SERGEANT Reginald John Weiland, the first Australian soldier to die in the Indonesian confrontation in Sarawak in 1965, will be among 11 Australian servicemen to be honoured in a special ceremony in Kuching tomorrow.

The ceremony, a Australia-New Zealand commemoration to honour fallen Australian, New Zealand and Commonwealth soldiers in two post-World War II military campaigns, will be held at the Heroes Memorial Park.

Weiland was a veteran of World War II who before his deployment to Sarawak, had served in Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force.

The commander of 3 Platoon, A Company of the 3rd battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, Weiland was killed when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine in March 1965.

He was then leading a patrol from their fortified operating base near Kampung Stass to the Sarawak-Kalimantan border.

Accompanying the patrol were two Iban trackers, Mudah Jali and Enggil Japing.

Weiland, his corporal John Samuel Hyland and the two trackers were examining what appeared to be a resting place of leaves beside a log suspected to have been made by an Indonesian patrol.

As Weiland and Hyland moved forward for a closer inspection, he stepped on the concealed mine on the log.

The subsequent explosion killed the 38-year-old Weiland instantly and fatally wounded Mudah. The blast also injured Hyland, Private William Walter Lee and another private identified only as Shaw.

Hyland, who was thrown back by the explosion, suffered shrapnel wounds to his right leg while Lee was struck in his right arm by a fragment.

Shaw, who was immediately behind Weiland, had a fragment lodged in his foot. But despite the injury, he walked back to base.

Mudah, who was reported to be standing opposite Weiland, suffered wounds mostly to the lower parts of his body. He died while being carried back to the company’s base camp.

The other tracker, Enggil, who was examining the resting place at the time of the explosion, was not injured.

The Australian media reported Weiland’s death as “the first Anzac to die in the Borneo theatre”. He was from Perth, Western Australia. – August 27, 2023.