Portal:Military history of Australia/Units/November 6

The Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion was an Australian infantry battalion of World War II. The Battalion was unique in that almost all of its enlisted men were Torres Strait Islanders, making it the only Indigenous Australian Battalion ever formed by the Australian Army. The Torres Strait Light Infantry was initially formed as an independent infantry company in May 1941 and was expanded to a full battalion in early 1943. Throughout the war the Battalion was based on Horn Island and Thursday Island in the Torres Strait where it formed an integral part of the Islands' defences. A detachment from the battalion conducted a patrol into Japanese held Dutch New Guinea from October to December 1943. The Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion was disbanded in 1946.