Remembering the Rats of Tobruk

Описание: A special ANZAC Day ceremony was to have been held this year in the Libyan town of Tobruk, marking the 70th anniversary of the start of what was to become a key event in Australian military history.

In April 1941, along with British and Indian troops, about 14,000 Australian soldiers became besieged in Tobruk, surrounded by Italian and German forces desperate to win control of its harbour.

Despite almost constant bombardment by artillery and from the air, the so-called "Rats of Tobruk" managed to hold on to the town until the siege was lifted in December.

It was a significant military victory as the Second World War allies struggled to defend Egypt and the Suez Canal - forcing the enemy forces to bring supplies overland from the port of Tripoli, across 1500 kilometres of desert.

But it came at a high cost - with more than 500 of the Australians killed, and hundreds more wounded.

The special ANZAC Day ceremony was cancelled because of the fighting in Libya, with Tobruk currently under the control of rebel forces.

Instead, the Rats of Tobruk who remain buried in Libya must be remembered from a distance ... by the dwindling number of their comrades who managed to come home - usually after further fighting, this time against Japanese forces in the Pacific.

One of the survivors, 91-year-old Harry Sutherland, shares some memories in this report compiled by Santilla Chingaipe and Sacha Payne, followed by a poem by one of the Rats, Gunner J. M. Teather, read by Murray Silby.

(Photos courtesy of Australian War Memorial and the Teather family).

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