Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Joseph Fredrick Vivian Bukowski

Joseph of Polish decent, known as "Buck" was born in Rockhampton QLD on 16 Mar 1923, the son of Rochus Joseph John Bukowski & Grace Lily Evans of Grange QLD

He was as a Sugar Chemist in Mackay when he enlisted as a Private in the AIF (S/N: QX18906) on 18 Dec 1941 at the age of 20y 9m & was posted to 41 Arty Field Training Battery

He transferred to the recently established, No.7 Infantry Training Centre (aka Commando School) at Tidal River VIC in Jan 1942

No.7 Inf Trng Ctr was the cover name given to hide the fact that "commando" training was taking place. One of the first tests at Commando Training was for new arrivals to climb Mt. Oberon (558 metres). Those who failed to make it to the top were immediately returned to their previous units

He was posted to No.4 Independent Company on 29 Jan. After further unit training, the 4th entrained to the Northern Territory arriving in mid-Mar. While posted to NT Force, they spent the next month’s patrolling various riverway & coastlines, acting as "coast watchers" until they were relieved by the 6th Div Cavalry (on the Daly River) & 42 North Aus Observer Unit (on the Victoria & Roper Rivers) in Aug

On 9 Sep the 4th received orders that they were to proceed overseas to Timor & assist No.2 Ind Coy, who were currently conducting a guerilla campaign on the island

On 22 Sep they embarked from Darwin on board HMAS Voyager arriving at Betano ready to begin their first tour in the Pacific

Over the next four months attached to Sparrow Force, the Coy carried out a number of successful operations including many successful ambushes, destruction of bridges & roads, as well as manning observation posts in the mountains outside Dili where they reported on the movements of Japanese ships & aircraft until Jan 1943 when, due to the deteriorating situation, the decision was made to withdraw the force from the island & bring them back to Aus

After a period of leave, in Apr the unit re-assembled at the Jungle Warfare School in Canungra QLD where they received reinforcements & new equipment before moving out to NQLD. During this time, the Army began to re-organise the independent companies as part of its larger army-wide re-organisation as it began to prepare itself for the jungle campaigns that it would fight over the next two years

Now under the command of 2/7th Cavalry (Commando) Regiment, the 2/4th embarked from Cairns on 9 Aug for New Guinea, arriving at Milne Bay on the 11th

On 2 Sep, the 2/4th with 9 Div embarked on board US VII Amphibious Force ships destined to be the first significant amphibious operation mounted by Australian forces since the Gallipoli landings in 1915

On 4 Sep, Buck was KIA on board USS LST-471 when it was torpedoed by a Japanese Betty bomber; 43 Americans & Australians were KIA & 30 were WIA; of these were 28 KIA, 6 MIA & 7 WIA from Bucks unit