Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Webb
Here's one for starters, freshly painted in Sussex Inlet RSL in NSW.
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Freshly painted indeed, with colour patches and all! Nice to see 2/14 Regt remembered, I developed an interest in this unit as a candidate for my FGT8, because the front shell has NT Force markings, and the 2/14 Regt was in Darwin. However it turned out they were there much earlier, equipped with Marmon-Herringtons. Most likely it belonged to 2/11 Regt, who relieved them in Jan '43.
What interested me about the 2/14 was that they were 8th Div, which I had previously thought was entirely wiped out or captured when Singapore fell. However it turns out they never got away from Darwin. It's quite an interesting story - they received a warning order on 6 Dec '41 to "Be Ready to Move in 10 Hours" with their battalions to Ambon, Timor, and Rabaul (one battery to each). Rather a coincidence on the day before Pearl Harbour....or perhaps not!
Anyway the infantry got away but the artillery didn't, and there followed massacres on Ambon and Rabaul, with only elements of Sparrow Force on Timor surviving. Meanwhile 2/14 Regt remained in Darwin for the next year to meet the expected invasion, then went to NG after re-equipping with No.8s, and thence to New Britian where they subsequently garrisoned Rabaul - discovering in the process the mass graves of their executed former 8th Div comrades. Note the vertical line on the colour patch on the 25pdr, which is explained below: