6th Division (Australia) - The Pacific War

The Pacific War

While the 16th and 17th Brigades were in Ceylon, the 19th Brigade, which had proceeded from Fremantle to Adelaide in mid-March. They remained there until April when a short period of leave was granted. Once the men had reported back, the brigade was split up, with the 2/11th Infantry Battalion being sent to Western Australia to undertake garrison duty while the brigade's other infantry battalions and the divisional cavalry regiment were sent to the Northern Territory to bolster its defences in the wake of Japanese successes; the 19th Brigade would subsequently not see any combat for another three-and-a-half years. While there, the 2/11th's place within the 19th Brigade was taken by a Militia unit, the 23rd/21st Battalion. At the same time, many of the division's experienced officers and non commissioned officers were transferred out to Militia units in order to prepare them for operations against the Japanese. In June, one the division's artillery regiments, the 2/3rd was transferred to the 5th Division. Having spent nearly six months in Ceylon, the 16th and 17th Brigades arrived back in Australia in August and they subsequently returned to their states of origin. After a brief period of leave, welcome home parades were held in Sydney for the 16th and in Melbourne for the 17th. Less than a week later, the 6th Division received orders to deploy overseas again, this time to meet the Japanese southward thrust through New Guinea. After this, the division would spend the remainder of the war fighting elements of the Japanese XVII Army in New Guinea and until the final year of the war, it would do so in individual brigade-level components, rather than as a unified command.