21st Australian Infantry Training Battalion

Dimra Training Camp March 1941 - AWM photo 040261

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the start of the war in the Pacific the Training Brigade, including the 21st Australian Infantry Training Battalion was withdrawn to Australia in February 1942.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 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