| The 2/12th Battalion
officially came into being with the appointment of its first commanding
officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Field, on 13 October 1939. Two months
would pass, however, before the 2/12th paraded as a whole. Two fifths of
the battalion was recruited from Tasmania and initially trained at the
newly-built camp at Brighton, while the remainder were recruited from
North Queensland and began their training attached to the 2/9th
Battalion at Redbank. The battalion was united at Rutherford in New
South Wales on 11 December. It subsequently relocated to Ingleburn on 12
January 1940 and on 5 May sailed with the 18th Brigade of the 6th
Australian Division for the Middle East.
En route, the 18th Brigade was
diverted to the United Kingdom to bolster its defences following the
fall of France. The 2/12th disembarked at Gourock in Scotland on 17 June
and was subsequently based at Lopcombe Corner, near Salisbury, in
England. In September, the 18th Brigade was transferred to a new
Australian division – the 9th. The 18th Brigade relocated to
Colchester in October and left the United Kingdom on 17 November.
The 2/12th disembarked in Egypt on 31
December 1940. In February 1941, the 18th Brigade was transferred to the
9th Australian Division but it was still destined to see action with its
old formation. During the first week of April the brigade moved to
Tobruk to reinforce the 9th Division, then falling back on the town. The
2/12th participated in the defence of Tobruk until it was withdrawn on
the night of 26 and 27 August. After Tobruk, the 2/12th initially
trained in Palestine before joining the forces garrisoning Syria in late
September. It returned to Palestine in early January and sailed for
Australia from Suez on 12 February. The battalion disembarked at
Adelaide on 28 March.
The 2/12th’s next battleground was
Milne Bay in Papua, where it arrived on 17 August 1942 and mounted a
successful counter-attack against Japanese invasion forces between 31
August and 4 September. It occupied Goodenough Island between 22 October
and 28 December and then returned to Papua for its most bitter and
costly battles of the war – Buna and Sanananda. At Buna it delivered
the coup de gras to the Japanese at Giropa Point on 1 January, but
suffered 63 killed and 122 wounded in the process. The battalion’s
efforts, between 9 and 21 January to clear the Japanese from the
torturous swamp country around Sanananda cost another 61 lives. The
2/12th returned home on 10 March 1943.
By early August 1943, the 2/12th
Battalion was back in Papua. It trained around Port Moresby before
deploying to the Finisterre Mountains in New Guinea on 31 December. The
battalion’s main effort there were its operations to capture the
Prothero features on the northern end of Shaggy Ridge between 21 and 24
January. Patrolling at the head of the Ramu Valley subsequently kept the
2/12th occupied from February until April and marked the end of its
service in New Guinea.
Arriving back in Australia on 17 May,
the 2/12th spent a year training before undertaking its final operation
of the war. On 1 July 1945, it landed at Balikpapan in Borneo. Well
supported by artillery and tanks it captured its objectives with
relatively light casualties, and its active role was over by 5 July.
Following the end of the war on 15 August, 2/12th personnel were
progressively returned to Australia for discharge. The battalion
disbanded at Balikpapan on 1 January 1946. AWM
text
Battle honours
Casualties
Decorations
- 3 DSO
- 2 OBE
- 7 MC
- 3 DCM
- 18 MM
- 50 MID
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