Norman Leo HALLORAN

HALLORAN, Norman Leo

Service Number: N199946
Enlisted: 14 November 1941
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 9 Infantry Battalion AMF
Born: Gulgong, New South Wales, Australia , 11 April 1916
Home Town: Gulgong, Mid-Western Regional, New South Wales
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Ploughman
Died: Died of wounds, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, Pacific Islands, 5 February 1945, aged 28 years
Cemetery: Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Papua New Guinea
Cemetery A4 B, 18,
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Molong Armed Forces Personnel Roll of Honour
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World War 2 Service

3 Sep 1939: Involvement Private, N199946
14 Nov 1941: Enlisted Private, N199946, 9 Infantry Battalion AMF
14 Nov 1941: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, N199946, 9 Infantry Battalion AMF

Non Warlike Service

23 Mar 1943: Embarked Private, N199946, 9 Infantry Battalion AMF, Embarked Duntroon Townsville Disembarked Port Morseby
29 Mar 1943: Embarked N199946, 9 Infantry Battalion AMF, M/O to 9th Infantry Battalion - Embarked per SS Canberra
28 Aug 1944: Embarked Private, N199946, Port Moresby - Disembarked Cairns Embarked 'Katoomba' Cairns and Disembarked Madang

World War 2 Service

20 Nov 1944: Embarked Private, N199946, Embarked 'Santa Monica' Madang Disembarked Bougainville
5 Feb 1945: Wounded Private, N199946, Evacuated to 11 Field AMB (GWS - rifle - abdomen, perforated rectum and bladder)

Help us honour Norman Leo Halloran's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Noeline Knight-Gill

Shot by a sniper during a march, and according to another soldier serving with him, he told medics to save others, instead of him. He later died from rifle wounds to the abdomen, perforated rectum and bladder. After moving his body three times he is now buried in Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery A4 B 18. (Originally buried in the Field - Map ref: 778794, then reburied in Torokina War Cemetery - Plat B row A, Grave 8).

Norman was very enterprising. One day while working, he tore his trousers and he mended them using some hairs from a horse tail. He always carried a needle.

He was a Ploughman at Guntawang, Gulgong NSW - now a famous horse stud. One day while ploghing a man from Forbes, NSW pulled up and watched him for quite a while. THis man was so impressed by his straight ploughing that he went home and wrote a letter, address it to 'The Ploughman of Guntawang' and offered him a jonb. He didn't take it.,

Harold (his brother) and Norman were both called up at the same time and left Molong on the same night. They were in training camps together at Maitland, Greta and Queensland. They were both in New Guinea at the same time, although in different companies.

When children, Norman and Harold were never allowed to have a gun on their property, so they went out and bought one and left it hidden in a stump and used it when their father wasn't around.

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