REID, Robert Michael
Service Numbers: | S37665, SX27897 |
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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 | |
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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 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.
Submitted 7 September 2017 by Steve Larkins