AUSTRALIAN MILITARY HISTORY

The 2/16th Battalion of the second AIF saw service in several theatres of war, and thus its story becomes in miniature very nearly an account of the Australian army in action during the Second World War.  In the Syrian Campaign the names of Litani, Sidon and Damour carry their own significance.  Then came the return home before the tremendous task awaiting the men in New Guinea.  The desperate fighting along the Kokoda Trail…turning the tide…Gona Beach, and Markham and Ramy Valleys, and the audacious heroism of the Battle of Shaggy Ridge, and then finally Balikpapan, and with it the beginning of the end.  The 16th Battalion, originally recruited in Western Australia, suffered heavy casualties, and eventually, through reinforcements, represented a wide cross-section of the typical Australian citizen-soldier.

The 2/16th Australian Infantry Battalion had an outstanding record during the course of WW2, starting in the Syrian Campaign of mid-1941. They fought a series of battles: at Litani river, Sidon and Damour, thus removing Vichy French forces from Middle East. In 1942 they returned home and were hurried to Papua to repel the Japanese advance.

• xii, 303 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 26 cm. #271224
• First published: [Melbourne] : William Heinemann, 1959.
• Includes indexes.
• Australia. Army. Battalion, 2/16th — History
• World War, 1939-1945 — Regimental histories — Australia
• (Name on fep.)