Description

Title: Forever Forward – The History of the 2/31st Australian Infantry Battalion 2nd AIF 1940 – 45

Author: Laffin, John

Condition: Very Good

Edition: 1st Edition

Publication Date: 1994

ISBN: 06646185837

Cover: Hard Cover without Dust Jacket – 333 pages 

Comments: The detailed history of the 2/31st Infantry Battalion. Very scarce as a 1st edition.

During the Second Great War, 1939-45, Australia was part of what was then known as the British Empire and its people were called upon to fight against the scourge of the Nazi Germans, the Facist Italians and the Imperialist Japanese.  These nations, the ‘Axis Powers’, were intent on dominating the world by armed conquest and cruel oppression.  In their scores of thousands, young Australians volunteered to serve their country at sea, in the air and on land.  On the ground the greatest dangers and in consequence the greatest sacrifice fell upon the infantry battalions, otherwise known as foot soldiers, in scorching deserts, rugged mountains and fetid jungles, the Diggers had first to stop the apparently invincible enemy armies and to drive them back.  The task required a degree of training and discipline, courage and fortitude that could barely be imagined by the civilians whom the soldiers were protecting and by the two generations of Australians who have followed. 

This is the story of one unit, the 2/31st Australian Infantry Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), whose motto because it cannot contemplate retreat.  The men of the 2/31st did what was asked of them.  They fought valiantly and suffered grievously.  The battalion’s gallant dead lie in Syria, Papua New Guinea and Borne, as well as in England, where one of its men was killed during an enemy air raid in 1940.  There can be no one pre-eminant infantry battalion in the second AIF and the 3/31st itself was one of three fine battalions which made up the 25th brigade.  However, it was certainly one of the most distinguished units of the second AIF, as compliments bestowed on it by senior commanders indicate. 

Many members of the battalion have died prematurely as a result of arduous service in disease-ridden areas and each year fewer men are left to answer the roll call.  Even when they have all marched past, their proud battalion’s reputation will continue to move ‘forever forward’ through the pages of this book.

Dust Jacket has been ripped along the spine atsome point for its full length and has then been repaired with sellotape.

This copy previously owned by a member of the battalion VX141243 A.Bruce

This copy contains some letters written by Neville Carlyle the Hon Sec 2/31st Battalion Association and a couple of newspaper clippings pasted in at the front of the book.

Nominal Roll included