FIELDER, Walter William
Service Number: | VX87009 |
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Enlisted: | 3 August 1942 |
Last Rank: | Private |
Last Unit: | 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion |
Born: | Brunswick, Moreland - Victoria, Australia, 22 August 1922 |
Home Town: | Brunswick, Moreland, 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 21 years |
Cemetery: |
Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Papua New Guinea (C1. C.16.) Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery |
Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 2 Service
3 Aug 1942: | Enlisted Private, VX87009, 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion |
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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