View the pdf - Australian Army

company position, which then also came under attack. On 31 March McKinna leda composite relief force of infantry, engineers and a tank troop, which had beenreleased for the brigade’s use given ‘evidence of the vigorous counter offensive bythe enemy’,144 to the besieged companies. Over the course of this fighting eightAustralians were killed, fifty-eight wounded and 130 Japanese confirmed killed.145On the morning of 5 April the 25th Battalion’s headquarters group at Slater’s Knollwas attacked in great strength, and later two of the forward companies were alsoattacked. By early afternoon airstrikes, artillery fire and infantry and tank counterattackshad succeeded in defeating these attacks, which cost the enemy 296 dead atSlater’s Knoll alone.146 McKinna was awarded an immediate DSO and by 14 Aprilthe entire battalion had been relieved by a unit from the 15th Brigade.147Both the 9th and 61st Battalions were involved in this hard fighting in lateMarch. For example, the 9th Battalion’s B echelon at Barara was attacked on thenight of 28–29 March, resulting in twenty-three Japanese dead, while a companyof the 61st, located near McKinna’s B echelon, was similarly attacked on the samenight. The following morning the same company was tasked with clearing thetrack to Slater’s Knoll, but after a forty-five minute firefight, resulting in twoAustralian dead, was unable to dislodge what was estimated to be an entrenchedforce of seventy Japanese.148 The 25th Battalion’s report pointedly noted that on 30March, ‘Although the responsibility of opening the LOC [lines of communication]to 25 Bn HQ was that of A Coy 61 Bn, the CO decided not to wait any longer, but144 ‘7 Aust Inf Bde Report on Operations 26 Oct 44 to 16 May 45’, p. 8, 7 Infantry BrigadeWar Diary, August 1945, Appendices, AWM 52, Item 8/2/7.145 ‘25 Aust Inf Bn Report on Operations in South Bougainville 16 January to 14 April1945’, pp. 22–3, 25 Infantry Battalion War Diary, January–April 1945, AWM 52, Item8/3/63; Long, The Final Campaigns, pp. 161–162.146 Long, The Final Campaigns, pp. 162–3; ‘25 Aust Inf Bn Report on Operations in SouthBougainville 16 January to 14 April 1945’, p. 25, 25 Infantry Battalion War Diary,January–April 1945, AWM 52, Item 8/3/63.147 Field’s diary, 8 April 1945, AWM 3DRL6937, Item 7; ‘25 Aust Inf Bn Report onOperations in South Bougainville 16 January to 14 April 1945’, p. 26, 25 InfantryBattalion War Diary, January–April 1945, AWM 52, Item 8/3/63.148 61 Infantry Battalion War Diary, 29 March, February–March 1945, AWM 52, Item8/3/96; ‘25 Aust Inf Bn Report on Operations in South Bougainville 16 January to 14April 1945’, p. 21, 25 Infantry Battalion War Diary, January–April 1945, AWM 52,Item 8/3/63.30 — A tale of three battalions