2/2nd Australian Infantry Troops Workshop

30 Jul 1943 The 2/2nd's Motor Transport Company at Malanda prior to shipping out to New Guinea AWM photo 054959

Brief History

The 2/2nd Army Field Workshop headquarters was raised at Caulfield in Victoria in May 1940 along with the main workshops. Their Recovery Sections were raised elsewhere and some were hived off to form the 2/3 Workshops. The HQs and main workshops moved to Williamstown where 44 Recovery Section was formed, and it was where 5 and 6 Recovery Sections raised in South Australia joined them. The unit left for the Middle East in August 1940 via a stop over in Bombay. In October they had reached Helwan in Egypt where they were tasked with supporting the advance into Libya. By December the main workshop was at Sidi Barrine, with 2 recovery units at Amiriya, and the other at Solum. By February 1941 hey had reached Maddalena with 4 Recovery Section forward at Benghazi.

In March 1941 they returned to Amiriya to prepare to go to Greece, but by the time the evacuation was underway, only the 5th Recovery Section had landed, in time to be evacuated. Teh 6th Recovery Section had gone to Tobruk to support the 9th Infantry Division at the beginning of the siege. In June the HQ, workshop, and 4 Recovery Section was at Barbara in Palestine, with the 4th Recovery Section then going to Syria with the 7th Infantry Division, where they were joined by the 5th Recovery Section in August and the rest of the unit who joined them in Damascus in October. When Japan entered the war, they were recalled, returning to Egypt in January, and Australia in July, having spent a time as garrison forces in Ceylon.

The large army field workshops were re-organised in June 1942, so when the 2/2nd Army Field Workshop arrived at Singleton they were re-organised and renamed 2/2nd Australian Army Ordnance Workshop, with staffing of 145 men. In November they relocated to Moorebank and when AEME took over all workshop functions in December, the remainder was renamed 2/2nd Australian Infantry Troops Workshop. They were then allocated to the task of establishing new camp sites in the Atherton Tablelands, moving to Atherton in January 1943, and Malanda in February.

In August 1943 the unit moved to Port Moresby where they worked from the 9 Mile Camp. With units in Lae taking over their work by March 1944, they departed for Wongabel in Queensland to await a new role in the islands north of New Guinea. In March 1945 the unit moved to the staging area being established at Morotai, before landing at the new base area of Labuan in June. They remained there for the rest of the war.

Unit Personnel

• Clarence Malarkey 31 May - 10 Dec 1943

Notes

Content has come from The Unit Guide - Volume 5 - The Australian Army 1939-1945, page 5.547 - Graham R McKenzie-Smith - Big Sky Publishing - 2018