The ANZACs in T2k

[Legbreaker]

https://youtu.be/ppIRy9Aj5WM

Conditions haven't changed much since then. Helicopters and a few more rough air strips make travel a little easier, but as fuel and spare parts run out (as happens in the rest of the T2K world)...

[Raellus]

Australian Army At War, 1976-2016

Just thumbed through my copy of Osprey's Men-at-Arms series, Australian Army At War, 1976-2016 and my first impression is quite favorable. Its text covers various peace-keeping deployments and Australia's contributions to the ongoing 'War on Terror'.

From a photo caption, I learned that an under-barrel grenade launcher for the F88 wasn't procured until the early 2000s, so Digger grenadiers deployed to East Timor were equipped with M79 GLs.

Anyway, if you have any interest in the modern Australian army, I recommend that you pick up a copy straightaway.

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[Legbreaker]

Written with the help of the defence media unit I'm guessing
My research to date has shown the Australian military was in a shocking state through the 70's and 80's and IRL only started to turn around in the mid 90's.

The M203 was in service but only in regular army infantry units prior to the introduction of the F88. As the regular units received the new rifle, they handed the M16/M203's over to reserve units, and the regs pulled M79's out of storage.
Personally, having used both, I prefer the 203 to carry, but the 79 to fire. I could drop a grenade through a small window at 300+ metres with the 79, but be lucky to hit the same grid square with the 203.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

There were some Reserve units with M203s but they weren't Infantry.
10th Light Horse in Western Australia had 203s before the introduction of the F88, I don't know when they took them on strength but I saw them myself during the 80s and early 90s.
It was a source of annoyance because those of us in Infantry units in WA couldn't get them for love nor money but 10 little ponies had 'em!**





** To be fair, 10LH was not a large unit, they were a single Armoured Recce Squadron and typically understrength. So it's not like they had dozens of them, I'd take a rough guess that they probably never had more than about a dozen 203s in total.
Still... they had them, we didn't - of course we were envious!

As for 203 versus 79, my accuracy was "okay" with the 203, I could generally get rounds on target but I was never as quick with it as I was with the 79.

[Legbreaker]

There were some Reserve units with M203s but they weren't Infantry.

Well, I was in one of those infantry reserve units with M203's. I think they were 1RAR's (could have been 2) and we got all their M16's and M203's when they converted to the F88.
A couple of years later and we got the F88 but kept the M16's and 203's. Don't know what happened much after that as I went Reg about 3 months later.

[Legbreaker]

I've decided I'm going to drop some nukes on Indonesia around October-November 1997. As the fourth largest oil producer on the planet, and located on a very important shipping route, it just makes sense to deny those resources from the "enemy".
Don't think I'll state who actually did it though - just leave it up in the air. There's a case to be made for either side actually. The US could do it in order to help out the Anzac forces slow the Indonesian advance, and given I've decided Indonesia has also turned communist again in the T2K universe...
On the other hand, the Soviets could have done is as traditionally much of Indonesian oil and mineral exports has gone to the US. It's not like the Soviets will be able to take advantage of the resources themselves either given there's a LOT of hostile ground and forces in between the two areas.

Sound reasonable

[Olefin]

Given the fact that the Soviets attacked refineries throughout France, South and Central America and Africa and the US hit ones supporting the Soviets then it would make sense that at least some of the big refineries would be hit if not all of them

The question with the nukes would be are they purely going after oil refineries - ie. oil denial - or are they supporting Australia and going after naval bases and air bases as well

[Legbreaker]

Indonesia doesn't have a lot of refining capacity - they export crude for the most part, with a sizeable percentage going to the US for refining.

As for the rest, I don't want to go into too much detail. Indonesia and it's immediate neighbours really deserves their own book! Essentially I'm still looking for reasons for the Indos to invade PNG and how to prevent them simply rolling over the defenders (which they outnumber about 10 to 1).

[Olefin]

well then a perfect target would be the export terminals - in the East Africa book the Soviets destroyed the Nigerian oil terminals to prevent them exporting oil - similar thing could happen to Indonesia

as to why they go to war - the Indonesians arent looking for total war - they think the Australians will just roll over and allow Papua to be taken - and they find out its not that simple - and they dont have the ability to project enough power to make the 10 to 1 advantage really mean anything - especially since they are dealing with the after effects of the nuke attacks on them - and you could easily have the other half of New Guinea rise against the Indonesians as well -that would keep them very busy indeed and prevent them bringing their full power to bear

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Well, I was in one of those infantry reserve units with M203's. I think they were 1RAR's (could have been 2) and we got all their M16's and M203's when they converted to the F88.
A couple of years later and we got the F88 but kept the M16's and 203's. Don't know what happened much after that as I went Reg about 3 months later.

Sorry, I probably wasn't clear enough. Specifically, there were some non-Infantry Reserve units that had the M16/M203 before the F88 was in service.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

well then a perfect target would be the export terminals - in the East Africa book the Soviets destroyed the Nigerian oil terminals to prevent them exporting oil - similar thing could happen to Indonesia

as to why they go to war - the Indonesians arent looking for total war - they think the Australians will just roll over and allow Papua to be taken - and they find out its not that simple - and they dont have the ability to project enough power to make the 10 to 1 advantage really mean anything - especially since they are dealing with the after effects of the nuke attacks on them - and you could easily have the other half of New Guinea rise against the Indonesians as well -that would keep them very busy indeed and prevent them bringing their full power to bear

It's worth remembering too that Indonesia is a nation of islands, they need airports and seaports (they have been particularly reliant on seaports for most of their foreign trade throughout history). For any military action they'll need those ports, so putting them out of action would be important to restrict their ability to fight. That is to say, I don't think you need to have the oil terminals as the sole reason to drop some bombs on them (even a few nukes).

[Legbreaker]

The exactly location of the strikes I think I'll leave vague and just say they took out their production and transport capacity. A future Indonesian/SE Asia book, or individual GMs can go into more depth later if needed.

[Olefin]

One way to cause the Indonesians a lot of issues would be having Australian and perhaps US Special Forces assist the West Papuans in their guerrilla war against Indonesia - even to a full scale uprising - pretty hard to put your full war effort against Australia if your ports and base areas and transport network are under full scale guerrilla attack

"Why arent you attacking" "Sir, the guerrillas just ambushed our fuel convoy and we have no fuel at all"

Or a variation on the movie The Patriot - having the Indonesian general look out the window of the officers club as the two ships bringing in his supplies get blown up by West Papuan guerrillas "helped" by Australian commandos

[Legbreaker]

Given the state of the PNG military forces in the 1990's, that little raiding party would probably have consisted of about 95% Australians....

[StainlessSteelCynic]

There's also a good possibility that the British may send special operations troops to assist Australia in PNG considering that the south eastern region had been a British colonial possession since 1884 plus the fact that since 1975 PNG has been part of the (British) Commonwealth of Nations.