WWII uncovered: Honoring the Heroes We Lost: Private George William (Jack) Nitz of the
2/15th Battalion.
George enlisted for service with the Australian Army as a Private on the 10th January 1942 at the age of 19, service number QX28674.
After initial training in south-eastern and western Queensland, he was assigned to the 2/15th Battalion on or about 22nd August 1942 and soon after was transported to the Middle East to join the battalion, arriving on the 16th October 1942.
Shortly after arriving, the 2/15th as part of 20th Brigade, was moved from Syria to Egypt where George fought in the battle of El Alamein as part of the 8th Army’s Western Desert offensive which lasted several weeks.
Departing Egypt on the 25th January 1943, George and the 2/15th travelled to Sydney where many soldiers took some well-deserved leave.
It is unknown if this included George as there is no evidence of leave being taken.
Sometime in late July 1943 the battalion travelled to Cairns where they undertook jungle training in the Atherton Tablelands and then embarked the MS Van Heutsz in Cairns for transit to Milne Bay, PNG arriving on the 4th August.
On the 4th September the battalion landed at Red Beach, 15 miles east of Lae as part of the offensive against the Japanese who were holding Lae and surrounding areas.
Several weeks later on the 22nd September, the 2/15th as part of 9th Division, fought its way ashore at Scarlet Beach north of Finschhafen.
It was during the subsequent push south from Scarlet Beach to drive the Japanese out of the Finschhafen area that George was killed in action on the 29th September 1943.
He was initially buried near Finschhafen the next day, though on 11th April of the following year (1944) he was relocated into a different plot nearby in the newly created Finschhafen War Cemetery.
In early 1946 many of those buried at Finschhafen were relocated to the Lae War Cemetery and George was reburied there on the 1st May in plot AA D7.
Private George William Nitz was 21 years old at the time of his passing.
Major Rob Mitchell, Officer Commanding Australian Defence Staff PNG and Australia’s Consul-General to PNG Mr Mark Foxe laid a wreath on George’s headstone today at Lae War Cemetery in Papua New Guinea. Lest We Forget.
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