Service: Army – 39th Battalion and 2/2 Infantry Battalion
Service number: V128261, VX 148710
Locality on Enlistment: Gellibrand River
Duration of Service: 24 Nov 1941 – 10 May 1946
Prisoner of War: No
Honours: None for display
Date and Place of Birth: 16 Dec 1919 Colac
Parents: Alfred John DENNING and Mary Ann Margaret BENALLACK
Spouse: Elsie Mavis KENT
School/s:
Occupation: Sawmiller
Date and Place of Death: 26 Mar 2005 Gellibrand
Place of Burial: Colac Cemetery
NOTES: Alfred was called up for full-time duty on 24 Nov 1941. The 39th Battalion was sent to New Guinea in 1942 as part of the 30th Brigade to defend the territory against a Japanese attack. Subsequently, between July and August of that year the unit was heavily engaged in the defence of Port Moresby, fighting along the Kokoda Track. They were also later involved in the fighting around Buna-Gona. Such was their involvement in the battle that by the time they were withdrawn they could only muster 32 men and following its return to Australia, the unit was disbanded in early July 1943. Alfred was then attached to 2/2 Infantry Battalion and between 1943 and 1944 spent time training in northern Queensland. The 2/2nd’s last campaign of the war was to clear the Japanese from the Aitape-Wewak region of New Guinea between December 1944 and August 1945. Alfred’s military record notes a disability, a small grenade fragment in right chest. Wikipedia