2/19th Battalion (Australia)

The 2/19th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Raised for service during Second World War as part of the Second Australian Imperial Force, it was formed on 15 July 1940 at Walgrove in Sydney and was attached to the 22nd Brigade, 8th Division. Embarking for Singapore on 2 February 1941, the battalion was subsequently involved in heavy fighting against the Japanese as part of the Malayan campaign following the landings on 8 December 1941, during which its commanding officer—Lieutenant Colonel Charles Anderson—was awarded the Victoria Cross. The unit was later captured on the outskirts of Singapore on 15 February 1942, along with the bulk of British Commonwealth forces. The men were initially imprisoned at Changi; however, many were later sent to work on Thai-Burma Railway, while others were sent to prison camps in Borneo, Japan, French Indochina, Java, Sumatra, and Malaya. Following the surrender of Japan the survivors were liberated in August 1945. The battalion was disbanded later in 1945, having sustained the highest casualties of any Australian Army unit during the war, sustaining 620 dead and 197 wounded.