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Authors: Peter Fitzsimons
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you set up an ambush; how you reacted when ambushed; how you cleaned a .303 rifle; and how to operate and maintain Lewis and Vickers machine guns left over from the Great War. (The men would have liked to work with more modern guns, but there simply weren’t any available.) At a cost of great fatigue and terrible blisters, they came to understand what a ‘route march’ was, and how you could move overland in a straight line by the dead reckoning of a compass. They learnt to fire three-inch mortars, and how to dig trenches quickly to take shelter when the enemy were firing mortars and bullets at you. They also received rough instruction on how to stem the flow of a bloody wound, should the last lesson not have worked for everyone.
Most of their military manoeuvres were done out in open fields with a few sparse trees scattered here and there. At other times— and the men liked these best—it involved the troops being moved into different positions with trucks, with an official ‘umpire’ to decide who had won.
They spent time in what was called ‘the bull ring’, essentially an open-air spot where some straw dummies swung from a rope beneath a tree, and you had to practise slashing the bayonet into its gizzard, pulling the bayonet out and swinging the rifle butt into its face in two very quick movements. Speed was everything in this, it was explained to them. If ever it came to it, you had to kill the enemy soldier not only quicker than he could kill you, but so quickly that you would have time to kill the next one coming at you. It was a matter of life and death, both your own, and that of the enemy. Again and again and again, they went at the grisly business of it, most of the soldiers of the 39th at least quietly wondering how they’d go if ever they were ever obliged to stick those cruel bayonets into an actual person. How would they go, then ?
In the course of the early days of the formation of the 39th Battalion, many soldiers who were in the military for the first time were also learning something of the building blocks of the army structure, and the way this structure ideally worked. Each of them was a private, and it usually took ten privates to make up a section. The section was composed of four riflemen, two scouts (whose job it was to get themselves in forward positions and act as the eyes and ears), a machine gunner and his ‘number 2’, a second-in-command (2IC) called a lance corporal and the section commander, who was a corporal. Three sections made up a platoon, which was commanded by a lieutenant, with a sergeant as his second-in-command. Three platoons formed a company, under the command of a major, with a captain 2IC and company sergeant major—a warrant officer class 2. As well, each company would have its retinue of cooks, medics and the like.
Four companies, usually designated A, B, C and D, formed a battalion—although the militia, like the 39th Battalion, also had a machine-gun company called E company. And each battalion, incidentally, had its own colours which it was their job to—both metaphorically and physically—hoist high in the course of their actions. In the case of the 39th, the colours were a mélange of brown and red, which the men knew colloquially as ‘Mud Over Blood’. These were always visible as a patch on their lapels, as well as on the battalion flag, which was used for ceremonial occasions. And speaking of blood, if they were injured in the course of a battle they were to fall back to the RAP or Regimental Aid Post, for a preliminary assessment. But moving along…
Battalions were usually commanded by a lieutenant colonel, known as the CO or commanding officer, and his wider staff included a major as 2IC, and other officers with such responsibilities as intelligence, logistics, operations, mortars, medical services, signals and administration, while transport formed essentially the fifth ‘support’ company. Battalion HQ was an entity in its own right and the
Most of their military manoeuvres were done out in open fields with a few sparse trees scattered here and there. At other times— and the men liked these best—it involved the troops being moved into different positions with trucks, with an official ‘umpire’ to decide who had won.
They spent time in what was called ‘the bull ring’, essentially an open-air spot where some straw dummies swung from a rope beneath a tree, and you had to practise slashing the bayonet into its gizzard, pulling the bayonet out and swinging the rifle butt into its face in two very quick movements. Speed was everything in this, it was explained to them. If ever it came to it, you had to kill the enemy soldier not only quicker than he could kill you, but so quickly that you would have time to kill the next one coming at you. It was a matter of life and death, both your own, and that of the enemy. Again and again and again, they went at the grisly business of it, most of the soldiers of the 39th at least quietly wondering how they’d go if ever they were ever obliged to stick those cruel bayonets into an actual person. How would they go, then ?
In the course of the early days of the formation of the 39th Battalion, many soldiers who were in the military for the first time were also learning something of the building blocks of the army structure, and the way this structure ideally worked. Each of them was a private, and it usually took ten privates to make up a section. The section was composed of four riflemen, two scouts (whose job it was to get themselves in forward positions and act as the eyes and ears), a machine gunner and his ‘number 2’, a second-in-command (2IC) called a lance corporal and the section commander, who was a corporal. Three sections made up a platoon, which was commanded by a lieutenant, with a sergeant as his second-in-command. Three platoons formed a company, under the command of a major, with a captain 2IC and company sergeant major—a warrant officer class 2. As well, each company would have its retinue of cooks, medics and the like.
Four companies, usually designated A, B, C and D, formed a battalion—although the militia, like the 39th Battalion, also had a machine-gun company called E company. And each battalion, incidentally, had its own colours which it was their job to—both metaphorically and physically—hoist high in the course of their actions. In the case of the 39th, the colours were a mélange of brown and red, which the men knew colloquially as ‘Mud Over Blood’. These were always visible as a patch on their lapels, as well as on the battalion flag, which was used for ceremonial occasions. And speaking of blood, if they were injured in the course of a battle they were to fall back to the RAP or Regimental Aid Post, for a preliminary assessment. But moving along…
Battalions were usually commanded by a lieutenant colonel, known as the CO or commanding officer, and his wider staff included a major as 2IC, and other officers with such responsibilities as intelligence, logistics, operations, mortars, medical services, signals and administration, while transport formed essentially the fifth ‘support’ company. Battalion HQ was an entity in its own right and the
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