View source for 21st Australian Infantry Training Battalion

{{Infobox
| name           = 21st Infantry Training Battalion
| title          = 
| above          = 
| subheader      = 

|   image        = [[File:21st_AITB.jpg]]
| caption        = Dimra Training Camp March 1941 - AWM photo 040261
|   image2       = [[File: 21_AITB_patch.jpg]]
| caption2       = Shoulder patch

}}


==Brief History==
Formed at Julis in Palestine in March 1941 with staff drawn from the 21st Australian Infantry Brigade, they moved almost immediately to Dimra north east of Gaza. Along with the 18th and 25th Australian Infantry Training Battalions it formed the 7th Australian Infantry Training Brigade. During the Syrian campaign they were able to backfill shortages in the Brigade's Infantry battalions.


With the start of the war in the Pacific the Training Brigade, including the 21st Australian Infantry Training Battalion was withdrawn to Australia in February 1942. Landed in Adelaide in March they first went to Mt Barker before moving to Balcombe in Victoria in July, and then to Tenterfield in NSW in September 1942. Here they began training reinforcements for units in the 21st Infantry Brigade.  With recruit training centralised at Cowra (NSW), the 21st Australian Infantry Training Battalion concentrated on more advanced infantry training.


In March 1945 the battalion relocated to Greta where they remained until the end of the war.

===Unit Personnel===
* [[Thomas Stanley O'Meagher]] 8 Oct 1941 - 23 May 1942


===Trainees===
'''Palestine'''
* [[Edward Arthur Sewell]] 3 - 19 May 1941 & 1-5 Jul 1941 & 18 Aug - 11 Sep 1941
* [[Clarence Malarkey]] 29 Jun - 13 Jul 1941
* [[Edwin Reed Marshall]] 11 Jul - 5 Aug 1941
* † [[Andrew McKenzie]] 26 Jul - 4 Oct 1941
* † [[Jack North]] 26 Jul - 17 Sep 1941
* [[Eric Anderson]] 8 - 15 Aug 1941
* [[Thomas Stanley O'Meagher]] 10 Aug - 14 Sep 1941
* [[James Henry Ambrose Willis]] 18 Sep - 14 Dec 1941
* [[Frederick Thomas Orton Miller]] 23 Sep - 24 Oct 1941
* [[Ralph Godfrey]] 23 Nov 1941 - 18 Jan 1942
* [[Stanley Rudolph Jarvis]] 23 Nov - 21 Dec 1941

'''Australia''' 
* [[Allan James Watters]] 9 Jun - 14 Sep 1944 & 18 May - 9 Sep 1945
* [[Marvin Redvers Cuthbert Barge]] 24 Aug - 2 Nov 1944
* [[William Stewart Geary]] 16 -18 Sep 1944  &  15 Dec 1944 - 1 Feb 1945
* [[Mervyn Joseph Francis]] 11 Nov 1944 - 21 Feb 1945
* [[Roy Searle Williams]] 15 Mar - 2 May 1945
* [[Victor Emanuel Valli]] 8 Apr - 2 May 1945
* [[Leslie Charles Peters]] 10 - 23 Apr 1945


====Notes====
Information comes from ''The Unit Guide Volume 6 - The Australian Army 1939-1945'', page 6.246, Graham R McKenzie-Smith- 2018
<references />

====External Links====


[[Category:2nd AIF Units]]