What was the 39th battalion

Their strength on 27th July was and by 2nd September, just five weeks later it was down to , of which 90 were ill. It was these remnants of the 39th that paraded at Menari. Colonel Honner relayed the message personally to the men of the battalion on a clearing at Menari.

Damien Parer, the Australian cinematographer was present as the soldiers formed into what was left of their companies. An officer of the 39th asked if the men should clean themselves up prior to hin starting filming. On 8 August the 39th launched a counter-attack at Kokoda but outnumbered and short of ammunition, fell back to Deniki after two days of fighting.

Fighting ceased for almost two weeks. During this time the 39th was joined by the 53rd and the headquarters of the 30th Brigade. The Japanese resumed their advance on 26 August. Exhausted, the 39th was relieved and sent down the track to Koitaki to rest. Between 3 and 18 December the Battalion lost eight officers and men — killed and wounded.

While serving with the later unit, as a platoon sergeant under Lieutenant Albert Chown, Austin was badly wounded in March , in the incident which won Chown his Victoria Cross and for which Austin was Mentioned in Dispatches. Sailing from Melbourne on 27 May, the battalion arrived in Britain on 18 July and commenced four months of training. It crossed to France in late November and moved into the trenches of the Western Front for the first time on 9 December, just in time for the onset of the terrible winter of The 39th fought in its first major battle at Messines, in Belgium, between June During its march to the start-line for this operation the battalion suffered heavily from a German gas bombardment and less than a third of the troops earmarked to attack actually did so.

The battalion, however, captured all of its objectives. What followed was a series of hard-fought retreats over six weeks. The 39th had limited supplies and suffered badly from disease, but they did the job asked of them - they stalled the Japanese long enough for reinforcements to arrive. It left the battalion exhausted and undermanned.

Once the Kokoda Trail was back in Australian hands, the 39th was once again sent north, this time to help in the fighting around Buna-Gona. December saw them clash with well-defended Japanese positions, but despite heavy losses, they once again succeeded.