Places of Pride, the National Register of War Memorials, is a new initiative designed to record the locations and photographs of every publicly accessible memorial across Australia. As in Greece, a large number of men were unable to be evacuated and as a result a large number of 6th Division personnel, including the majority of the 2/1st, 2/7th and 2/11th Battalions, were taken prisoner. ROYAL AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERS. [5][6] Of the division's infantry battalions, all except one – the 2/11th – were raised in either New South Wales or Victoria. We recognise their continuing connection to land, sea and. The 6th Division was the first division formed for the Second AIF in the Second World War. In 1917, the battalion participated in the operations that followed-up the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, and then returned to Belgium to join the great offensive launched to the east of Ypres. Arriving in Egypt, the regiment immediately went to Palestine, where it joined the rest of the 6th Division and trained using machine-gun carriers and, from October, six old Vickers light tanks. [3] The Militia formations were mainly employed in Australia as garrison forces to respond in the event of an invasion, and as the war progressed and the threat of Japanese invasion passed many were only partially formed and or broken up without having seen combat. The 11th Division was one such example, with various elements seeing action in New Guinea during the Finisterre Range campaign and on New Britain. [36] In the process they suffered 168 casualties. [88], Soldiers from the 2/11th Infantry Battalion resting on a river bank before attacking Japanese positions near Matapau in January 1945, The Japanese had occupied the Aitape–Wewak area in northern New Guinea in 1942 and had held it until April 1944 when the Americans had undertaken an amphibious landing around Aitape. After Tobruk, the regiment was used as part of the advance guard in the capture of Derna and then Benghazi. [89][93], With the 19th Brigade and the 2/7th Commando Squadron leading off along the coast route in December and the 17th Brigade with the 2/10th moving into a Torricellis, a series of small-scale actions followed. As a formation, the 6th Division fought in the campaigns in Libya, The regiment remained in Syria as part of the occupation force and returned to Australia in March 1942. [78] At the same time, the Allies began planning wider operations to capture Lae. This was particularly so during early 1942 and late 1943. The 6th Division Cavalry Regiment was formed in November 1939 and, just two months later, was sent overseas to the Middle East in January 1940. [45] After this, the division would spend the remainder of the war fighting elements of the Japanese XVII Army in New Guinea and until the final year of the war, it would do so in individual brigade-level components, rather than as a unified command. : Over 35 Ten days after the landing, the 2nd Brigade was transferred from ANZAC to Cape Helles to help in the attack on the village of Krithia.