Army
In its generic meaning, the land forces. An army was also a higher formation of the Army, comprising two or more corps. Both meanings are used, usually distinguishable by the context and by the use of, (eg) 1st Army for the formation.

Australian Imperial Force
Voluntary expeditionary forces raised for service Overseas in World Wars 1 and 2 to circumvent the Defence Act's prohibition on service outside Australian territory; see Australian Military Forces and Militia.

Australian Military Forces
The term has changed meanings and nuances. It was and continued to mean the land and air forces raised under the Defence Act, and should have encompassed all, but the raising of AIF, ANMEF, 2nd AIF and RAAF resulted in those forces being separated from that generic title for those periods. It incorporated elements known by formal and colloquial names – Citizen Forces, Militia, Citizen Military Forces, Volunteers, Permanent Army, Australian Regular Army.

'Brick' System
From 1941 AASC organisations were assembled from component units as building blocks: the basic blocks or 'bricks' were platoons - transport, air dispatch, supply, petroleum, cold storage butchery, bakery, farm, fishery, workshop etc, which were placed under command of company headquarters in a combination tailor made for the task. These companies were in turn assembled under higher Headquarters called HQ CAASC/HQ CRAASC in the mix appropriate to the support required (see Table 8 and Table 13 for examples).

Citizen Forces, Citizen Military Forces
See Militia, Australian Military Forces.

Commodity System
Each commodity – food fuel and ammunition is handled by a separate unit; and with fluctuating demand for different commodities, there is always an excess or slackness of call oh each at any time, so dedicated units were inevitably cross-tasked to other commodities and to such regular general tasks as engineer stores and works, ordnance stores and trooplift This led inevitably to the composite system where transport is given a general role, tasked according to demand and priority.

Composite System
See Commodity System; concomitant with the composite system was the allocation of composite specialist elements to handle the range of commodities involved with each unit.

Corps

The word is used in several meanings: a body of troops formed for a particular purpose was called a corps when the title battalion or regiment was inappropriate; corps grew to incorporate units and staffs, carrying responsibility for a particular function, eg engineers (RAE), communications (R Aust Sigs), supplies and transport (AASC). A corps was also a higher formation of the Army, comprising two or more divisions. Both meanings of corps are used, usually distinguishable by the context and by the use of the Corps for AASC and use of corps or (eg) 1st Corps for the formation.

Formation
A grouping of units – army, corps, division, brigade.

Lines of Communication
The area, facilities and routes between a base and a combat area.

Military
Originally the army or land forces as opposed to the naval forces its use is now blurred, but is generally applied here to the Army.

Militia
See Australian Military Forces. A militia has traditionally been a force raised locally for local defence. The Australian militia raised from consolidation of the colonial militias and volunteers were partly-paid forces liable to call up, but by the Defence Act limited to service in Australia, then in 1939 extended to include Australian territories. The Militia or Citizen Forces was augmented by conscription from 1912-29, 1939-46, 1951-60 and 1963 onwards. Referendums in 1916 and 1917 failed to gain acceptance of overseas service for conscriptees and, to avoid a repeat of this in World War 2, the area of service was extended by legislation to eventually include south of the Equator to enable Militia employment in the North Solomons and Netherlands East Indies.

Permanent Army
The full time, fully paid component of the Military Forces, existing in Colonial and Commonwealth Forces, were established to provide headquarters, training and administrative staff, and also the technical arms including Artillery, Engineers and Supplies and Transport, where full time service was necessary to preserve skills and man essential ongoing activities. Infantry and cavalry were excluded, mirroring the suspicion of standing (as opposed to citizen) armies as instruments of oppression, not to mention the costs involved. A permanent army component which included fighting arms was authorised in 1948 as the Australian Regular Army, in recognition of the shortened response times in the post-World War 2 cold war and revolutionary environment, and a post war carryover acceptance of full time forces.

Regular Army
see Permanent Army.

Supply, Supplies
The word has changed meaning, Supply being used in the AMF until 1925 to mean food and forage, then the term Supplies (short for AASC Supplies) was adopted from British usage for those commodities and Supply thereafter used in the broadest term except by those unable to bring their mind to perceive such differences.

Volunteers
Carried on briefly from the Colonial Forces, they were unpaid units, being provided with equipment and generally though not always supported in camps. They appear but briefly in AASC – the non existent Tasmanian Volunteers, and the initial raising of AASC in Western Australia. The last survivors appear to have been the volunteer Nurses and the Australian Volunteer Automobile Corps, the latter absorbed into the AASC in 1916.