Robert Michael REID

Robert Michael REID Update Details

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REID, Robert Michael

Service Numbers:	S37665, SX27897
Enlisted:	1 June 1940, Woodside, SA - Dates subject to documentary verification
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion
Born:	Broken Hill, Broken Hill Municipality - New South Wales, Australia, 12 June 1920
Home Town:	Broken Hill, Broken Hill Municipality, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Not yet discovered
Died:	Accidental (Injuries - aircraft crash/ explosion) crash on takeoff, New Guinea, 7 September 1943, aged 23 years
Cemetery:	Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Papua New Guinea C1. F. 15., Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Bomana, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Memorials:	Adelaide WW2 Wall of Remembrance, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour

World War 2 Service

1 Jun 1940:	Enlisted Private, S37665, Woodside, SA - Dates subject to documentary verification
7 Jan 1943:	Transferred Private, 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion, Transfer ex Militia - S37665
8 Jan 1943:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, SX27897, 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion
7 Sep 1943:	Involvement Private, SX27897, 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion, New Guinea - Huon Peninsula / Markham and Ramu Valley /Finisterre Ranges Campaigns

Tragedy strikes 2nd/33rd Battalion in Townsville while awaiting troop lift flight to Nadzab

The 2nd/33rd returned to Port Moresby in late July in preparation for the operations capture Lae, in New Guinea. On 7 September, while it waited near Jackson's Airfield at '7Mile' near Moresby to be flown to Nadzab, via Tsili Tsili, a fully fuelled and 'bombed up' US B-24 Liberator bomber crashed on take off among the trucks carrying the battalion. Sixty men, mainly from D Company, were killed and 92 injured. This represented a third of the battalion's fatal casualties for the entire war.

The remnants of the battalion were flown to Nadzab on 8 September and subsequently participated in the advance on Lae, which fell on 16 September.

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