The 10th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army that served as part of the all-volunteer Australian Imperial Force during World War I. Among the first units raised in Australia during the war, the battalion was recruited from South Australia in August 1914 and formed part of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division. After basic training, the battalion embarked for Egypt where further training was undertaken until the battalion was committed to the Gallipoli campaign. During the landing at Anzac Cove, it came ashore as part of the initial covering force. Members of the 10th Battalion penetrated the furthest inland of any Australian troops during the initial fighting, before the Allied advance inland was checked. After this, the battalion helped defend the beachhead against a heavy counter-attack in May, before joining the failed August Offensive. Casualties were heavy throughout the campaign and in November 1915, the surviving members were withdrawn from the peninsula. In early 1916, the battalion was reorganised in Egypt at which time it provided a cadre staff to the newly formed 50th Battalion. It was transferred to the Western Front in March 1916, and for the next two-and-a-half years took part in trench warfare in France and Belgium until the Armistice in 1918. The last detachment of men from the 10th Battalion returned to Australia in September 1919.
Following the war, the battalion was re-raised as a part-time unit based in South Australia, drawing personnel and lineage from a number of previously existing militia units. The unit served briefly during the inter-war years, before being merged with the 50th Battalion in 1930 as the size of Australia's part-time military forces was decreased following the conclusion of the compulsory service scheme. It was re-raised in its own right in the mid-1930s as the Australian military was reorganised as part of the country's war preparations. During World War II the 10th was mobilised for full-time service. Following Japan's entry into the war, the battalion was assigned to defend the New South Wales southern coast before being reassigned to the defence of Darwin and being amalgamated with the 48th Battalion in August 1942. In the post-war period, the 10th Battalion was re-raised in 1948 as part of the Citizens Military Force and throughout the 1950s served as a training unit for national servicemen. In 1960, it became part of the Royal South Australia Regiment (RSAR) and was reduced to several company-sized elements within that regiment's 1st Battalion, before being reformed as a full battalion within the RSAR in 1965. It remained on the Australian Army's order of battle until 1987, when it was amalgamated with the 27th Battalion to form the 10th/27th Battalion, Royal South Australia Regiment.
History
World War I
The 10th Battalion was raised shortly after the outbreak of World War I as part of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), an all-volunteer force established for overseas service. Recruited in South Australia, the battalion came into being on 17 August 1914 at the Morphettville Racecourse in Adelaide, drawing volunteers mainly from the local population as well as some from Broken Hill in outback New South Wales. Volunteers included men who had previously served in the part-time forces before the war, coming from a variety of units including the 10th Australian Infantry Regiment, which had formerly been known as the "Adelaide Rifles". Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Price Weir, after formation the battalion was attached to the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, along with the 9th, 11th and 12th Battalions, and was one of the first units of the AIF raised for the war. With an establishment of 31 officers and 974 other ranks spread across eight companies, the battalion's personnel received a short period of individual basic training, culminating in the presentation of the regimental colours on 17 September and a march past the state Parliament House on 21 September. The following month, collective training at company and battalion level took place at Belair National Park and at Glenelg, South Australia. On 20 October, the battalion embarked on the ex-passenger liner, HMAT Ascanius, bound for the Middle East; it was the first South Australian infantry unit to leave Australia during the war.