Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Kelly
Many of them ( Kokoda units like 39th battallion ), were made up from teenage soldiers , almost press ganged into the army and sent North without any seroius training. They faced crack experienced Japanese troops.
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John
You are correct and we should be proud of the lads of the 39th a CMF (Citizens Military Force) Militia Battalion known as Chocos or Weekend Warriors, the CMF were basically only to be used in Australia but sent to protect Australia from the Japanese push in New Guinea until arrival of the AIF's 2/14th and 2/16th from the Middle East, Prime Minister Curtin defied Churchill and withdrew the troops from the middle east to protect Australia from invasion. We owe a lot to these untried CMF Weekend Warriors who showed what kind of stuff we were made of. The rest is history. But we remember the 625 Killed and 1600 wounded. LEST WE FORGET.
Tony
