Army Cadets

[Drummajor]

By the look of this photo, the Army Cadets were a popular force in 1951.

Phil.

[Hussar100]

And stayed popular right through to the 70's when I was a cadet. Part of the militarised society legacy of WW2 in my belief.

[Lancer 17]

Hi Phil

Good one. I remember coming home from work in Melbourne on the train and also the trams in the 60's and 70's and there were cadets in uniform with their 303's but without the bolt to the rifle. That wouldnt happen now in these (un)enlightened times.

Cheers

Phil.

[Mike_2817]

I visited my local ACF Detachment last week on RBL business and noticed the cadets using blue painted cut-out SA80's for recruit drill training!

[Hussar100]

Originally Posted by Mike_2817

I visited my local ACF Detachment last week on RBL business and noticed the cadets using blue painted cut-out SA80's for recruit drill training!

I think that's a great idea. It saves all the time of getting the "Cadet version" of the weapon signed out from the armoury and makes the DP version useless to thieves.

When I was a cadet we used DP versions of .303's and Brens and they were kept chained up in the cadet accommodations but some of these were broken into and the weapons stolen so they were then put into the nearest armoury. In our case that was convenient but for many detachments it wasn't.

[Mike_2817]

Just so Glyn, Otherwise they need to book and draw the DP L103A1 from the Army Foundation Collage a few miles away and return them to the guardroom afterwards.

I asked and they do use the DP L103A1 for Weapons Training, the cut-outs are only really for recruit training or personal practice.

Cadet L98A2's (now single shot, self loading) are used for Field Training and are fitted with the Blank Firing Attachment (BFA) and issued with yellow painted blank-only magazine (blanks are shorter than live rounds and the magazines have a feeder for this)

On range days, standard magazines are used.