A patrol from the 2/13th Infantry Battalion, 9th Division (Australia), wait in a tank ditch for a favourable opportunity to go further into no-man's land;  8 September 1941.

Fighting in the desert

Nurses from an Australian Casualty Clearing Station arriving at Aitape, northern Papua New Guinea; 1945. 

Nurses from down under

Hatazō Adachi, the commander of the Japanese 18th Army in New Guinea, surrenders his sword to the commander of the Australian 6th Division, Horace Robertson.

Symbol of surrender

A Commonwealth infantry patrol pauses near a possible Japanese strong-point; Burma, south-east Asia, 12 April, 1945.

Caution, enemy ahead

Australian gunners fire from a 57 mm anti-tank gun (QF 6 pounder 7 cwt) in the Libyan desert. 1942.

Under the North African sun

An Australian army officer interrogates Japanese soldiers captured during the fighting in Papua New Guinea. Standing watch over the proceedings are armed Papuan scouts.

Questioning POWs

Soldiers of the 9th Australian Infantry Division at the ready with a captured Italian Cannone da 47/32 mod. 47 mm anti-tank gun.  The photo was taken during the battles at El Alamein, Egypt, 1942.  
  The Cannone da 47/32 mod. 1935 was an Italian artillery piece, that was used both as an infantry gun and an anti-tank gun; it was effective against lightly armored tanks.

Aussies in North Africa

Australian 2 pounder gun of 13th Battery, 4th Anti-Tank Regiment, firing on Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go light tanks of the 14th Tank Regiment on the Muar-Parit Sulong road on 18 January 1942. Sergeant Charles Parsons and his crew were credited with destroying six of the nine tanks in this engagement.

Action during the Malayan Campaign

Corporal Leslie Allen (November 1916-May 1982) - nicknamed "Bull" Allen - of the 17th Infantry Brigade, Australian Army, during a battle carries an American soldier wounded by a splinter of a Japanese mine on the slope of Mount Tambu, New Guinea on July 30, 1943, during the Allied attacks on the Japanese positions. He also carried out twelve other seriously wounded American soldiers under fire to the rear. For his action he was awarded the Silver Star (U.S. decoration).

Hero under fire

A group of Australan soldiers of 2/28th (Infantry) Battalion unearth and deactivate a Japanese bomb in New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Pacific Ocean; 1944-45.

Neutralizing a bomb

Soldiers of the 6th Division of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on board a train, before being sent to the front; 1941. 


On to fight Germans

An unidentified LST and USS LST-806 beached at Labaun Island, just off northern Borneo, while offloading Royal Australian Air Force trucks; 11 June, 1945. 


Trucks for Air Force

Soldiers of the 7th Australian Infantry Division and Matilda tanks advance on the road of the island of Borneo, Indonesia. 

Infantry and tanks move on

Lt. Gen. Baba signing the Instrument of Surrender, watched by Maj. Gen. Wootten.

   Major General George F. Wootten, General Officer Commanding, Australian 9th Division, accepted the surrender of all Japanese Forces from Lieutenant General Masao Baba, Supreme Commander of Japanese Forces in Borneo and Commander of the 37th Japanese Army, in a surrender ceremony held at Headquarters of 9th Division; Labuan Island, off the coast of northern Borneo, Indonesia, 10 September, 1945.

Making surrender official

Lieutenant General Baba Masao, Supreme Japanese Commander in Borneo, Indonesia, arriving for the signing of the Japanese surrender to Australian Forces; Labuan island, off the coast of northern Borneo, 9 September, 1945.

Arrive to surrender

A Matilda tank of 'B' Squadron, 2/4th Australian Armored Regiment, with tank-borne infantry, moving along the Buin Road, south of the Hongorai River during mopping-up operations on Bougainville Island, in eastern Papua New Guinea, northern Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean. 

Ride in a jungle road

Australian troops crossing a shallow river with vehicles on the island of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, north of Australia; 1945.

Crossing a jungle river

Australian troops advance from the village of Gona toward the village of Buna, on Papua Territory, in New Guinea; 1943.
Papua New Guinea is the eastern half of the island of New Guinea in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, north of Australia.
 

Australians advance

An Australian Matilda II tank of the 4th Armored Brigade, lands on Toko Beach, south of Empress Augusta Bay on the west coast of Bougainville and west of Puriata River. This was part of a general Australian advance south towards the Japanese base at Buin. 


Matilda tank comes ashore

Australian troops advancing through the jungle toward the town of Lae on the island of Papua New Guinea against Japanese resistance. The town was taken on 16 September, 1943.

New Guinea campaign

Corporal Peter Teague, of the Australian 1st Armored Regiment, showing the Japanese sword which he captured after shooting a Japanese soldier in a tunnel on Vasey Highway during the "Oboe II. Operation" on Balikpapan, the island of Borneo, Indonesia; 2 July 1945.

War trophy sword

Troops of the Australian 6th Division wave good bye as their transport ship leaves Sydney harbor; 1940.

Leaving Sydney harbor

Members of C Company (mostly from 14 Platoon), Australian 2/11th Infantry Battalion, part of the 6th Infantry Division, having penetrated the outer defences of Tobruk, Libya, assemble again on the escarpment on the south side of the harbour after attacking anti-aircraft gun positions;  22 January 1941

Australian soldiers from the 2/10th Infantry Battalion prepare for a patrol around Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea; September 1942.

Australian Forces

Search Results