2/17th Battalion (Australia)

2/17th Battalion
A destroyed Panzer III near Tobruk, 1941, beside which the 2/17th's commanding officer, John Crawford, is standing.
Active	1940–1946
Country	Australia
Branch	Australian Army
Role	Infantry
Size	~800–900 men[Note 1]
Part of	20th Brigade, 9th Division
Motto(s)	What We Have We Hold
Colours	White and green
Engagements	World War II North African campaign Salamaua–Lae campaign Huon Peninsula campaign Borneo campaign
Commanders
Notable commanders	John Crawford John Broadbent Maurice Fergusson
Insignia
Unit colour patch (1940–42)
(1942–46)

The 2/17th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Raised in April 1940 in New South Wales, it formed part of the 20th Brigade, and was eventually allocated to the 9th Division. After completing basic training in Australia, the unit was deployed to the Middle East. In early 1941, it took part in the fighting at Tobruk, defending the port until relieved. A period of garrison duties followed in Syria and Lebanon before the battalion took part in the First and Second Battles of El Alamein in mid-1942. As the focus of the Australian Army's operations shifted to the Pacific theatre to fight the Japanese, the 2/17th Battalion returned to Australia early in 1943.

In 1943–1944, the battalion fought in New Guinea, conducting an amphibious landing as part of operations to capture Lae in early September at the end of the Salamaua–Lae campaign, before participating in the follow-up landing on the Huon Peninsula as Japanese forces withdrew inland from Lae. In early 1944, the battalion was withdrawn to Australia for rest and reorganisation and a long period of inactivity followed before it returned to combat. Its final campaign came late in the war when it was committed to the fighting in Borneo in June 1945, landing on Brunei. Following the end of the war, the battalion was disbanded in early 1946.

Cite error: There are <ref group=Note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=Note}} template (see the help page).