NUMBER:

VX92192

BATTALION / UNIT / SHIP:

2/14th Infantry Battalion

PLACE OF BIRTH:

Leongatha on 26 March 1925

NEXT OF KIN:

Arthur Bair, his father. His mother was Agnes Madeline Bair.

DATE & PLACE OF ENLISTMENT:

5 May 1943 at Royal Park

LOCATION ON ENLISTMENT:

Leongatha

DATE & PLACE OF DEATH:

6 July 1945 near Balikpapan in present day Indonesia

LOCATION OF GRAVE/MEMORIAL:

He is buried in Labuan War Cemetery East Malaysia and remembered on the Leongatha Memorial

RELATIONSHIP TO WOORAYL SHIRE:

The Bair family were pioneers of Leongatha in 1890 and Robert lived in the town

MILITARY/OTHER HISTORY:

By the time Robert enlisted the Australian Government had recalled the 2/14th Battalion from the Middle East and they were trained in jungle warfare in Australia before going to New Guinea to fight the Japanese. 

In late January 1943, the 2/14th was rebuilt and retrained before returning to Papua in early August. Robert joined the battalion at this point. It spent a month conducting advanced training near Port Moresby before moving into New Guinea to play a minor role in the operation to capture Lae in mid-September. The battalion's main area of operations for 1943, however, was the Ramu Valley and the Finisterre Mountains. It led the 21st Brigade's advance along the valley, from Kiapit to Dumpu, between 29 September and 5 October. Then they spent the next five months engaged in patrol actions in the upper reaches of the valley and into the Finsterres. The battalion returned to Australia on 8 March 1944.

The 2/14th's last operation of the war was the Balikpapan landings. It left Australia on 2 June 1945, landed at Balikpapan on 1 July and fought its major action of the campaign around Manggaar Airfield between 4 and 10 July. Robert was killed in action during this action.