Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

30/12/1941

Date of Discharge

20/05/1946

Place of Enlistment

Paddington NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

12/12/1922

Place of Birth

Queanbeyan NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Causeway, Kingston ACT

Occupation

Motor lorry driver

Next of Kin

Ethel Harrington (mother), Causeway, Kingston ACT

Service Number

NX81054

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

2/33 Australian Infantry Battalion

Bean was an apprentice pastry chef at Wilkies Top Hat Cafe in Manuka, before World War 2. His father Gus, a veteran of World War 1, was killed by a motor vehicle in February 1924 while riding a bicycle near Duntroon. After initial training in the AIF, Ron Bean was sent to Papua in December 1942. He joined the 2/33 Battalion near Gona on the north coast of Papua just after the village was captured from the Japanese but his stay was short as his unit returned to Australia in January 1943.

The 2/33 Battalion was again sent to Port Moresby in July 1943 to take part in the attack on Lae in New Guinea. On 7 September 1943, while waiting in trucks near Jackson Airfield before being airlifted to Nadzab in the Markham Valley, an American bomber crashed among the 2/33 Battalion causing more than 150 casualties. Bean escaped uninjured. The remainder of 2/33 Battalion took part in the advance on Lae, capturing Heaths Plantation on 14 September, before the town fell two days later. They were then sent to the Ramu Valley where they patrolled the area around the Finisterre Ranges and Shaggy Ridge.

Bean returned to Australia in February 1944 and suffered two bouts of malaria while on leave in Canberra. The next year was spent training before he and 2/33 Battalion were sent to Morotai in the Netherlands East Indies to prepare for the invasion of Borneo. At the end of June 1945 Bean was part of the landings at Balikpapan in Borneo after which the 2/33 Battalion were involved in a difficult fight with the Japanese on the Milford Highway. He remained in Borneo until February 1946 and was discharged three months later.

Description - height 5 feet 8 inches, fresh complexion, dark hair, blue eyes.

World War II Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au)
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php
The Canberra Times - 6 March 1941, 15 August 2006 (p.12)
Canberra Chronicle - 26 August 2014
NAA RecordSearch - Series B883 (Second Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1939-1947)