2/2nd Pioneer Battalion (Australia)

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2/2nd Pioneer Battalion
Active1940–1945
CountryAustralia
BranchArmy
RolePioneer
Part of7th Division
EngagementsWorld War II
Insignia
Unit colour patch

The 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion was one of four

Borneo campaign
in 1945 before being disbanded.

History

Formed in May 1940 at

Puckapunyal, Victoria, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Nelson Wellington,[1] the battalion was one of four pioneer battalions raised as part of the Second Australian Imperial Force during World War II. The concept of pioneer battalions had originally been explored by the Australians during World War I, when five such battalions were formed and utilised as support troops assigned at divisional level on the Western Front. Notionally organised along a traditional infantry structure, pioneer battalions consisted of a headquarters and four companies, and were expected to serve to undertake minor engineering tasks during combat in order to free up trained engineers for more complex tasks. Within the divisional structure, the pioneers were administered as corps troops under the direction of the divisional engineer commander.[2]

After completing initial training, the 2/2nd Pioneers embarked upon the Queen Mary in April 1941 and sailed for the

Syria–Lebanon Campaign, where they fought mainly as infantry.[1][4] The battalion had not been fully trained in this role and had not received all the equipment required, lacking mortars and possessing only a small number of automatic weapons, and lacking some of the specialist troops of established infantry battalions, including an intelligence section.[5] Nevertheless, it was committed to several attacks, including a two company frontal assault on Fort Merdjayoun on 17 June, which resulted in heavy casualties with 27 killed, 46 wounded, and 29 being taken prisoner.[6] Further actions followed around Merdjayoun, El Mtolle and Damour before the Vichy French defenders capitulated in July. Casualties throughout the whole campaign amounted to 14 officers and 161 other ranks killed or wounded.[7]

Pioneers from the 2/2nd digging-in, Syria, November 1941.

Following the completion of the fighting in Syria, the 2/2nd Pioneers undertook training and garrison duties moving between several locations including Damour, Tripoli, Fort Legout, and then Qatana.

Netherlands East Indies campaign, the 2/2nd Pioneers took part in a brief, but bitter engagement before being ordered to surrender; a large number of the 2/2nd's personnel were captured – over 800 men – of whom 258 later died in captivity.[1] Dispatched across south-east Asia, the men were used as forced labour on the Burma–Thailand railway, and in camps on Java and Borneo.[3]

A small number of personnel who had been in the battalion's rear detail, managed to avoid capture having been routed separately from the Middle East. Returning to Australia, initially they were to be redistributed to other units, but eventually the decision was made to reform the 2/2nd and throughout the remainder of 1942 and into 1943 the battalion was rebuilt from this

advance into the Finisterres, including the fighting around Shaggy Ridge, until early 1944 when they returned to Australia for rest and reorganisation.[1]

The battalion's final involvement in the war came in mid-1945 when it deployed to support both the 7th and

Mentions in Despatches.[1]

After the war, the functions of the pioneers were subsumed into traditional infantry battalions, which each raised a platoon of assault pioneers within their support companies. As a result, no pioneer battalions have been re-raised in the Australian Army since the end of World War II.[9]

Battle honours

For the service during World War II, the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion was awarded the following battle honours:

  • Syria 1941, Merjayun, Damour, Mazaraat ech Chouf, South-West Pacific 1942–1945, Lae–Nadzab, Lae Road, Liberation of Australian New Guinea, Ramu Valley, Shaggy Ridge, Java 1942.[1]

References

Citations
  1. ^ a b c d e f g "2/2nd Pioneer Battalion". Second World War, 1939–1945 units. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  2. ^ Dennis et al 1995, pp. 465–466.
  3. ^
    ISSN 1321-7879
    .
  4. ^ Dennis et al 1995, p. 465.
  5. ^ Long 1953, p. 408.
  6. ^ Long 1953, p. 409.
  7. ^ Long 1953, p. 526.
  8. ^ Dexter 1961, p. 270.
  9. ^ a b Dennis et al 1995, p. 466.
Bibliography

Further reading
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