Sydney’s arty gets defensive
Volume 11, No. 52, September 21, 2006

Hard wired: Gnr Joel Holgeson leads a wiring party during Exercise Ypres. Photo by Bill Cunneen

SYDNEY’S Reserve artillerymen have practised the finer points of laying Fire Support Base (FSB) defensive positions during a week-long exercise at Singleton.

Sixty members of 7 Fd Regt deployed with their L119 105mm Hamel guns at the end of July to the field firing range at SME for Exercise Ypres, which CO Lt-Col Craig Taggart said provided an excellent opportunity to expand on training concepts.

“What we’re trying to do is stretch everybody’s imagination and to take the training level to the next step in skills,” he said.

He said the regiment had gone back to basics on individual soldier and small team training up to detachment level, before moving on to more complex training that he said was difficult to achieve on weekends, such as laying defensive positions.

With a gun situated in the FSB, a second gun was deployed in a pistol position which the regiment live-fired while it prepared its main position, the FSB. All guns were then brought into the FSB, which were live-fired at the culmination of the exercise.

Lt-Col Taggart said the exercise had been a success and that with its regimental headquarters located in Pymble, and with batteries in Dee Why and Newcastle, it had provided 7 Fd Regt members with both valuable training and unit cohesion.