2/33rd Australian Infantry Battalion

The 2/33rd Battalion was formed in June 1940 from surplus Australian troops sent to the UK. It was attached to 25th Brigade of the 7th Division.  It served in Egypt, Libya and Palestine, before performing garrison duties in Lebanon.  After leave and training in Australia, the battalion deployed to Papua relieving units along the Kokoda Trail.  In 1943, while at Port Moresby, a US B-24 Liberator bomber crashed into trucks carrying the battalion, killing 60 men and injuring 90 – a third of the battalion’s fatal casualties for WWII. The battalion later participated in the advance on Lae and patrolled the Ramu Valley and the Finisterre Range, before its final operation in Borneo in 1945.