aussie

in reply to stalins organ:australian troops did not leave the north african campaign to take part in the far east fighting... one division did, the others remained and took part in the battle of el alemain, which as an example in time lining,, if you look at an historical calander will show you that the two campaigns were simulataneous. one mite smugly point out that they certainly stayed in north africa for some time longer then the axis forces opposed to them!!!!! i would not wish to "flame" as it is against both the rules here and my nature, but i do feel that when a person makes certain comments, be it from lack of historical educational advantage, or simply a rush of blood to the head, that such comment is in itself, "falammable"!! to clear up the matter about militia and conscriptiuon of aust. forces.: the militao forces stationed in png, yes, a sort of ares, were the firat to face the japanese forces there. later, concsrciptiuon was brought in on the basis of conscription to the militia only, whereby the current law was that militia units could only be "sent" to fight in australian territory,, which was taken at the time to mean only continental australia..... the labour gov, under john curtain, brought an interpretation into rule that considered png to be part of australias front line defence, after the abandoment of the "brisbane line" mentallity, and therefore men "conscripted " into the ",militia" could be and were sent to fight in png. therefore by default, yes conscripts were sent to fight for the first time in australian history. an interesting aside is the fierce regimental loyalty that militia units fostered, mostly from the volunteers,, and later the government sought to amalgamate militia units into the aif,,, fearing a loss of identity, this move was hotly opposed. lastly, on the subject of japanese supply problems, yes they were a tad overextended, due to interdiction of their main supply routes, mainly achieved by U.S naval and or amphibious operations , suppoorted by AUSTRALIAN destroyers, cruisers, fighter and bomber aircraft,, u dont just shoot an enemy out of position u know, starvation is one of mankinds oldest weapons, and not to be scoffed at,, as is the counter attacking of an overextended enemy.

another poi9nt to consider is that it doesnt happen like how a lot of you may have seen it on tv,... whereby an 81 mm mortar fires and hey presto! about 5 secs later the rounds start arriving on target.even a small calibre(comparitively) short range, weapon like an 81mm,can have its round airborne for up to 60 secs to get to target, and thats not at extreme range either, ive seen them in the air that long even when the target was within sight of the naked eye, and u could see the rounds detonating... yes see... did u realise that you can see a mortar round for the firsat few secs of its flight? its quiet interesting to watch,, up it goes,, then dissapears,, then there seems an eternity, then u see the explosion , and depending on distance u hear the sound a few secs later. also, the fact that u have an FO with you, doesnt mean u have it "on call",, its an option, and for the larger stuff, remeber its not your option, its at divisional level,, ur just the poor sucker out there trying to winkle the other poor guy out of his position, the battle is being decided at that level higher up, and if they decide u get arty sup, ok, if they decdide, theyd rather splinter aircraft seen to be landing by an observation post manned by sas, thats their choice too. that does however support the arguement for varied delay,,, but then ude have to deal with the annoying problem of a refusal.... and yes, atmiosphere and gun barrel wear does affect shell flight,,,, have u ever heard of a drop short!! CHECK YOUR FIRE, I SAY AGAIN, CHECK YOUR FIRE OUT!

i have read most of the replies and would like to also add my two cents worth. firstly let me start by saying i am a former australian army corporaland though therefore not trained in tactics above platoon level, i do have an inkling of them. 81 mm mortars are chaper yes and quicker in response-- let us remeber that a lot of the battles are small unit tactics and involve mainly platoons or companys operating from a platoon based enviroment.... the 81 mm mortar is known as the infantries artillery and therefore would be normally all you could expect to have at your disposal organically. at a pre mission breifing, if you were taking part in say a; fighting patrol, recon, advance to contact, rearguard, or defence, you would be advised there and then if you had artillery support... other then your 81's......... however remember, that thousands of companys and evn bttns would be receiving similiar breifings and all being told if they had arty sup.it is not yours, it is operated at a minimum in the battalion level, and wen a request is nade it would be prioritised, and remeber there would be, in a ww2 campaign literally thousands of of requests coming in for such support,, who needs it most, and where it can be most effective is up to the powers that be. obviously in a planning stage for an attack or defence where it was advised by or known to intelligence that there would be targets that required or were suitablre for arty fire, they would be earmarked to your op one cannot print here what would prob be said to an fo whio called in .. mmg in woods , 2 rounds smoke,... i doubt that he'd get the "fire for effect order. its horses for courses, squad or section commanders dont normally give the order"bayonets--fix" when aircraft are armour is spotted.