meals a day to him. The roads were so muddy that Shepparton’s Captain Earl had to provide a half platoon of soldiers to pull the stores trucks up the hills with ropes, so supplies could be delivered.

 

The GOC of the 3rd Division at this time was Major General Roy Gordon, CBE. He wanted to replace all the infantry company commanders with ARA officers. Buckler objected, and at short notice was replaced in July by Colonel Geoffrey Swan. When Gordon ended his term at the 3rd Division in November 1963 the company commanders were still CMF officers, and remained that way.

 

Swan joined the CMF a couple of years before the Second World War. He was one of the early enlistees in a company raised at Lord Somers Camp for service in the Melbourne based 14th Battalion. He soon became an NCO, and was commissioned in August 1940. Two months later the 14th amalgamated with the 32nd Battalion to form the 14th/32nd Australian Infantry Battalion. Swan became adjutant of the new battalion, which fought in New Guinea and New Britain. Post war he served in the 6th Battalion, which he commanded from 1956 to 1960, when he was posted to the Command and Staff Training Unit (CSTU) until taking command of 2 RVR.

 

The following year, 1964, was known as the ‘Dry Camp’, where Whitfield and his mates learnt how to use knapsacks to fight bushfires. Fires almost burned through the exercise area. A track was bulldozed through the hills to save the HQ. The E Company members saved a hut full of explosives from burning, and stopped the fire at the camp.

 

The battalion set up camp and signal posts along the ridges, and four Army Sioux helicopters and two light aircraft were used during the exercise. The Melbourne Sun had an article showing the diverse range of backgrounds of the CMF soldiers. The photograph shows Don Dow, (born in France), Gerry Discher, (Germany), Czeslan Gryson, (Poland), Helmut Borner, (Germany), Ardi van Hammond, (Holland), Kek Gober, (Hungary) and Ralph van Beek, (Holland).

 

At a Ballarat Airfield camp in 1964, Hawkes commanded the recruit company. His 2 IC, Captain Frank Canning-Cheal, was not happy with the state of the recruits’ rooms. Hawkes harangued them about their rooms and then ordered the 40 or so recruits to ground arms on the road outside their huts and move into the huts to correct the problems. While they were in the huts, he heard a strange grinding sound on the road behind him. As he turned around, he heard the CSM, WO 2 Michael Symons, yelling to the driver of the hygiene vehicle to stop. The driver had driven over and damaged about 16 rifles. He claimed that he was blinded by the sun.

 

On 10 November 1964, Mr Menzies announced the reintroduction of selective national service. Under the scheme, 20 year old men had the option to serve in the CMF part-time for six years, or take the risk of their birthday being drawn out in a ballot, which meant two years full-time service in the Army. CMF service had to be effective, or national service would be required. As with the earlier scheme, this bolstered the numbers in CMF units.

 

In December the CGS, Lieutenant General Sir John Wilton, announced that cabinet had approved abandonment of the Pentropic structure. A triangular division similar to the TE division of the 1950s replaced it. Among the reasons for the change were that no-one else used the Pentropic system, the ARA needed to maintain two infantry structures, and it was unwieldy in jungle conditions.

 

One of the most significant factors in the elimination of the Pentropic division was that ‘it’s not the size of the battalion that counts: it’s the number’. Australia needed more deployable units. The new division organisation the consisted of three task forces each of three battalions, giving the division an extra four battalions.

 

The size of each battalion was reduced (to about 800), and an additional five ARA battalions (to nine) and six CMF battalions were raised. However, conscription was needed to provide the soldiers to increase the strength of the ARA from 20,000 to 40,000, and the CMF target was 35,000. National servicemen were required to serve anywhere in the world.

 

Plans to deploy RAF Victor, and later Vulcan, medium bombers to Darwin, the build up of troops in Malaysia, and ever-present rumblings from Indonesia were pointers to a threat from the north. The role of the CMF was to provide follow up units and formations to supplement ARA strength in an overseas theatre, and to provide a base for further expansion that the situation might demand, including home defence. Amendments to the Defence Act were made to allow use of the CMF and Reserves in circumstances short of war. CMF members were all volunteers and could deploy overseas.

 

Around this time the CO of 1 RVR, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Bacon, sketched a Regimental badge. It had a pair of crossed rifles, the letter V and the word Victoria under a crown. The design became the RVR Badge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22nd Battalion

The Royal Victoria Regiment

 

"The Bushmen's Rifles"

 

In 1964, the Federal Government of Australia introduced conscription to raise the strength of the Australian Army in order to prepare for Australia's possible defence commitments in South East Asia, particularly South Vietnam. Conscription would be by a ballot of birth dates drawn from a barrel and would be for two years. At the same time the Government decided to boost the strength of the Citizen Military Forces (CMF) by offering those men who were due to be balloted the option of six years of CMF Service if they enlisted in the CMF before the ballot.

 

In 1966, the Government ordered the Army to raise a "Special Conditions" CMF Battalion in each state to cater for those young men who could not parade with "normal" CMF units because of their home location or work situation but had "opted" for the CMF alternative. Many of these volunteers were Victorian farmers. The 22nd Battalion, The Royal Victoria Regiment, was the Victorian battalion that catered for Victorian and Tasmanian Special Conditions CMF soldiers or Optees.

 

HQ 22 RVR was eventually moved to the depot at Gipps Street, Richmond. Two 33-day camps were held each year in 1967 and 1968. With the help of staff from other units, it trained its own NCO's and became virtually self-sufficient. The Battalion was considered a country unit, as most of its members were from rural Victoria. In June 1975 22RVR was disbanded.