73 ANTI-AIRCRAFT
SEARCHLIGHT COMPANY
IN AUSTRALIA DURING WW2
73 Anti-aircraft Searchlight Company were located at Scheyville in New South Wales, in a camp about 4 miles off the northern side of Windsor Road on 15 September 1942. They had 4 Sperry Projectors. They left Scheyville on 6 November 1942 and boarded a train at Riverstone, near Windsor.
They arrived in Brisbane on 8 November 1942 and moved to a staging camp at Camp Ascot at the Ascot Racecourse. They moved to Yeerongpilly or Tennyson on the bank of the Brisbane River on 13 November 1942. There were 5 officers and 127 Other Ranks.
On 24 December 1942, they boarded a train at Tennyson headed for Townsville. They had their Christmas dinner in Rockhampton. They arrived at the staging camp at Oonoonba on the southern outskirts of Townsville at midnight on Boxing Day.
On 29 December 1942, 5 officers and 145 Other Ranks boarded the MV Duntroon headed for New Guinea.
On 13 July 1944, 73 AASL moved back to Australia to Strathpine and became part of the 2/2 Australian Composite Ack Ack Regiment. The Regiment under the command of Lt. Col Foord, comprised:-
After some leave, the 73rd Ack Ack Searchlights Battery stayed for a short while at Toorbul Point and then moved back to Strathpine. The majority of the 73rd then moved to the jungle training school at Canungra in southern Queensland.
REFERENCES
"The Long White Finger A Narrative History of the 73rd AASL Battery 1942 -1945"
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This page first produced 16 November 2003
This page last updated 23 January 2020
