About This Unit
31/51 (amalgamated) Infantry Battalion AMF
Units which began the war as Militia Battalions have the numeric superscript dropped from their titles on the VWMA in order to distinguish between numerous units in the Army with similar designations across the Militia, the 2nd AIF and the Volunteer Defence Corps.
In mid-1942, as a result of serious manpower shortages in the Australian economy that occurred because of an over mobilisation of its military forces, the Australian government decided to wind back the number of service personnel to free up manpower to return to the civilian workforce. The Army was 'over-recruited, particlarly the Home Defence / CMF / Militia into which men of eligible age had been drafted. It needed to be 'thinned out'.
In order to achieve this outcome, a number of Militia (CMF) infantry battalions were disbanded while others were merged.
31/51 Battalion was Gazetted as an AIF unit in July 1944 - allowing it to serve outside of Australia.