![]() ![]() (Many Commonwealth forces continued to use it in different variations up until the late 1950s.)Ī report from war correspondent, Trooper Clifford Halloran of the 6th Light Horse in Ma'adi, highlighted differing opinions about the Australian-made Lee-Enfield rifle: This rifle had been used across the British Army since 1910. Soldiers in the Infantry and Light Horse brigades were issued with a short magazine Lee-Enfield Mark III rifle. (For many years after the war, farmhouses throughout Australia had one of these. Soldiers who received weapons training as cadets had probably practised shooting with the. In 1914, the AIF equipped soldiers with rifles from the Citizen Forces until local production of Lee-Enfield rifles increased at the Lithgow Small Arms Factory. Military equipment changed during the war as warfare tactics changed and technology advanced. Light horsemen received a leather bandolier to hold ammunition and load carriage equipment. Men on the Western Front were given steel helmets from 1916. ![]() Infantrymen received a woven cotton webbing equipment set, which included: All of these are armed and equipped exactly as are the British regiments.ĪIF soldiers were issued with a thick woollen khaki uniform, a broad-brimmed slouch hat with a Rising Sun badge, a rifle and a long sword bayonet. We have sent or are about to send troops to the number of 40,000 for the defence of the Empire in Europe. When the men of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) left Australia, the Minister for Defence said in a statement to the press: The equipment used by the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was mostly the same as the British Army and the armies of the other British dominions. ![]() Although the Australian Army was still being formed when the war began, weaponry between the six Australian states had been standardised since Federation in 1901. ![]()
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