R.A.A.F. Gunnery Range

¹No. 2 Bombing and Gunnery School (BAGS) was established at the newly-built RAAF base in Port Pirie on 15^th June 1941. It was one of three in Australia; the others were at West Sale in Victoria and Evans Head in New South Wales.

² It was an advanced specialist school where aircrew flying Fairey Battles and Avro Ansons were trained in bombing and gunnery techniques. Much of the gunnery practice was air-to-air, with the gunner firing at a target drogue being towed behind another aircraft. However, there was also training in firing at ground targets, and gunnery ranges were required.

³A 32 mile long air gunnery and bombing range was proclaimed that took in a strip of coastline and extended out to sea. 4Six ranges were overland, and three ranges were over-water (two for bombing and one for aiming at moving surface targets).

Attention was drawn to the Air Force Regulations that a ship, boat, aircraft or person shall not come or remain within the area while practice was in progress and that this could occur any time day or night. Red flags were flown at roadway control points leading to the range.

The range target area was established on a low coastal sand ridge that runs from north-west to south-east, roughly parallel to Old Pirie Road about 18 miles south of Port Pirie, South Australia. The target complex was about 328 yards long, and consisted of a row of six timber target frames spaced about 32 yards apart. Some kind of target must have been attached to these - perhaps a bullseye painted on canvas or plywood.

RAAF Range Target Four

Beside each target frame is a 2 metre high Roman numeral from I to VI, made of sheet metal on a timber frame, angled backwards to be visible from the air. These were presumably intended to allow each gunner to identify an individual target for scoring purposes. The targets were aligned to be fired on by aircraft from the north-east, firing out to sea.

At each end of the row of targets is a small concrete hut to provide shelter for attendants maintaining the targets. Nine bombing and gunnery ranges were established along the Spencer Gulf on a desolate coastal strip between Port Pirie and Port Broughton. No. 2 BAGS operated for two and a half years, until December 1943 when the school was closed and RAAF Port Pirie became No. 3 Air Observer's School, which operated until January 1946.

Sources:

¹ Report to Department of Environment and Heritage; Peter Bell, Carol Cosgrove, Susan Marsden & Justin McCarthy Historical Research Pty Ltd Adelaide.

² Book, Port Pirie Remembers, Dick Wordley & Ken Madigan 1982.

³Recorder, Port Pirie, SA Monday 23 June 1941

4 South Australian Aviation Museum