Talk:2/5th Commando Squadron (Australia)

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BetacommandBot (talk) 13:12, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Article name

I've never seen these units called the '2/xth Independent Company of Commandos'. They were given a variety of names, but this doesn't seem to have been one of them. According to WP:NAME the name of articles should be the most common name for the topic of the article. Nick Dowling (talk) 11:05, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

I think that there is currently a review of the names of these units underway. --Newm30 is working on this, I believe.AustralianRupert (talk) 03:20, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Reply

Hello Nick Dowling. There were several 2/x units, all well documented. The confusion arises because they were regrouped after the New Guinea campaign and re-named "Cavalry Commando". The history is very well told in several books written by members of some of the units, the one that I have is "Commando, Double Black" (ISBN 0 646 15367 6, Australian <Military History Publications) by Andy Pirie who was in the 2/5th Independent Commando Company with my Uncle Sgt Alfred Sherman (who was the Radio operator). Pirie lists the members of the 2/5th ICC and the successor 2/5th Cavalry Commando Squadron. He also lists the decorations on page ix. There were 4 MM's, 1 DCM, 4 MID's, 1 MBE and 1 USA Bronze star. I have spoken on numerous occasions to Alfred (deceased) and also to Sgt (later Brigadier General) Malcolm Bishop (deceased) and Andy Pirie who have given me insight into their experiences. Clearly, these bits of heresay cannot be put into a Wikipedia main article, but Alfred Sherman did say that the 2/5th was posted as "Missing, presumed KIA" for a few weeks when they disappeared into the jungle with the help of superbly brave natives and escaped to Port Moresby. The interesting thing was why the Natives hated the Japanese. It was true that many tribes had a close association with Australian "District Patrol Officers" prior to WW2, but that did not prevent the fierce tribes from warlike activities against each other and incidents against the DPO's from time to time. The problem was that the Japanese stole their pigs, and the number of pigs that a man had (especially the chiefs) was the supreme measure of his importance. When pigs were stolen (the Japanese were always short of supplies), it was open season on the Japanese in retribution. The Aussies were also short of everything, but because of their long association with the N.G. tribes, they knew better than to steal the pigs! Mal. Bishop MM told me that occasionally they would tell a particularly fierce chief that a small party of Japanese were out to take pigs. Sometimes this was true, sometime mischievous. No matter, the Japanese were terrified of the natives in the jungle at night, since they could come and go in stealth using hidden tracks, attack silently with arrows and knives, leaving dead Japanese behind as a warning. Historygypsy (talk) 20:18, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Information regarding decorations

I have just conducted a copy edit of this page and found that the information regarding decorations was contained within the text of the article but due to some strange editing did not actually appear in the html version. I have moved it around so that it now appears, however, I must question some of the information as I couldn't find the information regarding the decorations received by members of this unit on the AWM unit information site. This is not to say it is wrong, as I checked most of the awards listed on the Honours and Awards section of the AWM and found them listed (when searching by surname), however, this list may not be comprehensive (i.e. there could be other awards that are not listed). The list includes two William O'Niells though, and I could only confirm the DCM not the MM. Also I was unable to confirm the award to R.C.McLaughlin using the search engine (there were no R.C McLaughlins listed as receiving any awards). In this regard, if you have any of the official histories please check the information provided and add the necessary citations. Cheers.AustralianRupert (talk) 03:20, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

I think I'm responsible for the "strange editing" that resulted in that information not appearing in the actual article. It existed before I came along and since I was unable to find a source for it, I simply commented it out. I think I intended to remove it entirely at one point but forgot about it. Lawrence, M.J. (talk) 03:52, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Reply

The medals are listed in Andy Pirie's book "Commando, Double Black" (vide supra). The MM was awarded to the late Sgt (later Brigadier General) Malcolm Bishop. Historygypsy (talk) 02:10, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Hi, Historygypsy. It would be great to add some citations to this article that source information from Pirie's book (albeit rewritten so that it does not breach copyright, of course). I don't have access to the book at the moment, but if you do and you want to expand the article, please feel free. Cheers, AustralianRupert (talk) 03:42, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Article requires expansion

I believe that this article requires expansion. It is currently listed as a B Class article, although I do not think that it meets this standard yet. It requires more citations for that, surely, and there is a distinct lack of information regarding the actions that the unit fought in. I am unable to improve much more given that I do not possess any of the source materials listed. If anyone has them, please feel free to improve the article by adding some more info. Cheers.AustralianRupert (talk) 04:06, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Dead link

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

• http://au.geocities.com/thefortysecondinww2/level1/line1/salamaua.htm
  • In 2/5th Commando Squadron (Australia) on 2011-05-25 06:56:24, 410 Gone
  • In 2/5th Commando Squadron (Australia) on 2011-06-10 04:51:17, 410 Gone

--JeffGBot (talk) 04:51, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Dead link 2

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

• http://www.pngvr.com/history_ngvr.html
  • In 2/5th Commando Squadron (Australia) on 2011-05-25 06:56:24, 404 Not Found
  • In 2/5th Commando Squadron (Australia) on 2011-06-10 04:51:39, 404 Not Found

--JeffGBot (talk) 04:52, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Dead link 3

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

• http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/ajrp/remember.nsf/pages/NT00002D7E?openDocument
  • In 2/5th Commando Squadron (Australia) on 2011-05-25 06:56:24, 404 Not Found
  • In 2/5th Commando Squadron (Australia) on 2011-06-10 04:52:02, 404 Not Found

--JeffGBot (talk) 04:52, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

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NOTICE RIP Andy Pirie 28.02.2013 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.181.23.168 (talk) 13:10, 8 March 2013 (UTC)