52nd Gippsland Regiment Story

On Remembrance Day this year, a bridge in Greater Dandenong is to be named the Gippsland Regiment Bridge to honour the memory of the 52nd Battalion. The Gippsland Regiment was a part-time Militia Unit which prior to World War 2 had its Headquarters in the Drill Hall in Dandenong and which drew its members from the local Dandenong area. In World War 2 it was first mobilised to defend Australia and then sent to fight the Empire of Japan’s forces in New Guinea.

This unit In turn was numbered the 52nd Battalion to honour the memory of the battalion of the same number which fought in World War 1.

This article seeks to acquaint readers with military history from a local perspective. The links between where you live and events in Australia’s military history are often very strong and if you are proud of where you live, there often are more reasons than you may think to be so. The reason for this is that many places and cities in Australia have direct links to military units which served our country in its darkest hours during World War 2 because the pre-war Australian Army consisted of part-time Militia units which were formed on a regional basis and recruited their soldiers from the local area in a similar way to the Country Fire Authority.

In the early part of World War 2 Australia’s all-volunteer Army, the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was raised with officers and senior soldiers sourced from the peace time Militia and which was then deployed to North Africa to fight against the forces of Hitler’s Germany. When the Empire of Japan suddenly entered the War and thrust seemingly unstoppably Southward, Australia found itself with its best trained and equipped forces, the AIF in the European Theatre. The defence of Australia, in its moment of peril, fell upon the hastily mobilized Australian Military Forces (AMF), Militia Units.

Dandenong’s local unit was the 52 Battalion known as the Gippsland Regiment. Following World War 1 It was decided by Defence that it would be beneficial for the post-war Army to be able to lay claim to the spirit and traditions so hard won by the 1st AIF. This was primarily reflected in the choice to assign battalion numbers that wherever possible aligned to the regions from which the battalions were originally raised. Soldiers from Dandenong where more likely to have served in the 58th or 59th Battalions in World War 1 but these battalions had been re-raised elsewhere. The numbers of available recruits meant it was possible to raise a further battalion in Victoria. Therefore after a false start with the 48th Battalion, it was decided to assign the battalion number 52 to the Gippsland Regiment.

The decision to re-raise the 52nd Battalion in Dandenong after the war was really a tribute to the high regard for the service of the original 52nd Battalion. The original 52nd Battalion was an ‘other’ states battalion in World War 1 and drawn from Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland. It is by means of the Armies choice of the number 52 for its battalion that the Gippsland Regiment laid claim to and carried on its colours (a record of its official history) several World War 1 battle honours including the now legendary battle of Villers Bretonneux on ANZAC Day 1918. The original 52 Battalion suffered such heavy casualties at Villers Bretonneux and was disbanded soon after on 16th May 1918.

When Japan entered the war in 1941 the 52 Battalion was training as part of the 3rd Division in the Seymour Area. Both the 52nd Battalion and 3rd Division were seriously deficient in the; level of training, the number of men serving (it was about half strength) and the equipment needed as the needs of the AIF serving in what, till then, had been the only active war front had been met at the expense of the AMF.

The year 1942 was a year firstly of alarms and setbacks in the Pacific followed by hard fought battles on the Kakoda Track and then on the Northern Coast of New Guinea. Singapore had fallen in February and with it went the Australian 8th Division also in February Darwin was bombed for the first time. In March the Japanese landed in New Guinea and pushed south, resisted at first only by Militia Units including the heroic 39th Battalion known as the Hawthorn Regiment. In the scramble to organise Australia’s defence the training of Militia Battalions intensified and it became common practice to combine understrength Militia Battalions into deployable battalions and then move them quickly north with them taking on more and more important roles in Australia’s Defence. As a result of wartime needs late 1942 found the 52nd Battalion in Queensland as part of the 4th Brigade having been transferred from the disbanded 10th Brigade and defending the Brisbane Line. On the 27th August 1942 it was linked with the 37th Battalion known as the Hunt or Henty Regiment a Militia Unit drawn from Sale and the East Gippsland region to form the 37th/52nd Battalion. The other 4th Brigade units where the 22nd Battalion known as the South Gippsland Regiment and the 29th/46th Battalion a combination of the 29th the East Melbourne regiment and the 46th the Brighton Rifles all pre-war Militia Units.

The 4th Brigade including the 37th/52nd Battalion was then deployed to Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea on 25th February 1943. By February 1943 Milne Bay would be what would be regarded in the military as a quiet or nursery sector. There was an ongoing threat from Japanese stragglers and potential saboteurs. Service at Milne Bay also represented an opportunity for further training to improve the battalion’s combat skills as well as an opportunity to learn how to operate in the harsh tropical conditions that prevailed in New Guinea. This was considered to be needed so that the battalion would be better prepared for more demanding operations against the main Japanese forces later in the war. The downside of service at Milne bay was that the base was being developed into an important logistical hub needed to support further operations in New Guinea and the later Philippines campaigns. Due to this fact the 37th/52nd Battalion found that for much of 1943, in addition to its Base Security roles and the need to keep itself combat ready, it was required to provide labour details to provide the roads, defensive accommodation and field works needed to ensure that this important base could function in the face of constant Japanese land and air threats.

By mid-September the Salamaua-Lae campaign had been successfully completed. This was followed the battle of Sattelberg. General Doulas MacArthur’s then designed the pursuit phase along the Huon Peninsula campaign as the next part of his New Guinea strategy. The 4th Brigade to which the 37th/52nd Battalion was attached was now considered sufficiently combat capable and was placed under command of the 9th Division for this next operation. Its commander Major General Wooten ordered the 4th Brigade to lead the Australian main effort on the first part of this campaign which was the Advance from Gusika to Fortification Point. This operation in turn represented part of the Advance to Sio which was all part of Operation Cartwheel MacArthur’s strategy to isolate the large Japanese air and naval base at Rabaul.

The Commander of the 4th Brigade, Brigadier C. R. V. Edgar’s available forces for this operation consisted of his own 4th Brigade, C Squadron the 1st Australian Tank Battalion; 9 Platoon C Company the Papuan Infantry Battalion, and detachments from the 532nd EBSR (An American waterborne supply unit), Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU), Australian Army Service Corps (AASC) and the Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC). In support were the Sappers of the 2/7th Field Company and the artillery of the 2/6th Field Regiment.

Brigadier Edgar planned the Advance so that 29th/46th Battalion with a Company of 37th/52nd Battalion attached under Command alternated with the 22nd Battalion in Advancing along the Coast whilst the remainder of the 37th/52nd Battalion provided flank protection by advancing parallel to but inland from the main 4th Brigade force. The terrain on the inland route consisted of dense jungle on the seaward slopes of steep mountain ranges cut by several fast flowing rivers in full flood as it was the rainy season. Indeed the terrain was regarded by many of the soldiers as more of an obstacle than the enemy. That said, elements of the battalion were involved in a number of sharp fire fights with Japanese forces and the battalion lost eighteen Killed in Action during the Advance.

Following this campaign the 37th/52nd Battalion then took part in the amphibious landing on Karker Island which in the event was unopposed as the Japanese had abandoned the Island shortly before the landing. The battalion then took its part in occupying Madang before their return to Australia in August 1944.
At a parade in Melbourne to mark their return from their first deployment in October of 1944 the Minister of the Army, Francis Forde who was in attendance made the comment “These men have done all that has been asked of them. They have been asked to do more than we could rightfully expect”.

The 37th/52nd Battalion was then refitted and retrained before it was deployed to New Britain as part of the 5th Division to contain the very large number of Japanese forces at Rabaul. When Japan surrendered the battalion then moved to Rabaul where it spent several months supervising and facilitating the repatriation of the surrendered Japanese forces. Whilst at Rabaul the numbers in the 37th/52nd Battalion diminished as members become eligible for repatriation. The unit was disbanded whilst stationed in Rabaul in June 1946 and its remaining members allocated to other units.

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Honours Awarded

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52ndBattalion WW1

Battle Honours
Somme 1916, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele, Ancre 1918, Villers Bretonneux, France and Flanders 1916 – 1918 and Egypt 1916.
2 Distinguished Service Orders (DSO), 17 Military Crosses (MC), 1 Bar to MC, 88 Military Medals (MM), 1 Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) and twenty Mentioned in Despatches (MID).
Roll of honour 647.

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37th/52nd Battalion WW2
Battle Honours
Capture of Lae and Gusika – Fortification Point
One Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM), One MM and ten MID.
Roll of honour 31.

Lest we forget.