Bombardier Valera Valentine Heuston

2/1^st Tank Attack Regiment Royal Australian Artillery

 

 

Service Number:          QX12516

Place of Enlistment:    Ipswich

Age of Enlistment:       21 Years

Date of Enlistment:      1^st of July 1940

Embarked:                    Sydney, 8^th of April 1941

Transport Ship:            SS ’NN’

Education:                    Coomera State School: 1930-1936

Medals Awarded:         1939-45 Star, Pacific Star, War Medal

Place of Death:             Killed in Action, New Guinea, 11th of May 1945

Resting Place:              Commemorated Lae Memorial Panel 3 Papua New Guinea

Unit Badge:                   2/1^st Tank Attack Regiment RAA

 

Additional Information:

Bombardier Heuston was killed during the Aitape-Wewak Campaign. This was one of the final campaigns of the Pacific theater in World War 2. At the time it was considered a mopping up operation by the Australian forces in Northern New Guinea.

Most historians now believe that this campaign was unnecessary as the Japanese were on the verge of defeat and there was little strategic rationale for it.