We’ve been making these for years, but with Remembrance Day looming and Christmas just around the corner, there seems to be a resurgence for them. The Battle School Credo, on the fence at the Battle School HQ in Tully QLD (now the Combat Training Centre-Jungle Training Wing) precision-framed in walnut and gold, with the hat badge of your choice.
The completed frame measures 600x550mm, ready to hang in your home, office, hall or shed. The quote is attributed to Brigadier George Mansford AO. Each of these frames is painstakingly hand-made and finished so please allow at least 3-4 weeks for design and creation plus a week to ten days for freight. Freight is generally between $35 and $65 on these items, depending on your location.
BRIG Mansford was appointed the CO of basically nothing. There were some old barracks and it had no power. A generator was used for electricity – the way he liked it. During his time as CO he was determined to establish a HQ in Townsville, which he was always promised but hadn’t received.
He invited the battalion commanders to lunch on a lawn outside one of the messes next to brigade HQ. “I put up a sign ‘Battle School HQ’,” he said. “The incumbent brigadier drove past and saw all his COs having lunch with me on a solid fuel stove and he got the message. I had a HQ that same afternoon.”
On his departure, BRIG Mansford presented the battle school with a plaque which read;
“The oath to serve your country did not include a contract for normal luxury and comforts enjoyed within our society. On the contrary, it implied hardships, loyalty and devotion to duty, regardless of your rank. This battle school is here to remind you of that oath.”
The same message is now on a sign strategically placed in front of the mess, one of the few comforts a soldier at the school has at Combat Training Centre, Jungle Training.
Since that time the quote has been adopted all over the Australian Army including Afghanistan and extended to various battle schools around the world. The Battle School has continued for over 30 years, with mainly the same facilities as the original school, to hone the jungle warfighting skills and abilities of our soldiers, and in the harshest of environments.
They’re here; http://ow.ly/LR1r305CuS8
