Bruce Steele KINGSBURY VC
Private
VX 19139
9 platoon
‘A’ Company
2/14th Australian Infantry Battalion.
Bomana War Cemetery
Row C 6 E 1
Killed in action at Isurava on the Kokoda Track on 29.8.1942 aged 24 years.
Private Bruce Steel KINGSBURY VC, VX19139, was born in Northcote Victoria, the son of Philip and Florence Kingsbury in 1918 and lived in Armadale and Preston. At Hawksburn State School he won a scholarship and studied for two years at the Melbourne Technical College. He worked in real estate in Melbourne for a time, and then tried farming in the Mallee, station work at Boundary Bend and a variety of work in New South Wales. Prior to his enlistment he was working in his father’s estate agency in Northcote and playing cricket for Jika Jika. His companion from childhood was Pte (later Lieutenant) Alan Avery M.M.
(Russell 1946)
He joined the second AIF on 7.6.1940 and saw action in the Middle East before being sent with 21 Brigade and his battalion the 2/14 Australian Infantry Battalion to Papua. He served with 9 platoon along with his great friends Alan Avery and Harry Saunders (row C5 E27).
His actions in the winning of the Victoria Cross were described in the official notification of the award in February 1943. The citation read;
The following details are given in the London Gazette of February 5th, 1943; In the Isurava area, New Guinea, in August 1942 the battalion to which Pte. Kingsbury belonged had been holding a position for two days against continuous and fierce attacks. On August 29th the enemy broke through on the right flank, creating a serious threat to the battalion and its headquarters. It was essential to regain the lost ground immediately, and Pte. Kingsbury, one of the few survivors of his platoon, volunteered to join another platoon ordered to counter-attack. Rushing through terrific machine-gun fire, and firing his bren gun from the hip, he succeeded in clearing a path through the enemy, inflicting an extremely high number of casualties; but was seen to fall, shot dead by a sniper. Pte. Kingsbury displayed a complete disregard for his own safety. His initiative and superb courage made possible the re-capture of the position, which undoubtedly saved battalion headquarters as well as causing heavy casualties among the enemy. His coolness, determination and devotion to duty in the face of great odds were an inspiration to his comrades.
The official history records the details of his action, however there was an immediate effect on the spirit of his comrades due to his heroism. Jim Sartori was present and reflects on how Bruce Kingsbury’s action inspired his comrades..,
A runner was sent down to let us know of what Bruce Kingsbury had done. The word was that he would be in for a Victoria Cross. Following further news about his heroic action our morale was sky high. No-one could ever realise how his tremendous deed affected our morale and mateship. It was sky high. Jim Sartori
Len Smith was present when Bruce Kingsbury died,
We gathered around Bruce Kingsbury’s body and just stood, and he changed colour quickly. I bent down and took his identity disc off, and handed it to someone in charge, and I have thought since, why do we take the identity discs off, but we always did, most have been instructed to.
Leonard Smith
Sgt Bob Thompson had been sent forward with a party from the Headquarters Company and signal platoon to try to relieve the pressure. Cpl Bear and Ptes Avery, Kingsbury and O’Connor attached themselves to this party. Bob Thompson recalls.,
We started at battalion HQ and a runner came down and called for help. So we
an down the track. I spoke to Dickenson, the commander of C Coy. Then saw Claude Nye. Then struck Alan Avery, Kingsbury, and Teddy Bear. Just off the track on the right, on the first contour coming back from B Coy.’s position.
A little track was running down. So I sent Teddy back as he was wounded. There was a dead Japanese there, so we buried him. Then went straight along there, where there was a bit of a track heading east. I parted some bushes to pass over a trench. A Japanese did the same. We stared at each other, and then he ran. We moved through some low scrub and bushes. It was flat ground There was a little track somewhere there.
We moved north of it on attack. Just straight below, I think. It was flat for a while, and then dropped to the east. To the north it was fairly flat, with quite a lot of scrub. It was a bit away from the front creek. And we did not see any huts.
The Platoon commander met us at BHQ and gave us a briefing. The Japs were attacking at the time and in the middle of the briefing we were called to help the forward company. I took the platoon forward, spoke to the Coy. commander who directed me to the right flank. Following a small track we met members of another company, one of whom was wounded. I sent him back to Bn HQ. The others joined in with my platoon.
Parting some bushes, a Japanese soldier did the same and we froze, staring at one another. He recovered first and ran back. Lt. Jack Clements appeared and tossed a couple of grenades and I took the platoon through the bushes, lined them up, fixed bayonets, and advanced toward the Japs with Bruce Kingsbury giving excellent support, firing his bren gun from the hip. This fire kept the Japs moving and we cleared the ground ahead of us. We came up to a small hill and found two men from another company had been cut off from their company and surrounded. I stopped to speak to them with Bruce Kingsbury standing alongside. Unfortunately a Jap had stopped in the trees ahead and he shot and killed Bruce.
Bob Thompson
