Boehm Jack

Jack Boehm, 2/9th Australian Division Cavalry Regiment and 2/48th Battalion

Jack Boehm, photographed above, right, with another cousin Don Hein and me at my mother's memorial service in 2011, was a special cousin, born 27 July 1923 and who died aged 93 in Perth on 14 August 2016.

He not only served in the legendary 2/48th Battalion in World War 2 and became Master of the SA Supreme Court. He was my mother's second cousin, and used to sometimes come to our house at Pearson Street for dinner. Even in those times, in the 1950s, when driving he would not have one drink. He was a strictly disciplined lawyer.

His father (Uncle Mick, my woodwork teacher), was a particularly close cousin to my Pop. And Jack would often pass Pop in the streets of Adelaide, as they worked near each other in Currie Street.

He eventually became Master of the South Australian Supreme Court. He had the distinction of serving in Australia’s most decorated unit, the 2/48th Battalion. He communicated the following to Peter in a letter dated 22 March 2010, at the age of 86.

I joined the 2/AIF on 9th July 1940, just three weeks before my 17th birthday, after having served with the 3rd Light Horse Regiment in Mount Gambier for the upwards of 18 months. It was at a time when many from the Regiment were taken on strength in the AIF to form a mechanised unit which ultimately became the 2/9th Australian Division Cavalry Regiment. Theoretically, we were to be equipped with tanks and Bren Gun Carriers, which are really light tanks without turrets. I say theoretically because we were never fully equipped until well into our Middle East days.

After training at Woodside in South Australia, and at Seymour and Balcome in Victoria, the 2/9th embarked at Sydney on 10th April, 1941, for service in the Middle East, arriving in what was then Palestine on 14th May, 1941. On the way we were held up in Colombo for about ten days whilst the authorities made up their minds what to do with us, as things in the Middle East had become somewhat uncertain and a campaign (disastrous as it turned out) was being put together for Greece. In the end we proceeded on to Palestine and thence, on 10th June, 1941, into Syria where we took part in the campaign against the Vichy French, in which the French (Free French) fought the French and we served with the British.

Following the armistice with the Vichy French on 15th July, 1941, we became engaged in extensive reconnaissance work, pretty well right throughout Syria, and on the Turkish border, operating mainly out of Baalbeck, Aleppo and Lattaquie, until 30th June, 1942. It was then, as a result of the alarming deterioration in affairs in the Western Desert, that all available forces, including the Australian 9th Division, of which we were part, were rushed into Egypt in order to assist in holding the line at El Alamein. From then until early November, 1942, we were engaged with the British 8th Army in the toing and froing that took place almost constantly, and which culminated in the final battle (23rd Oct to 5th Nov) which is now known as the Battle of Alamein.

After Alamein the 9th Division was brought home, arriving Sydney 27th February, 1943. We were given 3 weeks’ home leave and then sent up to the Atherton Tablelands for jungle training, a very different war. It was then, in May, 1943, that I transferred to the 2/48th Infantry Battalion. I remained with the 2/48th until 22nd December, 1945, when I was discharged back into civilian life, having served first in New Guinea (3rd August, 1943, to 20th February, 1944) and then on to Tarakan (28th March, 1945, to 6th December, 1945).

I hope I have not bored you too much with the details, but, since you expressed an interest, I thought I would go a little further than simply to say I was in the Army Perhaps I should also add that I held no rank in either unit and that I was a signaler in both.

I knew Tom (“Diver”) Derrick as, of course, did everyone else in the 2/48th. He was one of 4 V.C.s awarded to our Battalion. The others were won by Private A.S. Gurney (22nd July, 1942), Sergeant W.H. Kibby (28-31 October, 1942) and Private P.L. Gratwick. Kibby was a South Australian and Gratwick and Gurney were both Western Australians. Since you may be interested, I enclose a copy of the citations for all four.

Jack is modest about what happened in Papua New Guinea, where Derrick won his VC and Borneo, where Derrick was killed. His Battalion landed in Tarakan as part of Operation Oboe 1 on 01 May 1945, while my father Jim was part of Oboe 6, which landed on the western side at Labuan on 10 June. By all accounts the Tarakan landers encountered more resistance than those in Labuan. The 4 VCs for the 2/48th was the highest number for any unit in either war. I note Uncle Vernon's 10th Battalion, also South Australian, won 3 VCs in France in the First World War, but he had left the Battalion at that stage to join the Royal Flying Corps.