Australian troops of 2/14th Battalion, 7th Division, come ashore at Yellow Beach, Balikpapan, Netherland East Indies; 1 July, 1945.

Borneo Campaign. Battle of Balikpapan

Australian soldiers on the Kokoda Track (or Trail) in New Guinea, South-Western Pacific Ocean; c. 1942-43. 
The soldier in the foreground carries an American Thompson submachine gun.

On a difficult terrain

Private R. Gaudry of the 2-3d Battalion, AIF (Australian Imperial Force) with his Owen submachine gun in  New Guinea; South-Western Pacific, 1945.
The Owen sub was the only entirely Australian-designed and constructed service submachine gun of World War II and was used by the Australian Army from 1942 until 1971.

Fighter with his own country's weapon

Balikpapan, a major oil producing and port city, Netherland, East Indies.  
A platoon of Australian infantry from 7th Division move forward to clear the suburb of Klandasan of any remaining Japanese; July 1945.  

Australian soldiers at a burning oil storage facility on Tarakan Island during the fighting for Borneo; Dutch East Indies, April 12, 1945.

Oil-rich northern part of the island

Members of the 2/24th Infantry Battalion pose with captured Japanese swords and flags in Borneo, Netherlands East Indies; July 1945.

Australian Infantry

Troops from the Australian 2/43rd Infantry Battalion, 2/9th Armored Regiment, advance with a Matilda tank on Labuan Island, off the coast of Northern Borneo; June 1945. The soldier on the far right is carrying an Owen submachine gun.

Aussie soldiers and tank together

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.

Australian Forces

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