RNZN 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the River Plate
John B was hunting through his Youtube and came up with this clip. Click HERE to view. The 2014 parade commenced at the Auckland Town Hall and ran down Queen Street to the Ferry Buildings. Happy days for all. I have never seen so many GIs in one place. You may recognise a few faces.
Where did the idea of gunnery staff marching with their sticks come from? When did this start? don’t remember it being around when I served.
My mother’s first cousin Bill Ashbolt served on Achilles but can’t remember if he was at the battle of the River Plate. He was in the mine degausing branch. Lived in Auckland and he gave me a tiddly collar he had on the cruiser.
The RNZN was formally created/founded on the 1st October 1941, and everything with that event was virtually RN originated, e.g. rules, regulations, and uniforms, etc.
In a modern context the pace stick is used to measure the distance between formations on parade but also display accurately the correct marching pace during different marching paces such as “Quick Time”, “Slow Time” and “Double Time”.
Dancraft specialists in the manufacturing of high-quality Pace Sticks for over 30 years. They have supplied and continue to supply Pace sticks to the armed forces around the world, these include Australia, New Zealand, Oman, Hong Kong, Canada to name just a few. https://dancraft.co.uk/
The RN guide to instructors for the Pace Stick and the Cane refer BRd 1834 Chapter 1 refer: https://tinyurl.com/y5my5ogf