Commanders
1914 - 2003
Reflecting on the 2/14th Battalion’s attack at Manggar Airfield as part of the
Balikpapan operations in July 1945, Lieutenant Colonel Phillip ‘Phil’ Rhoden
recalled that he refused to ‘rush in’, despite pressure from his superiors to
do so. Instead, he bided his time, concentrated his battalion and progressively
seized limited objectives, employing his considerable ?re support to full effect. It
was a strategy designed to save lives, and characteristic of Rhoden’s approach to
command.
Rhoden’s military career began with the Melbourne Grammar cadets and led
to a militia commission in 1933. A solicitor in the family ?rm at the outbreak of
war, Rhoden initially continued to serve with the 14th Battalion, but in 1940 he
volunteered for the Second AIF. He quickly gained a reputation as one of the most
efficient and conscientious officers of the 2/14th Battalion, and led its A Company
through the campaign in Syria and Lebanon.
After Syria, Rhoden commanded HQ Company, and by the time the 2/14th
was advancing to meet the Japanese drive along the Kokoda Track, he was secondin-
command of the battalion. In this role he faced his greatest challenge as a
commander. A?er the loss of the commanding officer during the withdrawal from
Isurava, he was required to take in hand the ragged remnants of the battalion and
lead them through the vicious and dispiriting ?ghting around Brigade Hill. He was
only twenty-seven.
In March 1943, Rhoden was appointed to command the 21st Training Battalion.
He returned to the 2/14th as its permanent commander during the Ramu Valley
campaign and led it until the end of the war. Reserved in character, Rhoden earned
the trust of his troops through professional competence and placed great store in
keeping even the lowest ranks informed of the larger signi?cance of their actions.
Rhoden resumed his legal career a?er the war and returned brie?y to part-time
soldiering as commander of the Melbourne University Regiment between 1948 and
1951. He retained a close relationship with the men of the 2/14th. He regarded these
relationships as the greatest joy of having commanded a battalion.
Phil Rhoden—calm, conscientious, self-effacing (he described himself as ‘just a
plodder’)—was a man who embodied the epithet ‘an officer and a gentleman’. He
was also a member of a rapidly fading and most distinguished club. Close to 270
men commanded Australian infantry battalions during World War II; only half a
dozen remain with us. With his passing we lose one of the quiet heroes of Kokoda.
We do well to remember him.
Garth Pratten
Source:
Australian Army Journal
Vol 1, No 1, June 2003