“After initial training in the Bathurst area, Private Viv Fleming volunteered to transfer to that great fighting force of the Second World War, the 2nd Australian Imperial Force. He was allocated to D Company, 2/10th Battalion.

His official Army Record shows that he undertook Jungle Warfare Training in North Queensland before embarking from Cairns on LST 694 for New Guinea.

Serving with 2/10th during all his war service, the Battalion moved to and from the combat zone to Australia for continuation training in the Atherton region.

We know from our history that as the focus of the Allied war effort moved north, the task of clearing the enemy from Borneo was allocated to 1 Australian Corps. So it was that Private Viv Fleming embarked in Cairns on May 29, 1945 with 2/20th on LST 695 bound for Morotai arriving there on June 13.

Nine days later the Battalion embarked on LST632 for combat at Balikpapan. They were part of 18th Brigade, 7th Division. 2/10th landed at Balikpapan on July 1, 1945. Lt Col Thomas Daly who was later to serve Australia as Lt General Sir Thomas Daly KBE, CB, DSO Chief of the General Staff, commanded Viv’s Battalion.

2/10 was an assaulting Battalion and had been given the vital role of capturing, as quickly as possible, a ridge that completely dominated the landing beaches. It was the key to the capture of the main town and dock area. This ridge, named Parramatta Ridge, was know to contain extensive and well-prepared defences including a number of heavy guns.

As an infantryman Viv was on the front line in this and subsequent engagements with the enemy until war’s end.

Viv celebrated his 21st birthday while at Balikapan and was still there when the war ended. 2/10th finally embarked at Makassar in HMAS Kanimbla on January 21, 1946 for return to Australia, disembarking in Brisbane on February 4, 1946.

He was posted to the Army Ordinance Office in Liverpool where he served until discharge from the Army on September 23, 1946.