26th Battalion (Australia)

26th Battalion
Troops from the 26th Battalion in Picardie, Somme, August 1918
Active	1915–1919 1921–1946
Country	Australia
Branch	Australian Army
Type	Infantry
Size	~800–1,000 personnel all ranks[1][2]
Part of	World War I: 7th Brigade, 2nd Division World War II: 11th Brigade, 3rd Division
Motto(s)	Nunquam non Paratus (Never Unprepared)
Colours	Purple over blue
Engagements	World War I Gallipoli campaign Western Front World War II New Guinea campaign Bougainville campaign
Commanders
Notable commanders	Harry Murray Bernard Callinan
Insignia
Unit colour patch

The 26th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Originally raised in April 1915 for service in World War I as part of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), it was assigned to the 7th Brigade and consisted of personnel recruited from the states of Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria. The battalion fought at Gallipoli in the latter stages of that campaign before being withdrawn to Egypt in late 1915. In mid-1916, it was sent to Europe where it served in the trenches of the Western Front in France and Belgium for the rest of the war, fighting in most of the battles that the Australians took part in between 1916 and 1918. At the end of the war, it was disbanded in May 1919 as part of the demobilisation of the AIF.

During the inter-war years, the 26th Battalion was re-raised as a part-time unit of the Citizens Forces, known as the 26th Battalion (Logan and Albert Regiment), based in Queensland. In 1934, the 26th was merged with another Queensland-based infantry battalion, the 15th Battalion, to become the 15th/26th Battalion. The two units were subsequently delinked in 1939 when the new 26th Australian Infantry Battalion was raised in Queensland as Australia mobilised for war.

The battalion was assigned to the 11th Brigade at this time and used in various garrison roles in the early part of World War II before a detachment was sent to the Dutch East Indies as part of Merauke Force in 1943. Later in the war, the entire 26th Battalion, along with the rest of the 11th Brigade, was committed to the Bougainville campaign where they saw action against the Japanese from late 1944 until the end of hostilities in August 1945. After the war, the 26th Battalion was used to guard Japanese prisoners on Rabaul, remaining there until March 1946, before returning to Australia for demobilisation. It was subsequently disbanded in August 1946.