British Vehicle New Guinea

[Mike Cecil]

To add another aspect to Lang's post about AIF and Militia units, after the re-organisation of the Army in 1942, Militia units could elect to become an AIF unit, by a vote of unit personnel (how democratic!)

To convert to AIF, at least 75% of a unit's listed personnel had to vote in favour of becoming an AIF unit, which then lifted any restrictions on where the unit was deployed.

Units that did elect to 'go AIF' then appended the suffix (AIF) after the unit title, but were not permitted to use the prefix '2/' before the unit title, which was reserved for those units that had been specifically raised as second AIF units.

Many units elected to 'go AIF' between 1942 and 1945.

Festberg (1972) shows that the 19th Infantry Battalion (The South Sydney Regiment) elected to 'go AIF' but he does not provide a GRO reference for the change, which is odd. It is the only reference I know of that claims the unit elected to 'go AIF', all others referring to it simply as 19 Inf Bn, including several date-specific references I have and the recently-published work of McKenzie-Smith on Australian units.

19 Inf Bn were part of 1 Aust Infantry Division in NSW from mid-September 1942 to July 1943, when the unit moved to NG and under command 11 Aust Infantry Division. When moved to New Britain in 1944, it became part of 5 Aust Infantry Division.

Getting far away from a bogged Matador, but interesting nevertheless.

Mike