John Boyd FERGUSON

John Boyd FERGUSON Update Details

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FERGUSON, John Boyd

Service Number:	VX11997
Enlisted:	23 April 1940, Caulfield, Victoria
Last Rank:	Captain
Last Unit:	2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion
Born:	Adelaide, South Australia, 31 August 1915
Home Town:	Toorak, Stonnington, Victoria
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Not yet discovered
Died:	Accidental (Injuries - aircraft crash/ explosion), Near Jacksons Airfield, Port Moresby, New Guinea, 7 September 1943, aged 28 years
Cemetery:	Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Papua New Guinea (C1. E.7.) Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Bomana, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Melbourne Cricket Club WW2 Honour Roll

World War 2 Service

23 Apr 1940:	Involvement Captain, VX11997, 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion
23 Apr 1940:	Enlisted Caulfield, Victoria
23 Apr 1940:	Enlisted VX11997, 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion

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.

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