The much maligned 53rd Battalion.

When Japan entered the Second World War in late 1941, most of Australia's armed forces had already been at war for two years, serving in the Middle East and Europe against the Germans and Italians.
With the bulk of Australia's forces so far away, Australia needed to immediately raise troops to defend the homeland from a feared possible Japanese invasion.
Two militia battalions raised, the 39th and 53rd with little training, were sent to Australia's colonial outpost New Guinea.
Japan's forces quickly spread south through Asia with land and naval victories against poorly organised colonial forces, English, Dutch, American and Australian.
In New Guinea the tiny village of Kokoda, which had an air-strip, was identified as a position that must be held.
Located below the northern slopes of the Owen Stanley Ranges, Kokoda, if captured by the Japanese, would afford them an ideal place to launch air attacks against New Guinea's capital of Port Moresby, a vital supply harbour for the allied efforts to halt Japanese progress.
The 39th Battalion had received some training and element of the battalion were airlifted over the Owen Stanley's to defend Kokoda.
Japan invaded New Guinea in 1942 and soon swept aside the small Australian/New Guinea forces on the northern coast and began to make their way inland, towards Kokoda.
Fierce battles would take place over the following months between the Australian/New Guinea forces and the battle hardened Japanese who had gained much fighting experience through their invasion of China and the battles there that had followed.
Until Australian AIF forces could reach New Guinea from the Middle East, the defence of Kokoda, the Kokoda Track and Port Moresby would need to be made by the inexperienced Australian militia battalions, along with Australian expats fighting with New Guinea raised volunteer units and small regular outfits.
Whilst the 39th Battalion acquitted itself well, the 53rd Battalion, which had mostly been employed with unloading cargo ships in Port Moresby and building roads, and had thus received very limited military training, was soon sent up the Kokoda Track to support the 39th.
Whilst some sections of the 53rd fought well, the majority were soon overwhelmed by the Japanese forces facing them and many abandoned their positions in the claustrophobic jungle, exposing the flanks of the 39th and the newly arrived regular AIF forces which had begun to appear at the front.
Poor performance of the 53rd led to much persecution of the battalion with field commanders demanding the withdrawal of the battalion as they were deemed a liability that could not be trusted.
A terrible indictment for any military unit to be accused of.
Yet the 53rd had received next to no training, some members had not even fired their weapons in any sort of training before meeting the advancing Japanese in the dense jungle. Some members had been quickly enlisted of the streets of Sydney, put aboard ships and sent to New Guinea without even having the time to let their families know what had happened let alone where they might be going.
The 53rd is a rare stain in the greater Australian military story, but perhaps it was not as terrible as we today believe.
These soldiers, many of them little more than boys, were thrown to the wolves in desperate times and under the circumstances of little training or support and in some cases inexperienced leadership.
Later in the war the 53rd would return to combat with far superior training and preparedness and acquit themselves well against the now retreating Japanese.

Read more of these incredible events in Brett Wright's new book, Lines of Escape. 

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