Plan Beersheba sends brotherhoods in varied directions

ON November 23, 1948, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment were formed from wartime units.

Then with BCOF in Japan, in the coming decades they would serve in multiple campaigns, though not always together.

They have since lived through multiple identities as the regiment was divided to spawn new battalions, then combined and later separated again.

For the first time in over six decades, the three originals were reunited at Lavarack in early 2011 in the 3rd Brigade.

For most of their existence they have been light infantry, apart from 1RAR’s brief experimentation with a pentropic organisation in the early 1960s and 3RAR as an airborne battalion.

That has all changed under Plan Beersheba as 3RAR transforms to a battalion equipped with armoured personnel carriers and armoured protection vehicles, giving enhanced mobility and protection down to section level.

Although it will remain in Townsville, 2RAR has been redesignated a specialist amphibious operations battalion under command of HQ 1st Division.

Like the Anzacs at Gallipoli, 2RAR will likely be the covering force in any future operations, securing beachheads for main force troops delivered by Australia’s amphibious assault ships.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.