Tracks Magazine - August 1955
A couple of decades ago I was travelling through northern NSW and called in to see Archie McDonald, an old 1 Armoured Regiment LAD mate. Archie had kept his copy of the first issue of the Regiment's glossy magazine, Tracks — August 1955. It is this magazine that is re-produced below
Tracks Magazine
Index
Foreword Principles of Employment of Armour Tracks To Tradition Keep An Open Mind Review of Squadron Activities Regimental Headquarters Headquarters Squadron Reconnaissance Troop A Squadron Notes B Squadron Notes Nucleus Squadron Regimental Training Troop Light Aid Detachment, RAEME Signals Troop, RASigsIndex (cont)
Review of Allied Armour Tanks in The Jungle Korean Sidelights Equipments 1954 .. A Royal Occasion On Parade Elevating Gear Officers' Mess Notes Sergeants' Mess Notes In The Realm of Sport It Could be You The Adjutant's Dilemma While Others Sleep [et al] Beauchamps Own Epilogue Free Verse From A Free Thinker
preface
Lt.-Col. C. J. Miles, P s c R.A.A.C.,
Commanding Officer, First Australian Armoured Regiment.
The publication of this Journal is quite an important event in our Regimental history. The effort and the quality of the work that has gone into the production of this Journal reflects great credit on those concerned. To see this Journal in its final form is probably the best reward they could wish.
As a regiment we have a very difficult task to perform under circumstances that tend to make those difficulties even greater than at first glance they would appear to be. We are virtually the hinge pin of the Armoured Corps as a whole. We must be available for active service at short notice, we must train N.C.O.'s for the Armoured Corps, and we must train all recruits for the Armoured Corps; in addition, of course, we have a number of domestic commitments for Southern Command.
The manpower position in the Army is not good and you can readily see the effect of this situation by counting the men we have available within the Regiment to do a job of work. However our commitments remain unchanged; and I am afraid it is up to us all to roll up our sleeves and make as big an effort as possible to meet those commitments.
We have never in the past failed to carry out properly any task we have been given. I have no reason to believe that we shall fail now. The Regiment has much to be proud of in its past, but its future depends both on ourselves and upon circumstances that we cannot control. So let us strive to go forward to a future that, in later years, we shall be pleased, and proud, to call our past.