Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Desmond Graham Broughton Richmond was born on 11 November 1923 at the Maternity Hospital, Sepoy Lines, Singapore, the second son of Frederick Broughton Richmond, a merchant and horologist, and his wife Mabel. The family lived well in the Crown Colony — a spacious home on St Michael's Road, Chinese amahs for the boys, evenings at Raffles Hotel. When the Great Depression collapsed Singapore's export trade, they came home to Carlingford, New South Wales, in 1933.
Desmond was not drawn to formal study. At fifteen he headed north to work as a jackaroo in Collarenebri, learning bushcraft in rough country that would serve him better than any classroom. When war was declared in September 1939, his older brother Valroi enlisted. In early 1942 word came that Valroi was missing in action in Malaya. Shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Desmond enlisted, determined to serve and find his brother.
He volunteered a second time for an Independent Company and was selected. Excelling at the Guerrilla Warfare School at Foster, New South Wales, he joined the 2/6 Independent Company — the Purple Double Diamonds — and in August 1942 embarked for Port Moresby as Private Desmond 'Snowy' Richmond. Serving in C Patrol under 7 Division, he fought on the Kokoda Trail, guided the first American militia to the Buna front, and probed Japanese defences at New Strip. Malaria, not battle, thinned the Company's ranks. Desmond was among 110 men evacuated with fever to the dressing station at Soputa. He returned to Australia in March 1943.
After regrouping at Canungra, Queensland, the Company returned to New Guinea in September. Their objective was the airfield at Kaiapit in the Markham Valley, needed before a Japanese column could reinforce the garrison already holding it. On 19 September, without time for reconnaissance, the commandos attacked — clearing foxholes with grenades and bayonets, taking the village in ten minutes. Through a wet, sleepless night, hungry and plagued by mosquitoes, the men held their position and waited.
By sunrise a Japanese regiment of some 500 men arrived to counter-attack, outnumbering the Australians four to one. Short of ammunition, C Patrol fixed bayonets. Led by Lieutenant Balderstone, they charged across open ground. The Japanese broke. One hundred enemy dead lay in 300 yards. Eleven Australians were killed. Desmond Richmond was among them. He was nineteen years old.
He was buried with full honours near the battlefield and later reinterred in Grave 10, Row C, Plot A of the Lae War Cemetery. His family's chosen epitaph says everything: Duty Nobly Done.
The Battle of Kaiapit is recognised as one of the most significant actions conducted by an Australian independent company during the Second World War.