Artillery men return DPR/TV/296

Gunners of the 102nd Field Battery, Royal Australian Artillery, returned to Australia today (October 20) after a routine two year tour of duty in Malaysia. Here a section of the Battery at a patrol base a few thousand yards from the Sarawak-Kalimantan border take post to give artillery support to a patrol which was withdrawing after ambushing a large party of Indonesians. Ammunition is passed from an underground magazine to the 105mm pack howitzer gun pit and the crew goes into action. After the engagment unused rounds are returned to the magazine, the barrel is cooled and the pack howitzer stripped for cleaning. This was the last engagement by members of 102 Field Battery before they left Borneo after a 3 month tour of duty. In Borneo the 130 strong Battery supported Security Force units along the border. The gunners returned to Malaya in August. In Australia they will be based at Holsworthy, New South Wales. At a staging point accessible by road between Kuching and the Sarawak-Kalimantan border, British Artillerymen who replaced members of the Australian battery along the border, prepare one of their pack howitzers for airlifting by helicopter. Slung under a Royal Air Force Belvedere helicopter, the pack howitzer is carried to the patrol base. A few minutes later the helicopter returns from the base with an Australian gun and lowers it gently to the ground. Another helicopter lands with a section of Australian gunners, their equipment and stores. The guns are manhandled into position, backed by landrover onto a truck and secured, completing the first stage of the battery's move from Borneo back to Malaya. During their two year tour, members of the battery were engage in operations against Indonesian infiltrators in Malaya and the Malay-Thai border in addition to their three month tour in Borneo.