PropertyValue
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  • Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion
rdfs:comment
  • The Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army during the Second World War. Initially raised as a company-sized unit in 1941, it was expanded to a full battalion in 1942 and was unique in that almost all of its enlisted men were Torres Strait Islanders, making the battalion the only Indigenous Australian battalion ever formed by the Australian Army. The battalion was used mainly in the garrison role, defending the islands of the Torres Strait, although in 1943 a detachment was sent to patrol Dutch New Guinea. Following the end of the war, the battalion was disbanded in 1946.
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Branch
command structure
identification symbol
  • 70
Country
  • Australia
Type
identification symbol label
Caption
  • Members of the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion on Thursday Island 1945
Dates
  • 1941
Unit Name
  • Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion
Battles
Size
  • ~ 500 men
abstract
  • The Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army during the Second World War. Initially raised as a company-sized unit in 1941, it was expanded to a full battalion in 1942 and was unique in that almost all of its enlisted men were Torres Strait Islanders, making the battalion the only Indigenous Australian battalion ever formed by the Australian Army. The battalion was used mainly in the garrison role, defending the islands of the Torres Strait, although in 1943 a detachment was sent to patrol Dutch New Guinea. Following the end of the war, the battalion was disbanded in 1946.