The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
To the men of the 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment patrolling on active service in forward positions near the Sarawak-Kalimantan border of Borneo, air drops of supplies have become more than just a way of life. They have become a lifeline between them and their supply depot in Kuching. Carried out with great accuracy by members of the Royal Air Force, the drops are made about seven or eight times a month in Hastings or Valetta aircraft. Supplies from ammunition, barbed wire and bananas, are taken from the supply depot at Kuching Airport and loaded by forklifts on to the waiting aircraft. Each of the seven or eight loads a month weighs about 10,000lbs. As soon as the supply aircraft leave the aircraft, (RAF Javelin) jet fighters take off and provide escort for for the supply drop transports. Near the border dropping zone despatchers move the supplies to the aircraft door bays. Here, they are positioned and the parachutes attached. On the signal from the pilot, a flight sergeant gives the order to unload and it is supplies away. Dropping out into the slipstream of the aircraft, the parachutes attached to the supply loads open almost immediately. Below is the dropping zone and between the zone and Kuching are jungle, swamps and hills dotted by the occasional remote Dayak Kampong or hut. Before a complete load is dropped it is not unusual for the aircraft to make as many as 12 runs over the drop zone.
Australian troops on active service in Borneo are coming to grips with some of the toughest jungle country in South East Asia. Moving on foot and by helicopter the troops, members of 3rd Battalion, Th
Shows an air drop of six 500lb "compact loads" from a height of 300 feet. The Air Movements Training and Development Unit at RAAF Richmond, NSW, prepare the load and the Caribou crew carry out the sup
Regular and Citizen Military Force soldiers on a supply exercise on the NSW north coast are using a fishing trawler and a RAAF Dakota to simulate the Maintenance of a 3000 man battle group. The 5 day
Burma. 1943. Signal fires mark the drop zone for a C47 transport aircraft to parachute supplies to Major General Ord Wingate's Long Range Penetration Group, 200 miles behind the Japanese lines, east o
Regular Army and CMF soldiers have air-dropped more than 40,000 bales of hay to stock, stranded in flooded areas, west of Moree, since the beginning of last month. The soldiers involved in the operati
Coverage of the supply drop of medical supplies to the P&O ocean liner SS Chusan by No 37 Squadron RAAF C-130E Hercules transport aircraft A97-181. Shows medical supplies flown in by Iroquois helicop
