4th Australian Recruit Training Battalion

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Brief History

This unit began life as the 5th Pioneer Company which in May 1942 moved to Watsonia in Victoria where it re-organised to form the 34th Australian Infantry Training Battalion to train reinforcements for the 4th Australian Infantry Division. In May 1943 they moved to Cowra in New South Wales, where from October 1943 all recruit training was centralised, and the unit became known as the 4th Australian Recruit Training Battalion.

From this point all recruits regardless of their Corps destination received common training with corps selection undertaken after completion of recruit training. The 4th Australian Recruit Training Battalion appears to have been disbanded or suspended from around April 1944 until February 1945 after which it continued to train recruits until the end of the war.

Unit Personnel

• Robert Hynes 15 Mar - 2 Oct 1945

Trainees

• Rex Gordon Vellender 10 Mar - 3 Jun 1945

Notes

Content has come from The Unit Guide - Volume 6 - The Australian Army 1939-1945, page 6.250 - Graham R McKenzie-Smith - Big Sky Publishing - 2018