The
Battalion was formed as an Independent
Battalion, with a strength of 1500, in October 1941 from volunteers
serving in 3rd Military District [Victoria] to serve in 8 Military
District [Papua], as part of 30th Australian Infantry Brigade. The other
battalions in this brigade were
the 49th & 53rd Australian Infantry Battalions. The average age of
these 39th Bn members, who
were both inadequately armed and trained, was a mere eighteen and a
half years!
Training, such
as it was, occurred at
Darley Military Camp [near Bacchus Marsh, Victoria] which they left by
train on 26 December 1941 to embark on HM Troopship Acquitania in Sydney Harbour where
a convoy was
assembled. The convoy arrived
in Port Moresby Harbour
on 3rd January 1942 and, after dis-embarkation, the battalion occupied
a camp site at the Seven Mile Aerodrome.
The Acquitania was too large to berth in
Port Moresby so troops had to be ferried ashore by various means.
The battalion's role was
ostensibly to
defend the
aerodrome from attack
by the enemy but in fact more time was spent as wharf labourers, and
digging defensive positions, than was given to training in the skills
of war! Their positions were regularly bombed and strafed by Japanese
aircraft, based in Rabaul, Lae and Salamaua. The Japanese landed in
Rabaul on 23rd January where they were opposed by the ill fated 2/22nd
Battalion of the 8th Division. and in the landing on the north coast of
New Guinea at Lae and Salamaua was virtually unopposed.
On
7th July 1942 "B" Company became the first white troops to cross the
Kokoda Track to provide a garrison on the aerodrome at Kokoda, pictured
here as it was then
On 21 July Japanese troops landed at Buna & Gona with the intention
of crossing the Owen Stanley Ranges to capture Port Moresby which they
would use as a base to attack Australia. On 22 July 12 Platoon of "B"
Company became the first unit to face the Japanese in Papua. They were
forced to withdraw to Deniki but on 8th August they recaptured Kokoda
but the requested, and anticipated, reinforcements were not flown in as
promised and by 11 August were forced, by numerically superior numbers,
to withdraw once again.
The 39th Battalion is the only unit to have Kokoda listed as one of
their Battle Honours
They fought unsupported from 27 July -27 August 1942. When relieved at
Efogi 5 September, by units of the 6th Australian Division AIF, their
unit strength was 185 all ranks!
After returning to Port Moresby they were reinforced with 800 new
soldiers and again fought at Sanananda, Buna & Gona, recapturing
the area permanently. At Soputa, on final withdrawal there were
only 5 officers and 27 other ranks!
On 3 July 1943 the 39th Bn. was removed from the order of battle and
ceased to exist as a military unit with little recognition or honour
until some fifty years after the end of hostilities.
On 8th August 2006 the name of the 39th Battalion will be restored to
the Battle Order when the Deployed Forces Support Unit will be re-named
as 39th Personnel Support Battalion as a tribute to the part this unit
played in saving Australia from a Japanese invasion in 1942.
