GOC inspects LARCs at Wanda DPR/TV/1445

Ever tried riding a five ton vehicle through rough surf? Soldiers from Randwick-based 42nd Amphibious Platoon, Royal Australian Service Corps, hope to do just that at Wanda Beach, beginning on September 20. The soldiers and their four wheeled LARCs, five ton cargo-carrying amphibians, will undergo three weeks rough water training at the beach. The training is to prepare men and vehicles for their trip to the Antarctic in December to ferry supplies from ship to shore for the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition. More than 90 soldiers of 42nd Platoon have made the Polar resupply journey since 1948. The trips are made at the request of the Department of Supply's Antarctic Division. Four LARCs and a party of 10, including two mechanics, will supply bases at Macquarie Island, Mawson, Davis and Casey. The bases are manned by Australian scientists, geologists, biologists, physicists, glaciologists and meteorologists. The LARCs make the month-long trip to the bases on two Danish ice-breakers Nella Dan and Thalla Dan. They arrive during the Southern summer when normally ice-bound waters have thawed sufficiently to allow passage. The task is far from easy. Temperatures during the period range from 10 to 30 degrees fahrenheit with blizzards often bringing sub-zero freeze-ups. If ice packs solidify, 42nd Platoon soldiers could find themselves 12 months absent without leave. The LARCs normally operate from about a mile off shore, but if ice flows are bad, they face longer strips. Crews work about 18 hours a day unloading tractors, livestock, prefabricated houses, building materials, personnel, food, fuel and scientific instruments. Each base takes about five days to stock. During the unloading period, LARCs are in the water about 600 hours. Macquarie Island is the most hazardous trip. Crews must negotiate a 35 ft gap in the island's reef, run the gauntlet of a raging surf and face wind gusts above 80 knots. The soldier-sailors, known as operators, have earned the nick-name "Webfoots" for the trips and recently designed a unit emblem showing a penguin. All are qualified Army vehicle drivers and spend six weeks learning to handle the 35 ft craft. Once selected for the expedition, soldiers attend a week of lectures, films and study groups at the Antarctic Division in Melbourne. Training finishes with the rough water warm-up at Wanda. Officer Commanding 42nd Platoon is Captain Grahame Loadsman, 26, of Bream Street, Randwick, a former National Service officer now serving in the Regular Army. The soldiers will return from the Antarctic in mid-March. Also identified: GOC Colonel I. Hayman, CRAASC; GOC Eastern Command Major General Ken Mackay.