On 1 July, 2020, the Last Post Ceremony at the Australian War Memorial will commemorate the landings at Balikpapan that took place 75 years ago. The live stream of the ceremony will be broadcast on the AWM YouTube channel ttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKmio2JTTLpxC3gniK1f2IA
and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AWMemorial/ from 4.55 pm AEST.
On that date in 1945, the 2/14 Battalion took part in the capture of Balikpapan, the concluding stage of the Borneo campaign, and the last action in which the Battalion was involved. The Australian 7th Division, comprised of the 18th, 21st and 25th Infantry Brigades, with support troops, made an amphibious landing, code named Operation Oboe Two, near the oil refinery and port town of Balikpapan on the island of Borneo (now Kalimantan).
The landings were preceded and supported by heavy bombing and shelling by Australian and US air and naval forces. The Japanese were totally outnumbered and outgunned but as in the other battles of the Pacific War, many of them fought to the death. 2/14 Battalion were involved in the initial landings at Yellow Beach, and the captures of Sepinggang and Manggar airstrips, including silencing the 155 mm (6 inch) Coastal Defence guns at Waites’ Knoll.
The landings were preceded and supported by heavy bombing and shelling by Australian and US air and naval forces. The Japanese were totally outnumbered and outgunned but as in the other battles of the Pacific War, many of them fought to the death. 2/14 Battalion were involved in the initial landings at Yellow Beach, and the captures of Sepinggang and Manggar airstrips, including silencing the 155 mm (6 inch) Coastal Defence guns at Waites’ Knoll.
