I of course meant to say “Pentropic” madness.
What if Menzies made an offer LBJ couldn’t refuse in the context of pentropic organisation? Could the offer be effectively a couple of combined arms groups from 1 or 3 division?
Just how ugly would a resented pentropic organisation’s failure in the field be?
I thought so, however the pentropic experiment ended in 1965 and no pentropic force was ever deployed outside Australia, indeed only 2 RAR btns were made into pentropic because the 3rd was needed in the 'tropical' establishment for 28th Brigade in Malaya.
Your mention of 3rd division is interesting; in 1964 there was debate in Australia about using the CMF to cover the RA's manpower shortfall, Lt Gen Paul Cullen CMF begged Lt Gen Wilton RA to allow him to raise a CMF battalion for service in Vietnam but instead the Government chose to introduce selective service conscription. This is a good example of the primacy of the RA over the CMF in the 60s, which has been suggested as the reason why the pentropic experiment went ahead, to break the hold of the CMF over the Army.
As for the pentropic battlegroups, in the arguments to scrap it it was mentioned that it was the number of battalions deployed that counted rather than their size, Australia was better of making a 4th btn of the RAR and deploying 2 btns rather than 1 big pentropic btn.