11th/28th Battalion, Royal Western Australia Regiment

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11th/28th Battalion, Royal Western Australia Regiment
Cap badge of the Royal Western Australia Regiment
Active	As 11th/28th Battalion-1987-current
Country	Australia
Branch	Army
Type	Reserve Infantry
Role	Light Infantry
Size	One Battalion
Garrison/HQ	Karrakatta
Commanders
Colonel-in-Chief	HM The Queen (Australian Infantry Corps)

The 11th/28th Battalion, Royal Western Australia Regiment (11/28 RWAR) is an Australian Army reserve infantry battalion located in Western Australia and one of the two battalions of the Royal Western Australia Regiment, the infantry component of the 13th Brigade.

[edit] History

The 11th Battalion was raised as the 11th Infantry Battalion AIF at Black Boy Hill Camp on 17 August 1914, as a part of the Australian Imperial Force for the First World War. The 11th Battalion landed at Anzac Cove and fought throughout the Gallipoli. After Gallipoli the Battalion served with distinction in France and Belgium until the end of the war. The 11th returned to Western Australia and was disbanded on 5 February 1919 and replaced by the Militia 11th Battalion, which was briefly ammalgamated with the 16th Battalion, Royal Western Australia Regiment.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, another 11th Battalion was raised for the Second Australian Imperial Force, the 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion. The 2/11th Battalion AIF served in the Western Sahara, Greece, Crete and the Tobruk, as well as in the Pacific. The Battalion was disbanded in April 1942, to be reformed as the 11th Battalion in 1967.

The 28th Battalion shared a similar history to the 11th, being formed in 1915 and fighting in Gallipoli, France and Belgium, and its successor the 28th Australian Infantry Battalion in Tobruk, El Alamein, New Guinea and New Britain, alongside the 11th Battalion. In 1966 the 28th Battalion was reformed as the 28th Battalion, Royal Western Australia Regiment, and in 1987 was amalgamated with the 11th Battalion, forming the current 11th/28th Battalion.