British Vehicle New Guinea

[DaveBuckle]

Thanks Lang.
I did leave out a lot of info in my short reply.
He escaped the fall of Singapore in the nick of time in his pyjama pants while convalescing from injuries sustained earlier - in the area where the massacre of the left-behind injured happened.
He spent time back in Aus recovering and then '"training recruits to salute"'.
He hated this and wanted back in the action - due to his injured arm he could not be returned to infantry and thus accepted the role on searchlights.
He recalled the American searchlights being so much better and that the Blitzes were green and brown (not all green as in Malaya) and rough to ride in.
He was protecting airfields around/at Salamaua and Finschaffen.
So maybe I missed info from him about what/which unit he was with once redeployed in PNG.
He has a sharp memory, so will get some more info when I see him on ANZAC Day.
With your added info now in the fold am getting close.
Many thanks -

[Lang]

Dave

What you should do immediately before he dies, for both him and his family, is get his military records. These are available on line. Many have been digitalised but if they have not, they will quickly be copied on request. His records should make great reading.

Start here:

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/exp...army-wwii.aspx

What they also will do is jog his memory to remind him of people and places he has forgotten and as he has reached the stage of not buying ripe bananas someone should sit with him with a voice recorder and ask questions and let him run.

As an 8th Division man it means he was early into the war so must be looking at reaching his century very soon.

So easy to do but it will be lost forever in the blink of an eye. Make the effort to suggest all this to his family - soon!

Lang

[Mike Cecil]

To add another aspect to Lang's post about AIF and Militia units, after the re-organisation of the Army in 1942, Militia units could elect to become an AIF unit, by a vote of unit personnel (how democratic!)

To convert to AIF, at least 75% of a unit's listed personnel had to vote in favour of becoming an AIF unit, which then lifted any restrictions on where the unit was deployed.

Units that did elect to 'go AIF' then appended the suffix (AIF) after the unit title, but were not permitted to use the prefix '2/' before the unit title, which was reserved for those units that had been specifically raised as second AIF units.

Many units elected to 'go AIF' between 1942 and 1945.

Festberg (1972) shows that the 19th Infantry Battalion (The South Sydney Regiment) elected to 'go AIF' but he does not provide a GRO reference for the change, which is odd. It is the only reference I know of that claims the unit elected to 'go AIF', all others referring to it simply as 19 Inf Bn, including several date-specific references I have and the recently-published work of McKenzie-Smith on Australian units.

19 Inf Bn were part of 1 Aust Infantry Division in NSW from mid-September 1942 to July 1943, when the unit moved to NG and under command 11 Aust Infantry Division. When moved to New Britain in 1944, it became part of 5 Aust Infantry Division.

Getting far away from a bogged Matador, but interesting nevertheless.

Mike

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Festberg (1972) shows that the 19th Infantry Battalion (The South Sydney Regiment) elected to 'go AIF' but he does not provide a GRO reference for the change, which is odd. It is the only reference I know of that claims the unit elected to 'go AIF', all others referring to it simply as 19 Inf Bn, including several date-specific references I have and the recently-published work of McKenzie-Smith on Australian units.

Getting far away from a bogged Matador, but interesting nevertheless.

Mike

The 19th Battalion still exists with a continuous lineage in the Army Reserve unit 1st/19th Bn, Royal New South Wales Regiment (1/19 RNSWR). 1/19 RNSWR is the current iteration of the amalagamated WW1 AIF 1st Battalion and the 19th AIF Bn. They are also the custodians of the battle honours of 2/1Bn AIF and 2/19 Bn AIF from WW2, but are not formed from those Bns.

Their History page states that while in Darwin, 19th Bn "was accepted into the AIF" and redesignated the "19th Aust Inf Bn AIF". This history also references Festberg as a source.

[Mike Cecil]

That's interesting Tony, but I think the writer may have taken Festberg at face value, which I'd also do in most instances. The absence of a GRO reference for the change made me doubt it, however, so I've had a look at the unit war diary on line at the AWM (they do lots of things right!) and up until the move from the NT on 12 September, there is no reference to the unit voting to become an AIF unit, nor are the unit Daily Orders headed anything by '19 Inf Bn' or '19 Aust Inf Bn', rather than '19 Aust Inf Bn (AIF)'. There is not change to the unit title as far as I looked, which was the end of Dec 1942.

Having now looked at the War Diary and seen the date of transfer was mid-September, I also went back and looked at the reference I had to the unit transferring to 1 Aust Div in August, only to find that the date on the first page was August, but on the page listing 19 Inf Bn, the date is 30 October 1942. Mea culpa - I've updated the database accordingly, and my previous post!

So, in the absence of any evidence to support Festberg, I'd say the unit did not 'go AIF'.

Mike

[Lang]

Here is an Australian Searchlight unit history book. It has nominal rolls so the old bloke should be in it.

http://regimental-books.com.au/expos...ii-p-2900.html

[DaveBuckle]

Sorry for hijacking the thread - but thanks again all for the input.
Fred turned 103 last month, I have noted a lot of his info but will ask his permission to record his story.
That book should shine some light on the subject (!), coincidentally the author has the same name as the fellow I bought my C15A off ... may be a sign