28th Battalion (Australia)

28th Battalion
Men of 28th Battalion during a Lewis gun drill at Renescure, c. 1917.
Active	1915–19 1921–46 1952–60 1966–87
Country	Australia
Branch	Australian Army
Type	Infantry
Part of	7th Brigade, 2nd Division (1915–19) 13th Brigade, III Corps 13th Brigade, 5th Division
Nickname(s)	The Swan Regiment
Motto(s)	Urgens
March	Heart of Oak Colonel Bogey
Engagements	First World War Gallipoli Campaign Western Front Second World War New Britain Campaign
Insignia
Unit Colour Patch

First World War

Second World War

The 28th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. It was raised in early 1915 as part of the First Australian Imperial Force for service during the First World War and formed part of the 7th Brigade, attached to the 2nd Division. It fought during the final stages of the Gallipoli campaign in late 1915 and then on the Western Front between 1916 and 1918. At the end of the war, the 28th was disbanded in 1919 but was re-raised in 1921, as a part-time unit based in Western Australia. During the Second World War, the 28th undertook defensive duties in Australia for the majority of the conflict, before seeing action against the Japanese in the New Britain campaign in 1944–45. The battalion was disbanded in March 1946 but was re-formed in 1948 as an amalgamated unit with the 16th Battalion, before being unlinked in 1952 and re-raised as a full battalion following the reintroduction of national service. It remained on the Australian Army's order of battle until 1960 when it was subsumed into the Royal Western Australia Regiment, but was later re-raised in 1966 as a remote area infantry battalion. In 1977, the 28th was reduced to an independent rifle company, and in 1987 was amalgamated into the 11th/28th Battalion, Royal Western Australia Regiment.

The 28th Battalion came into existence on 16 April 1915 when it was raised at Blackboy Camp, in Western Australia. Formed as part of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), an all volunteer formation raised for overseas service during the First World War, the 28th Battalion's first batch of volunteers came from personnel who had originally been allocated to the 24th Battalion. The 24th was being raised at Broadmeadows in Victoria, and it had been intended that the 24th would be raised from all states of Australia with recruits travelling to Victoria to form the unit, but the higher than expected number of volunteers at Broadmeadows at the time meant that the 24th was raised as a Victorian battalion, and the Western Australians, who had been intended to form a sub unit within the 24th, were reallocated to the 28th which was subsequently raised mainly from Western Australian recruits.