Description
Title: Bushmens Rifles – A History of the 22nd Battalion, The Royal Victoria Regiment
Author: Leckie, Neil
Condition: Near Mint
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Date: 1999
ISBN: 0646379674
Cover: Soft Cover without Dust Jacket – 196 pages
Comments: The detailed history of the 22nd Battalion, The Royal Victoria Regiment (post World War II) . Now a scarce and highly desirable title.
In 1964, the Federal Government of Australia introduced conscription to raise the strength of the Australian Army in order to prepare for Australia’s possible defence commitments. Conscription would be by a ballot of birth dates drawn from a barrel and would be for two years. At the same time the Government decided to boost the strength of the Citizen Military Forces by offering those men who were due to be balloted the option of six years of CMF Service if they enlisted in the CMF before the ballot. In 1966, the Government ordered the Army to raise a “Special Conditions” CMF Battalion in each state to cater for those young men who could not parade with “normal” CMF units because of their home location or work situation but had “opted” for the CMF alternative.
The 22nd Battalion, The Royal Victoria Regiment, was the Victorian battalion that catered for Victorian and Tasmanian Special Conditions CMF soldiers or Optees.
Bushmens Rifles is the story of the raising, development and closing of 22 RVR, It is written from the personal recollections of some of the over one thousand men who served with the battalion, from papers kept by some of these men, from papers in the 3rd Division files held in Victoria Barracks, Melbourne and contains many photographs provided by these men.
