James Webster Phin

Jim was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on the 7th of January 1910. He would be one of eight children of Daniel David and Mary (née Bracelin) Phin. One of Jim’s brothers, Frank, was killed in action in 1915 serving with the 8th Gordon Highlanders, whilst his mother passed away in 1918, when he was only eight.

In September of 1924, James, and his sister Grace, travelled to Sydney from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board the Balranald. In the ship’s passenger listing Jim is listed as a dairy boy whilst his sister is listed as a shop assistant. There appears to be no record of when they came across from Scotland. 

Jim enlisted for service at Corryong, Victoria, on the 30th of May 1940. At the time he was a 30 year-old, single blacksmith. He gave his sister, Mrs Helen Green Bain of Corryong as his next of kin. Helen was fourteen years older than Jim and must have emigrated from Scotland at some other time to Jim and Grace. Grace would marry Walter Wheeler of Corryong in 1929. 

Jim was allocated the Army No. VX29543 and placed as a reinforcement for a Machine Gun Regiment. On the 29th of June 1940, he was transferred to the No. 10 Training Dept at Bendigo, Victoria. After six months of training he was posted to the 3rd Reinforcement for the 2/24th Battalion, stationed at Echuca, approximately 90 kilometres north of Bendigo. 

On the 8th of April 1941 Jim embarked on the OS NN at Sydney. Their journey across to the Middle East via the Suez Canal took a little under four weeks. He was finally taken on strength with the 2/24th on the second day of June 1941.

The 2/24th was, by this stage, stationed in Tobruk, manning the Red Line at various locations and participating in the bitter fighting. The Red Line was Tobruk’s outer defences and consisted of a series of concrete pillboxes forming a large semi-circle around the town. At some stage during the fighting Jim was wounded in the ankle. He was admitted to the 4th Australian General Hospital on the 29th of August with a gunshot wound to the right ankle as well as desert sores. The following day he was transferred by destroyer to the 11th Australian General Hospital at El Amiriya, 16 kilometres south-west of Alexandria. He remained here for a little over a month while his wounds healed. It would be early November before Jim rejoined his battalion due to time spent in the 1st Australian Convalescent Depot. 

By this stage the 2/24th had been evacuated from Tobruk and had been transferred to Palestine and then Syria for rest and garrison duties. Over the next few months Jim managed to get himself into a little trouble. On the 13th of November he decided that he would take some “leave” and went AWOL (absent without leave)  for nearly four days. He was fined £3 and 14 days confined to barracks. On the 15th of February he was proved guilty of conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline. Although there are no more details as to what he actually did, the Military Court decided that he was to be fined £5 this time, although not confined to barracks.

By July of 1942 the Afrika Korps and Italian Forces had reached El Alamein, and were only 100 kilometres from Alexandria. The 9th Division, which included the 2/24th, was rushed from Syria to the Alamein area where they were to take control of the northern sector. On the 7th of July that battalion, as well as the rest of the 26th Brigade, advanced along the coast, driving a wedge between the sea and the German positions, capturing the feature known as Tel el Eisa.

At 0945 hours on the morning of the 12th of July, the Germans made a local attack at one point on the 2/24th’s lines. Fortunately it was broken up by concentrated artillery and machine gun fire. It was a different story at 1800 hours later that day. The battalion came under an intense enemy barrage along the whole of the ridge that they were occupying. ‘A’ Company  suffered heavy casualties with their OC (Officer Commanding) Captain Anderson and almost the whole of the Company Headquarters becoming casualties. The main attack was from the west and supported by tanks. By 2100 hours the attack had been repulsed and the fighting had died down. One of the supporting Field Regiments, the 2/8th, had fired over 9000 shells during the encounter. It was later learned that the attacking force was a crack German Regiment, the 104th Lorried Infantry, and they had outnumbered the Australians by 6 to 1. At some stage during the battle Private Jim Phin became one of the casualties.

Jim was buried in the El Alamein War Cemetery in Egypt. He is also remembered on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, and the Corryong War Memorial. For his service, he was awarded the 1939-1945 Star, the Africa Star, the Defence Medal, the War Medal 1939-1945 and the Australian Service Medal 1939-1945