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🇦🇺WWII uncovered: Private Bruce Steel Kingsbury Honoured with the Victoria Cross for Valor During the Battle of Isurava.

 🇦🇺WWII uncovered: Private Bruce Steel Kingsbury Honoured with the Victoria Cross for Valor During the Battle of Isurava.


According to the Australian War Memorial: "Melbourne-born Bruce Steel Kingsbury worked in New South Wales and Victoria before enlisting in May 1940. 

Embarking with the 2/14th Battalion from Sydney, he served in Palestine and Egypt and took part in the invasion of Syria. He returned to Australia with the battalion in March 1942."

"In August the 2/14th moved to Port Moresby, hoping to halt the Japanese on the Kokoda Trail. 

Kingsbury's platoon had been holding a position for two days against continual enemy attacks and severe losses when he made the heroic assault that cost him his life. 

On August 29, through his own initiative, Bruce charged with a Bren gun, shooting from the hip against intense enemy fire, causing many casualties. Alone, he continued to sweep the enemy until he fell, hit by a sniper."

⭐ Private Kingsbury's Victoria Cross Citation reads as follows:

War Office, 9th February, 1943.

The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the posthumous award of the VICTORIA CROSS to: No. VX 19139 Private. Bruce Steel Kingsbury, Australian Military Forces.

In New Guinea, the Battalion to which Private Kingsbury belonged had been holding a position in the Isurava area for two days against continuous and fierce enemy attacks. 

On the 29th August, 1942, the enemy attacked in such force that they succeeded in breaking through the Battalion's right flank, creating a serious threat both to the rest of the Battalion and to its Headquarters. 

To avoid the situation becoming more desperate, it was essential to regain immediately the lost ground on the right flank.

Private Kingsbury, who was one of the few survivors of a Platoon which had been overrun and severely cut about by the enemy, immediately volunteered to join a different platoon which had been ordered to counter attack.

He rushed forward firing his Bren Gun from the hip through terrific machine-gun fire and succeeded in clearing a path through the enemy. 

Continuing to sweep the enemy positions with his fire and inflicting an extremely high number of casualties on them, Private Kingsbury was then seen to fall to the ground shot, by the bullet from a sniper hiding in the wood.

Private Kingsbury displayed a complete disregard for his own safety. 

His initiative and superb courage made possible the recapture of the position which undoubtedly saved Battalion Headquarters, as well as causing heavy casualties amongst the enemy. 

His coolness, determination and devotion to duty in the face of great odds was an inspiration to his comrades" - The London Gazette 9 February 1943

"A senior officer said that Kingsbury's valour had inspired the battalion over the succeeding weeks, and demonstrated that the previously undefeated Japanese could be beaten. 

Private Kingsbury was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the only one awarded for the Kokoda Campaign." (AWM P01637.001)

Private Bruce Steel Kingsbury lies in rest at Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery. He was 24 years old at the time of his passing. 


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