The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Fifty young National Servicemen are carrying out jungle training in New Guinea as part of Army 'Exercise Sprinkler Two'. They are getting some of their most valuable training since they joined the Army. Mountain tracks are hard to climb in the mountainous Maprik area, 60 miles from Wewak on the north side of Papua New Guinea where the exercise is being carried out and many of the men realised for the first time what conditions their fathers and uncles had faced during World War Two. The soldiers were not pressed too hard in case of heat exhaustion and progress was slow. Even so they covered nine miles of heartbreaking country in the first day. Then it was time for a rest and meal. Combined with the military aspects of the exercise the soldiers are taking part in a new role for most of them acting as ambassadors to the native village people with whom they come in contact during the eight day patrol. Before dawn of the second day they were on the move again stopping beside a mountain stream to wash and shave. From then on each mountain became a major obstacle. Not experienced bush walkers let alone mountaineers the young soldiers often needed a helping hand. But as the day wore on they found themselves becoming more acclimatised and able to move faster. The razorbacks of New Guinea were a new experience to the National Servicemen but 'Exercise Sprinkler Two' is the sort of tough training that makes real soldiers. It will stand by them when they return to 5th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment Headquarters at Holsworthy New South Wales.
The Administrator of the Territory of Papua-New Guinea and Honoary Colonel of the Pacific Islands Regiment, Brig. Sir Donald Mackinnon Cleland, Cbe., visited the 2nd Battalion, P.I.R. at Wewak and Van
The showground at Lae, New Guinea, has become the base of the 3rd Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment, which is currently on exercise in the jungles of Papua-New Guinea. Equipment and rations are p
Australian troops have embarked on the troop carrier HMAS Sydney in Wewak Harbour, New Guinea. They were completing the final phase of Exercise 'Sprinkler Two' which began on November 13. They are n
Six hundred and fifty National Servicemen from Queensland and New South Wales yesterday marched out of Kapooka, NSW, after ten weeks of basic military training. About 600 parents and friends attended
Soldiers of the 5th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment, based near Sydney, march through Auckland, New Zealand, today to wind up a ten-day visit for a combined exercise with the New Zealand Army
This was typical of scenes throughout Australia last Wednesday when two thousand 20 year olds reported to Army depots to commence their National Service training. It was the start of the second intak
