PNGVR annual camp at Lae DPR/TV/438

During August and September this year, the Papua New Guinea Volunteers went into camp near Lae for their annual 14 days of training. The unit the Territory's C.M.F. force was formed in 1951 and is made up of Australians, Papuans, New Guineans, Chinese and people of mixed-race. This year about 500 men from subunits in the main Territory centres - Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Rabual, Wewak, Goroka and Mount Hagen - attended the Camp. They were flown into Lae in Civil airlines and RAAF Caribou Transports. The camp was held on the site of a wartime B.O.D. on the banks of the Bumbu River, close to the Finisterrre Ranges. During the first part of the camp, the troops brushed up on field craft and minor tactics, carried out range shoots with the self loading rifle (SLR), the 3.5 rocket launcher, the O.M.C. (Owen Machine Carbine). and threw grenades. As a special project, the assault pioneers rebuilt a suspension foot-bridge 170 ft long across the Bumbu River. The bridge which gives acess to a Boy Scout camp, was washed away recently in a flash flood. The unit also received its first visit from the Commander P.N.G. Command, Brigadier J.M. Hunter, who arrived in the Territory earlier this year and also from the PNGVR's new Honorary Colonel, Colonel R.R. Cole M.C. who is Commissioner of Police in Papua New Guinea. The culmination of the camp came in a three day counter-insurgency exercise involving the whole battalion. The part of the enemy was played by A Company from Lae whose members know the area well and proved difficult to catch.