Leslie John COOK

Leslie John COOK Update Details

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COOK, Leslie John

Service Number:	NX32179
Enlisted:	14 June 1940, Paddington, New South Wales
Last Rank:	Corporal
Last Unit:	2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion
Born:	Queen's Park, Western Australia, 11 June 1918
Home Town:	Earlwood, Hurstville, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Clerk
Died:	Accidental (plane crash), Port Moresby, PNG, New Guinea, 7 September 1943, aged 25 years
Cemetery:	Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Papua New Guinea C1. E.16., Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, Bomana, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour

World War 2 Service

14 Jun 1940:	Enlisted Private, NX32179, Paddington, New South Wales
14 Jun 1940:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Corporal, NX32179, 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion
7 Sep 1943:	Involvement Corporal, NX32179, 2nd/33rd Infantry Battalion

Tragedy strikes 2nd/33rd Battalion while awaiting troop lift flight to Nadzab

The 2nd/33rd returned to Port Moresby in late July in preparation for the operations capture Lae, in New Guinea. On 7 September, while it waited near Jackson's Airfield at '7Mile' near Moresby to be flown to Nadzab, via Tsili Tsili, a fully fuelled and 'bombed up' US B-24 Liberator bomber crashed on take off among the trucks carrying the battalion. Sixty men, mainly from D Company, were killed and 92 injured. This represented a third of the battalion's fatal casualties for the entire war.

The remnants of the battalion were flown to Nadzab on 8 September and subsequently participated in the advance on Lae, which fell on 16 September.

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