The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
The 2/2nd Independent Company was commanded by two quite different men; Major Allan Spence and Major Bernard Callinan. Both were successful; Spence in training, deploying and originally fighting the Company; Callinan in continuing the fight under adverse conditions. The aim of the accompanying oral history is to examine the leadership qualities of Spence and Callinan and to discuss command issues perculiar to the Independent Company in order to draw lessons applicable to training today's leaders for tommorrow's conflicts. Both Spence and Callinan were served by a fiercely loyal and capable subordinate, Captain Rolf Baldwin. He is the interlocutor for this study. Prior to the war Baldwin had been a Master at Melbourne Grammar. An experienced militia officer, he was not released from his reserve occupation until 1941. Upon enlistment at the relatively senior age of 30, he went directly to new commando stlye training centre at Wilson's Promontory. At the Promontory a cadre of British officers trained Australian's in what is today known as special forces techniques. Graduates of this tough school were then formed into independent companies and after a period of collective training were ready for operational employment. It was at Wilson's Promontory that Spence, Callinan and Baldwin became acquainted. Spence was appointed the first Commanding Officer of the 2/2nd Independent Company, Callinan was his second-in-command and Baldwin commanded "A" Platoon. This relationship was to continue on arrival at Timor. When Spence assumed command of Sparrow Force, Callinan assumed command of the Independent Company and Baldwin became the second-in-command.
This oral history focuses on the training Lieutenant Colonel O'Dowd underwent when he enlisted in 1939 and examines aspects of training during his career. The subjects of the battlefield stress and le
Within the scope of the Elective Studies Program students at Command and Staff College were able to complete an Oral History. The study sponsored by Training Command was to be a topic relevant to thei
The video "Training to survive in war" is part of an oral history project conducted at the Command and Staff College and complements an Army-wide campaign to improve the study of military history. The
This oral history is part of a Training Command initiative to interview selected personnel and to draw on their operational experiences for training purposes. The Training Command emphasis is on train
Damien Parer's forward: "This film of the Timor Force [i.e Sparrow Force, 2/2 Independent Company, AIF] is dedicated to those many guerilla bands now fighting in so many parts of the world - who are w
This video is an oral history on the topic of "Confusion at the face of battle". It draws upon the command experiences from World War II and the Korean conflict of Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Daly,