The 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion was an Australian Army unit raised for service with the all volunteer Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) during the Second World War. Formed in late 1940 as part of the 8th Division, the battalion was established to provide direct fire support to the division's infantry brigades. It was the fourth, and last, such unit raised within the 2nd AIF. The unit's personnel were largely drawn from the state of Western Australia and after formation, the battalion concentrated near Perth for basic individual training before moving to the Adelaide Hills to complete more advance manoeuvres.

In late 1941, amidst concerns of war in the Pacific, the unit was deployed north to Darwin in the Northern Territory, where they undertook garrison duties in the weeks following Japan's entry into the war. Following Japanese landings in Malaya, the 2/4th embarked from Darwin and were transferred to Malaya, arriving in Singapore in the final days of the fighting on the peninsula. In the wake of the withdrawal of British and Commonwealth forces to the island, the battalion was hastily deployed in support of the two Australian brigades—the 22nd and 27th Brigades—in the north-western sector of the island. During the initial Japanese landing, elements of the battalion were heavily engaged around the landing beaches but they were outnumbered and over the course of the week the defenders were pushed back towards the centre of the island, towards the city of Singapore. They suffered heavy casualties during this time, before subsequently becoming prisoners of war after the fall of Singapore.

Meanwhile, a detachment of about 100 men from the battalion, who had been left behind in Australia when it deployed to Singapore, also took part in the fighting on Java. After a brief campaign, the majority of these personnel were taken into captivity when the Allied forces were overwhelmed around Buitenzorg in mid-March 1942, although some attempted to fight on as guerillas. Eventually these men were either killed or captured; prisoners remained in Japanese captivity until the end of the war in August 1945. During the three-and-a-half years they were held by the Japanese, members of the 2/4th were sent to prison camps around the Pacific, where they were used as slave labour and subjected to harsh conditions and extreme brutality. After the war, the surviving members of the battalion were returned to Australia but the 2/4th was not re-raised.

History

Formation and training The 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion was one of four machine gun battalions raised as part of the all volunteer Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) for service overseas during the Second World War. Motorised infantry units, equipped with wheeled motor vehicles and tracked carriers, the machine gun battalions were formed to provide a greater level of fire support than that ordinarily available within infantry battalions. Developed by the British Army, the concept had its genesis in the Australian Army during the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915, when the machine guns assigned to the infantry battalions—initially two and then four—had been grouped together and co-ordinated at brigade level, to help compensate for the lack of artillery support. On the Western Front, the concept had evolved through the establishment of machine gun companies in 1916 and finally, in 1918, to the establishment of machine gun battalions. Similar formations had also been established among the Australian Light Horse units serving in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. During the inter-war years, the machine gun battalions had been deemed unnecessary. They were not re-raised when the Army was reorganised in 1921 but in 1937, as the Australian Army looked to expand owing to fears of war in Europe, four such units were formed within the part-time Militia, by converting light horse units and motorising them. Several other Militia machine gun battalions were also raised as new units later after the Second World War began. These were formed by consolidating the machine gun companies assigned to a number of infantry battalions, and other light horse units were also converted into the role for use as garrison forces. Within the 2nd AIF—Australia's overseas expeditionary force—the decision was made to raise four machine gun battalions as corps troops that were usually allocated at a rate of one per division; several of the Militia units were also later designated Australian Imperial Force units, after the majority of their personnel volunteered for overseas service. This meant that they could be deployed outside of Australian territory even though they were not 2nd AIF units.

In mid-1940, amid the tide of German successes in Europe, there was an influx of volunteers for the 2nd AIF. As a result, the Australian government decided to raise a third volunteer division for overseas service, named the 8th Division. Established around three infantry brigades—the 22nd, 23rd and 27th—the division was supported by corps troops including engineers, cavalry, artillery, pioneers and a machine gun battalion for direct fire support. Within this formation, the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion came into being on 25 November 1940, when Lieutenant Colonel Michael Anketell, a First World War veteran who had commanded a Militia infantry battalion before the war, established his headquarters at Northam Camp, near Perth, Western Australia. While the rest of the 8th Division had drawn its personnel mainly from the more populous eastern states of New South Wales and Victoria, the decision was made to select personnel for the 2/4th only from those who were already enlisted and conducting training in the west. While potentially parochial, it was a primarily a pragmatic decision to reduce the time it would take to concentrate the unit and complete its training.

Like most 2nd AIF units, the 2/4th drew its cadre staff of officers and senior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) from volunteers from local Militia units. These were augmented by partially trained Other Ranks (ORs) from the three local recruit training depots; the first batch of these, numbering 394 men, arrived at Northam on 27 November and a further 262 marched in on 4 December. As the battalion was brought up to its authorised strength of around 800 men, personnel were formed into four machine gun companies, 'A' to 'D', under a headquarters company consisting of several specialist platoons—including signals and anti-aircraft platoons—and battalion headquarters. There were no platoon commanders until a contingent arrived from the regional Officer Training Units. Initially training was hampered by a lack of equipment—only 12 of 48 Vickers machine guns assigned to the battalion were available—so at the start the focus was on individual rather than collective training. As more stores arrived, training accelerated with the help of experienced Militia NCOs and First World War veterans, who were brought in to share their experiences with the new troops. Just before Christmas and New Year's leave, the battalion received its distinctive unit colour patch: a black and gold triangle.

Early in the New Year, the establishment of the battalion's command formation was completed with the appointment of subalterns as platoon commanders, following their return from their first appointment courses. The training continuum evolved with the establishment of an NCO school and various specialist courses, including range finding and transport; a bugle and drum band was also raised. In February 1941, training focused upon skill-at-arms, before undertaking a march from Northam to Perth, which was conducted over the course of three days and was undertaken, according to the Australian War Memorial, to test the "physical fitness and endurance of the personnel and officers" and "the efficiency of the battalion's motor transport and administration personnel". Upon their return, training progressed to field firing, night manoeuvres, portage, defensive exercises and further specialised training, continuing until July, by which time the battalion was considered ready for deployment. That month it received orders to move to Adelaide, South Australia. Proceeding in four drafts—one each on the transports Katoomba and Duntroon and two by rail—they were established at Woodside, in the Adelaide Hills, by the end of the month. The battalion endured a bitter winter, conducting field exercises amidst the steep wooded slopes of the Mount Lofty Range; these became more tactically complex and physically demanding as Anketell worked the battalion up to a peak of efficiency, in preparation for deployment amidst growing tensions in the Pacific.

Garrison duties in northern Australia

In August 1941, the 27th Brigade was sent to Malaya to reinforce the 22nd, which had been serving there in a garrison role since February, having been dispatched while the 2/4th Machine Battalion had been forming. With this, the only 2nd AIF troops remaining in Australia were those of the 23rd Brigade. As a result of concerns about Japanese intentions in the region, the decision was made to move the brigade north to bolster the defences around Darwin in the Northern Territory. In the event of fighting in the Pacific, the government planned to split infantry battalions, to defend the island chain to Australia's north, dispatching forces to Rabaul, Ambon and Timor. The role of the corps troops from the 2/4th Pioneers and 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion remained uncertain. The 8th Division's commander, Major General Gordon Bennett, unhappy with the dispersal of his command, had been agitating for the dispatch of the machine gunners to Malaya to support his two infantry brigades, arguing that they would be valuable for beach defence. Bennett's request had been rejected initially in March, due to the limited numbers of recruits enlisting but by mid-September, elements at Army headquarters in Melbourne had also begun to advocate for it. In early October, following a War Cabinet decision to split the command of the 8th Division in two, removing the elements in Australia from Bennett's command, the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion received orders to move north to Darwin, where it was to serve in a home defence role in case of a Japanese attack.

On 11 October 1941, the battalion entrained at Oakbank and began the journey north. They detrained at Alice Springs, where they camped overnight before continuing the journey by road in a 44-vehicle convoy, which took them further north to Larrimah. There they once again entrained for the final journey to Winnellie, which they reached on 19 October, after overnighting in Katherine.

At Winnellie, the battalion was allocated a large defensive zone between Nightcliff, Lee Point and Shoal Bay, which included a large beach frontage, as well as extensive swamp lands and creeks further inland. Throughout November, extensive work was undertaken improving the camp and preparing this position with fortified emplacements. They also undertook various other garrison duties such as guarding ammunition dumps, and road and railway construction. The battalion also detached a company to Adelaide River for a period to complete construction tasks during this time. Heavy summer rains flooded the camp and surrounding area and as well as hampering construction, brought a wave of dengue fever among the battalion and the threat of crocodile attacks as the creeks within the battalion position swelled; the battalion's mascot, a dog named "Gunner", fell victim. News of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and invasion of Malaya came in early December and with it a need to bolster Australian forces in the Pacific. As Bennett pressed harder for reinforcements, on 23 December the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion received orders to embark for Malaya.

Embarkation