Lieutenant Colonel Phillip Eddington Rhoden, OBE, ED (Retd)
(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 fire 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 firm 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 second-in-command of the battalion. In this role he faced his greatest challenge as a commander. After 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 fighting 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 significance of their actions.
Rhoden resumed his legal career after the war and returned briefly 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
