Robert Michael REID

Robert Michael REID Update Details

If you confirm that you want to proceed with the update, this record will be locked for editing by all other users until you have finished. You will have 7 days to complete your changes before they will be automatically submitted.

Do you want to proceed?

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 (Army 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 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.

Virtual
War Memorial
Australia