Australian 34th Brigade

34th Brigade (Australia)
Troops from the 34th Brigade march through Saijo in 1946
Active	1945–48
Country	Australia
Branch	Australian Army
Type	Infantry
Size	~4,700 men
Part of	BCOF

The Australian 34th Brigade was an Australian Army brigade. The brigade was formed in late 1945 following the end of World War II as part of the Australian contribution to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) in Japan. In late 1948 it was renamed the 1st Brigade.

During the final part of World War II the Australian government became concerned that despite the nation's contributions to the Allied war effort, that these might not be recognised in the post war settlement. As a result, shortly after Japan's capitulation, the Australian prime minister, Ben Chifley made a formal offer of troops for occupation duty. The Australian contribution was to encompass naval, air and ground forces, the later of which were to form an independent brigade-sized formation. As the process of demobilising Australia's military forces had begun the day the war ended, it was necessary to raise a new force and consequently the 34th Brigade was formed on 27 October 1945 at Morotai in the Netherlands East Indies. The brigade's units were formed from personnel drawn from the 6th, 7th and 9th Divisions who volunteered for occupation duty in Japan. Upon formation the brigade was under the command of Brigadier Robert Nimmo.

After a lengthy period of training which took place while political negotiations between the Allied powers took place, the brigade finally departed for Japan in February 1946, arriving at Kure between the 21 and 23 February. With an authorised strength of 4,700 personnel, the brigade was structured around three infantry battalions—the 65th, 66th and 67th—with various supporting arms including an artillery battery, a squadron of engineers and an armoured car squadron, which had been raised from the 4th Armoured Brigade and equipped with Staghound armoured cars. The Australian contribution represented about one third of the strength of the BCOF force, while the other two-thirds were provided by India, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.