Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Ross Keith Gum was born at Orroroo on the 20th of January 1920, second child and eldest son of Herbert King and Willowina (Enie) Sophia (nee Foulis) Gum.  Herbert and Willowina farmed sections 62 and 63, Hundred of Pinda.

Ross enlisted 2 March 1942 along with another local lad, Merv Bartlett, just after the first bombing strike on Darwin. He was immediately sent on twenty one days leave without pay (reason unknown) then left on 2 April to join the 48 Infantry Battalion (Btn) which had moved to Gherang (just south of Geelong, Victoria) in February. Here they undertook rookie training and were responsible for the defence of the western side of Port Phillip Bay.

In May of 1942 the 48 Btn moved to New South Wales, firstly to Narellan, then Wallgrove, before finally arriving at Ingleburn. After some five months his group were detached from the 48 Btn and moved to Tenterfield in northern New South Wales to join the 21 Infantry Training Btn for two months of jungle training. They were then shipped to Townsville in readiness for embarkation overseas.

22 November 1942 he left Australia for Port Moresby. It was here that Ross was assigned to the 2/27 Btn , part of the 21st Brigade. He was packed and ready to join his unit which were fighting at Buna and Gona on the north coast of the island but did not see action as the battle had already been won, sadly at the expense of a large body of men. The 2/27 returned to Australia in January 1943, disembarking at Cairns, and then entrained to Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tablelands, for further intensive training in jungle fighting.

After six months at Ravenshoe, the 2/27 had built up its numbers. On the 14 August 1943 the battalion sailed for New Guinea once again, arriving some three days later. Ross was originally in “B’” Company – Infantry, but answered a call for volunteers to 4 Platoon – Headquarters Company, which was a tank attack Company utilising guns that fired two-pound shells.

His platoon stayed in Port Moresby while the rest of the battalion attacked Lae and on the 23rd of September 1943, they moved to Jackson’s Drome, Port Moresby from which Douglas transport planes carried the platoon and its equipment to Kaiapit, in the upper Markham Valley, to meet the Japanese in the front line. The terrain was not suitable for the two pounder, so Ross was attached to one of the rifle Companies – ‘B’ Company. The plan was to advance further up the Markham Valley, cross the divide and move into the Ramu Valley, and continue as far as Dumpu, clearing the enemy as they went, before regrouping. This was Ross’s first front line action.

Ross recalled – ‘In the Shaggy Ridge area of the Ramu Valley, a group of us were positioned on the edge of a road, on a bend in the hills. It was early morning and things were quiet, we were just walking around. Suddenly we were thinking that hailstones were falling around us but quickly realised they were bullets. We ran through a hail of bullets to our fox holes on the side of the road. I looked up towards the sky and saw a jap aircraft, at a very high altitude. It was a miracle that no one was hit.’

After three and a half months campaigning, and then rest in Port Moresby, Ross and the 2/27 Btn returned to Australia, where the unit was based until June 1945, after which it took part in the landing at Balikpapan in Dutch Borneo. On 2 September 1945 Japan surrendered. Ross and the 2/27 Btn sailed to the town of Makassar in the S.W. Celebes, as occupation forces guarding Japanese POW’s, before returning home in early 1946.

Ross was discharged 14 January 1946. He returned to Amyton and sharefarmed with his father for a period of time before purchasing a property of some 500 acres at Narridy, near Crystal Brook. June 1947 Ross married Doreen Agnes Schuppan. They had two children.

Ross died 6 November 2013 and is interred at Centennial Park Cemetery, Pasadena South Australia.

A personal record authored by Ross Gum of his war service was used to compile this page. 

Excerpt from "Diggers From the Dust" (2018) Di Barrie and Andrew Barrie.