49th Battalion (Australia)

49th Battalion
Active	1916–1919 1921–1930 1940–1946 1966–1997
Country	Australia
Branch	Australian Army
Type	Infantry
Size	~600–1,000 all ranks
Part of	13th Brigade, 4th Division 30th Brigade
Nickname(s)	The Stanley Regiment
Motto(s)	Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful)
Colors	Navy Blue over Sky Blue colors_label=Colours
Engagements	First World War Western Front Second World War New Guinea campaign
Insignia
Unit colour patch

The 49th Battalion was an infantry unit of the Australian Army. Raised as part of the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War, the battalion fought along the Western Front between mid-1916 and late 1918, before being disbanded in early 1919. In 1921, it was re-formed as a part-time unit based in the state of Queensland. Throughout the 1930s, the battalion was merged a couple of times as a result of manpower shortages, but in early 1940, as Australia mobilised for the Second World War, the 49th was expanded and the following year deployed to New Guinea to undertake garrison duty. Following Japan's entry into the war, the 49th was committed to the fighting in the early stages of the New Guinea campaign, taking part in the Battle of Sanananda in December 1942, where it took many casualties and suffered heavily from disease. The battalion was withdrawn back to Australia in early 1943 and subsequently disbanded in July, with the majority of its personnel being redistributed to other units. During the post-war period, the 49th Battalion was subsumed into the Royal Queensland Regiment, existing between 1966 and 1997, before being merged with the 25th Battalion to form the 25th/49th Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment.