page_title: Australian armoured units of World War II
section_title: Carrier platoons and companies
hierarchical_section_title: Australian armoured units of World War II / Carrier platoons and companies
caption_attribution_description: English: AWM Caption: ST IVES, NSW. 1943-06-12. BREN GUN CARRIERS OF THE 13/33RD AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY BATTALION, AIF. PERSONNEL ARE: LEFT TO RIGHT - NX118353 SERGEANT (SGT) J. H. CURNOE; NX118373 CORPORAL (CPL) D. J. HALLIDAY; NX121649 SGT M. J. CROSS; NX107052 PRIVATE (PTE) W. A. ROOKE; NX121726 CPL N. R. JOYCE; NX110158 CPL N. L. ROWLAND; NX129196 PTE L. M. COWAN; NX107147 PTE L. R. MARCHANT; NX118346 SGT B. MAYERS; N296815 PTE D. G. DUNN; NX146940 CPL J. METCALF; NX129953 PTE S. B. MONLEY; UNIDENTIFIED; UNIDENTIFIED; NX101174 CPL C. R. PHILLIPS; UNIDENTIFIED; NX118357 CPL H. T. CLOUGH.
context_page_description: Armoured units made a relatively small, but important, contribution to Australia’s war effort during World War II. While Australia formed three armoured divisions and two independent armoured brigades during the war, Australian armoured units only saw action as independent regiments and companies supporting larger infantry formations. Early actions were fought in the Middle East by the divisional carrier regiments that supported the 6th, 7th and 9th Divisions, fighting in Libya, Egypt and Syria in 1941–42, before the Australian divisions returned to Australia in 1942–43. During the early fighting in the Pacific, there was a limited role for armoured formations, although one armoured regiment – the 2/6th – took part in the fighting around Buna–Gona in late 1942. Later in the war, though, during the Huon Peninsula, Bougainville and Borneo campaigns of 1943–45, several armoured units were used by Australian forces in the infantry support role.
context_section_description: During the early years of the war all Australian infantry battalions were authorised a platoon of Universal Carriers. The carrier platoons' main roles were to transport the battalion's crew served weapons and conduct reconnaissance. The carriers were also occasionally used to transport infantry.
  Experience in New Guinea in 1942, particularly around Buna–Gona demonstrated that, like almost all vehicles, the Universal Carrier was ill-suited to the dense jungle terrain common throughout the south-west Pacific. As a result, when the Australian Army restructured its six front-line infantry divisions as Jungle Divisions in 1943 the infantry battalion carrier platoons were disbanded and replaced by a single divisional carrier company. The divisions which were retained on the British-pattern organisation retained their battalion carrier platoons. Due to the Universal Carrier's vulnerability in jungle terrain the divisional carrier companies were mainly used to transport supplies to forward positions and to provide defence for the division's rear areas, although there were some examples of them being used for patrol work in New Guinea. For example, in April 1944, after being ferried into position by several aircraft, a platoon from the 11th Division's carrier company clashed with an isolated group of Japanese around Wantoat during the advance towards Madang.
  Universal Carriers were also issued to anti-tank and armoured regiments during the war. Several anti-tank regiments were issued with 2 pounder guns mounted on modified Australian-built Universal Carriers, while standard Universal Carriers were issued to the Army's armoured regiments in 1941 and early 1942 for training purposes and to provide the Army with a minimal armoured capability until the arrival of large numbers of M3 Grant and M3 Stuart tanks in April 1942.
caption: The 13/33rd Australian Infantry Battalion's Carrier Platoon at Sydney in 1943 (AWM 053617)
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