The 2/48th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army which served during the Second World War. Raised in Adelaide in South Australia in August 1940, the battalion formed part of the 26th Brigade and was initially assigned to the 7th Division, although it was later transferred to the 9th Division in 1941 when it was deployed to the Middle East. While there, it saw action during the siege of Tobruk and the First and Second Battles of El Alamein before being returned to Australia to take part in the fighting in New Guinea following Japan's entry into the war.

The 9th Division was a division of the Australian Army that served during World War II. It was the fourth division raised for the Second Australian Imperial Force. The distinctions of the division include it being:in front line combat longer, cumulatively, than any other Australian division; one of the Australian military's most decorated formations; the only 2nd AIF division formed in the United Kingdom, from infantry brigades and support units formed in Australia; praised by both Allied and Axis generals, including Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel, as well as non-Australian military historians, and; like the 6th and 7th Divisions, being one of only a few Allied army units to serve in both the Mediterranean and Pacific theatres.