Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Keith Walter Peterson was born in Minlaton on the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia on the 23rd of October 1922. He grew up in his parents home, in Yorketown, South Australia. This is located approximately 30 kilometres away from Minlaton. Keith was the son of Alfred and May Peterson and was the youngest of 11 children. Unfortunately, his Mother died from a bout of Pneumonia when he was only 11 years of age. Keith was predominantly brought up by his older siblings. Keith along with his siblings had to help their Father, through the upkeep of their family and more importantly their farm. Such a large family meant a significant amount of food had to be put on the kitchen table, along with clothing and bathing. Keith’s son Jeffrey stated, “it was quite a hard upbringing for Keith as he had to help out so much and not have much time for himself as a kid”. His hobbies consisted of shooting rabbits and pigeons using rifles, Jeffrey seems to remember him having a ‘303’ that he was quite proud of. This hobby also helped feed the family. In his pastime he really enjoyed roller skating. Team sports were never really a passion for Keith although he enjoyed shooting, he liked to go on shooting adventures all over the Yorke Peninsula.

When Keith finished his schooling in Yorketown he continued to work on the family farm which just outside of town, he helped do whatever was needed, seeding, feeding stock, checking water, harvest and sheepwork. It wasn’t long after leaving school at the age of 16 that he ventured out and worked as a Mechanic at Honner Motors known as the late Southway Holden’s Dealership at Yorketown. The War started and at the age of 20, still single, Keith decided it was time for him to enlist, he felt the need to help defend Australia from the Japanese invading through the Pacific. He packed his few personal items and took off for Wayville in Adelaide on the 27th May 1942. This was close to the time conscription commenced but there is no recollection from Jeffrey that his father was forced to go. From that day he was posted to the 2/14 Australian Infantry Battalion which was at that stage based in Victoria, Australia. Once arriving in Victoria, Keith underwent some basic training before his active service began at the Battle for New Guinea. The Basic Training was very rushed, they used replica wooden rifles and some of the men had never even fired a real bullet before they left Australia. Keith was very proud to help fight for his community and country. 

In August 1942 Keith and his Battalion arrived at Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. Here their advancement along the Kokoda Trail began. The terrain was terrible, the tracks were very steep, narrow, muddy and wet which made walking up them very difficult. They needed to widen the track to enable them to carry stretchers with injured soldiers back down. This was made very difficult with the moist climate as the digging often caused landslides. On the front line, the 2/14 Battalion suffered heavy casualties and after holding their position for several days. They had to withdraw and retreat back along the trail for some time until they joined forces with the 2/16th Battalion to form a composite battalion. In November 1942 they had made some headway, being somewhat successful holding off the Japanese soldiers, this enabled Keith and many of his supporting troops the chance to rest. They underwent some retraining and began to function again as a separate battalion, the 2/14th Infantry Battalion. From there they continued operations at Gona in November, sadly they left with only 21 soldiers by January 1943. The 2/14th Infantry Battalion enlisted approximately 800-900 soldiers, as the different assignments they led depleted their numbers they regained numbers and went in to attack again. 

The 2/14th Battalion returned to Australia in early 1943 to rebuild, retrain and return to Papua New Guinea in August of that year. Keith underwent advanced training in Port Moresby before going on to play a small role in assisting in the capture of Lae in September 1943. This led the 21st Brigade to advance along the valley from Kiapit to Dumpu where “a fierce fight ensued”, (Jungle Warfare, Australian War Memorial, pg. 85). The Battalion spent the next 5 months performing patrols into Finsterres and then later returned to Australia in March 1943. 

As part of the 2/14th’s last operation Keith was involved in the Balikpapan Landings, leaving Australia in June 1945. They were part of the amphibious landings at Balikpapan in July 1945, which at first landed in the wrong place. They were meant to land at Green Beach but instead landed at Yellow Beach, they were unopposed and it only took them 45 minutes or so to reorganise themselves and begin their march. They crossed the bridge over the Klandasan Besar and then at night, dug-in in front of the Stalkudo ridge. This enabled them to capture the Sepinggaang Airstrip. Once relieved here by the 2/27th Battalion they advanced to the Manggar Airstrip and after quite a battle they were successful, they then went on to attack the two remaining Japanese positions and subsequently captured Sambodja. His battalion was part of the occupation forces in the Celebes between October 1945 until January 1946 and then headed home in January 1946. The 2/14th Battalion was disbanded in February 1946 in Brisbane and Keith was discharged from the Army in May of that year. He served a total of one thousand four hundred and fifty one days for the Australian 2/14 Infantry Battalion, of those 985 days were in Australia and 466 days were outside of Australia.

When I asked Keith’s son Jeffrey about his father’s experiences at war he said his father commented that, “being at war was everything he thought it would be. However, the terrain and conditions were terrible and that no one could have ever imagined or tried to imagine what they would encounter.” He did not talk about his time at war to his children very much at all. Although he often talked about it to his close friend who lived nearby, they enjoyed having a few drinks, Muscats, together and discussed their experiences together. Jeffrey said, although Keith returned from war uninjured he was mentally scared. He did answer questions when asked but never voluntarily offered little stories about the time he spent away. 

Keith returned to Adelaide in 1946 and met Shirley, his wife to be, at the Adelaide Railway Station. Soon after the two married, early 1947, and moved to the Morgan area on the River Murray. During his time in Morgan he gained work as a mechanic. It wasn’t long before his first born son was born, Jeffrey on 20th January 1948. Keith wanted to raise his family back in his hometown of Yorketown. They uprooted and returned to the Yorke Peninsula in early 1949 after his son Jeffrey had a rather dangerous bout of Gastroenteritis. Keith and Shirley moved into a house in Yorketown and purchased a business, the Yorketown School Bus Run, to help support the family. Keith and Shirley had 5 children - Jeffrey, Peter, Graham, Robin and Janette. Keith and Shirley bought the Yorketown School Bus Run and enjoyed life raising their children. The teaching staff at Yorketown Area School were the bus drivers and unfortunately following a couple of crashes the business went bankrupt. Around 1956 Keith picked up work at the Salt Castle works at Edithburgh, 16km away from Yorketown and continued to work there for quite some time doing general labouring work.

Three of Keith and Shirley’s children went on to join the Armed Forces when they left school. Jeffrey and Peter joined the Army and Robin joined the Air Force. Keith passed away at the age of 81 on the 4th of June 2004. Jeffrey marches every Anzac Day proudly wearing his and Keith’s medals  at the Edithburgh Anzac Day Service and March. 

Lest We Forget - Corporal Keith Walter Peterson SX18546