An Australian Story - The Remarkable Rats

The story below is a verbatim extract from the Melbourne Herald Sun, Saturday April 14th 2001 for the 60th anniversary written by Journalist Neil Wilson. This story is written from an Australian perspective about the Australian contribution.

The Remarkable Rats

What was intended to be derision became a badge of honour for the Australians.

Berlin propaganda broadcaster Lord Haw Haw told them they were trapped like rats unless they surrendered.

If they burrowed any further into the African desert their trenches would reach Australia. The Nazis never understood the formidable Australians.

Teenager Murray Burles could always tell if his mates were listening to the scathing rhetoric of Radio Berlin traitor William Joyce because they would be falling about laughing.

He’d call us rats and then he’d tell us they had shot down ten aircraft – we didn’t even have ten planes, recalls Murray who was 17.

Lord Haw Haw was a source of hilarity in the heat of the Libyan desert and the rubble of the port of Tobruk, unwittingly playing a part in forming our own wartime legend. Within days Murray and other underage Diggers such as Harry Wright, a 2/23rd Battalion private, who was aged just 16. Like Murray, he lied about his age to join up.

The Australians dug in and were ordered to stay put, looking out on a sea of sand and desolation – flat, stony desert, rolls of barbed wire, minefields and the burnt out trucks through which the big German tanks would advance. The Diggers enlarged a few hundred gunnery posts our 6th division had taken when it captured the town from the Italians in January 1941, forming a 45km- long “red line” perimeter, then dug a secondary “blue line” a few kilometres back.

The Rats shared their trenches with scorpions, fleas, blowflies and biting ants which also sought shelter from the daytime heat which soared above 45C (113F) in the northern summer. Nights were bitterly cold. Murray Berles remembers freezing temperatures when mates would tie their overcoats together to gather dew, which would drip into a dixie (metal cooking pot) so they had water to wash with.

Harry “washed” with the dregs of his nightly cup of tea. He only had one canteen of water each day, with meals of tinned or salted beef except on the nights when both sides had an unofficial truce so trucks could get hot meals through to the lines. Dysentery was a common complaint. To listen for enemy troops at night, they would put a tea chest in a trench and half bury it so it became a sound box.

In late April then again in early May at a fire zone called The Salient the Australians beat back fierce daytime attacks from the Afrika Corps of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

Sixty years ago today the Germans had launched their first major offensive. New Australian commander Major General Leslie Morshead allowed 38 Panzers three kilometres inside the red line before they were pounded close-up with anti-tank guns and captured Italian artillery. “They (Germans) were bewildered and shocked because they thought they’d roll in and we would surrender, but once those tanks were gone we got up with Bren guns and the infantry behind the tanks were picked off,” Murray Berles said. One hundred men died, 250 were captured, 17 tanks left wrecked.

After losing 46 of his 81 tanks on May 1st, one German officer noted: “Our opponents are not trained attacking troops but men with toughness, tireless, taking punishment with obstinacy, wonderful in defence”.

At night the Rats left their burrows to gnaw at the enemy. “We were told to let them do what they want outside the perimeter at daytime but the night belongs to us,” Murray said. “We would go on reccy (reconnaissance) patrols, fighting patrols, sneak out behind their lines” Raiding parties of defenders would look for stray German soldiers going to the toilet alone, having a smoke or walking between camps. Men were shot, prisoners take on both sides. “If you saw groups you often wouldn’t engage but if you met head-on, and some times that happened, it was an all in brawl,” he said.

Harry described a “madhouse” of shooting and close fighting. “You and a few mates are going one way, then you’re in a weapon pit, there’s individual battles going on. “You kill them. If they look like yielding you yell surrender, then they put down the gun. But they were probably told the same as us, no surrender, so you had to kill or be killed.”

The town itself had its shops, schools, wine bars and most homes destroyed by constant shelling and air bombing, with the wharf also in ruins. There was no cinema, no beer, no women – nothing for anyone off duty. Surgical hospital orderlies such as Trevor Macfarlane quickly learned to be theatre nurses for major operations.

Trevor said 25 hours was the longest period without an air raid in his eight months at Tobruk. “Our theatre dress was shorts and sandals, it was too hot for gowns, but we did have an excellent team of Melbourne’s best surgeons – Littlejohn, Renau, Acland, Ley,” he said. And “beautiful equipment” left by the Italians. One night we did 108 operations in eight hours, the wounded placed on trestle tables, X-rayed, operated on then taken out for evacuation by ship.

The “Tobruk ferry service” was the crucial lifeline which sustained the siege, nine Royal Australian Navy ships repeating the perilous journey from Egyptian ports into Tobruk’s “Bomb Alley”.

HMAS Parramatta and destroyer HMAS Waterhen were lost. Ships were tied up on sunken hulks in the harbour at night, offloading tons of supplies and 29,000 fresh troops. They included British, Poles and South Africans who began to replace Australians from August. The Diggers had been ordered to hold the town for two months – but it was December before the last troops left.

Australia’s casualties topped 3,000 – 832 men killed, 2177 wounded with 900 captured. But the Rats finally left their holes with their tails up.

“We were told the Germans had been defeated, the Poles and other forces would relieve us and there was elation upon leaving the place,” Murray Burles said. The elation turned to disgust three months later when they learned the Germans had finally taken Tobruk. But their resistance had held up Rommel’s advance and given the British crucial time to regroup and save Egypt. It was to prove decisive in 1942 when they helped kick the Germans out of North Africa.

Last year the Rats of Tobruk Association received a letter from Rommel’s son, Manfred, a kinder message than Lord Haw Haw’s. “My father said the Australian infantry belonged to the best troops on both sides he had seen during his military career. It was due to their professional soldiership that the Germans and Italians could not take Tobruk during the summer of 1941.
“God bless you.”
:ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

View attachment 807 View attachment 809 View attachment 808

 

Thank you for sharing that. Tobruk was a legendary stand by the Australians.

People don't know that the Australians were the first to defeat all three major Axis powers on land: Italy at Bardia in 1941, Germany at Tobruk the same year, and Japan in New Guinea in 1942. They missed fighting the Rumanians and Bulgarians.

 

Originally posted by Kiwiwriter@Jun 21 2005, 02:06 AM
Thank you for sharing that. Tobruk was a legendary stand by the Australians.

People don't know that the Australians were the first to defeat all three major Axis powers on land: Italy at Bardia in 1941, Germany at Tobruk the same year, and Japan in New Guinea in 1942. They missed fighting the Rumanians and Bulgarians.
[post=35539]Quoted post[/post]


Thank you Kiwiwriter,

I recall relating this to a group of Marine fliers when stranded on Kiribati during the coup in the USSR in August 1991. The marines had just delivered a pregnant woman to the hospital on Tarawa (Japanese built) and the only plane available to Tuvalu and Fiji from the Marshall Islands had broken down.

We were all stranded with nothing to do except eat fresh lobster and drink Victoria Bitter overlooking a two mile wide lagoon.

It was a very worrying couple of days as communications on Kiribati at that time were poor to say the least. We had a good group around the table (big table) with the South East Asian correspondent for the "Times" (he had a short wave radio) and 3 "represenatives" from Export companies in Australia (Englishmen) who had fought in the British Army in North Africa and Europe.

As it does somehow, WW2 became a topic and stories came thick & fast. Some humorous and some serious.

As I said, I related this to the table "that Australia was the first country to defeat the three major axis powers on land" and the young marines were going to lynch me. "Australia" you have got to be joking, "They didn't even have an army in WW2 did they?" "America won WW2, who are you trying to kid".

One of the British contingent was a "Rat of Tobruk" and come out with all guns blazing in support of the "Aussies" and was followed each in turn by the other members of the group.

It has been posted previously by "educated" forum members from the USA that sadly, after they educate their kid's about what the US did there is not enough time to mention other countries.

A sad indictment indeed for the educators. :angry:

Hollywood has indeed become the Dr. Joseph Goebbels of the USA.

On a lighter note, most of the Aussies would never had heard of the Romanians, the Bulgarians and Hungarians in the 40's anyway.


Cheers

 

Spidge,
Nice one cobber.

Rgds

Tim D

 

Good story, Spidge. Typical Americans. John Wayne won the war singlehandedly.

 

Didn't Australian coastwatchers provide valuable intelligence all through the Solomons campaign, at great cost? Marines should be grateful for that.

 

Originally posted by Dac@Jul 21 2005, 10:38 PM
Didn't Australian coastwatchers provide valuable intelligence all through the Solomons campaign, at great cost? Marines should be grateful for that.
[post=36719]Quoted post[/post]

It was a coast watcher who help JFK and his crew of PT109 when it sank.

.

 

Rommel admired Australian soldiers.. ' they immensely big and strong..'

browse around and found this;

http://www.diggerhistory.info

 

Originally posted by Dac@Jul 22 2005, 08:38 AM
Didn't Australian coastwatchers provide valuable intelligence all through the Solomons campaign, at great cost? Marines should be grateful for that.
[post=36719]Quoted post[/post]


As did the New Zealanders and the English and many paid the supreme price.

My avatar is dedicated to a group of 22 coastwatchers on Tarawa (Kiribati) who were beheaded by the Japanese.

Read one the stories at the link below:


http://www.wysiwyg.co.nz/kiribati/tarawa1....rawa%20Massacre

Lest we forget!

View attachment 896 View attachment 897

 

Originally posted by GUMALANGI@Jul 22 2005, 10:50 AM
Rommel admired Australian soldiers.. ' they immensely big and strong..'

browse around and found this;

http://www.diggerhistory.info
[post=36725]Quoted post[/post]


Yes, I have linked this previously.

A great site for anybody who cares to read a little about the rough & ready "Colonial Troops" of Australia & New Zealnd who could really dance when the going got tough.

They were looked upon as rabble at times however there wasn't an army who wasn't glad that they were on their left or right flank in a tight situation.

 

Didn't Australian coastwatchers provide valuable intelligence all through the Solomons campaign, at great cost? Marines should be grateful for that.



It was a coast watcher who help JFK and his crew of PT109 when it sank.

.




Lt. Arthur Reginald Evans was on the Japanese held island of Kolombangara and saw the explosion.

There was another who assisted them to be picked up after they got to shore and helped them to get back to Rendova by communicating their position by radio for rescue.

 

A great site for anybody who cares to read a little about the rough & ready "Colonial Troops" of Australia & New Zealnd who could really dance when the going got tough.

Yeah,.. still browsing it,.. i thought they made the other dance,.. while they're setting their tune,..

 

Originally posted by spidge@Jul 21 2005, 06:27 PM

As did the New Zealanders and the English and many paid the supreme price.

My avatar is dedicated to a group of 22 coastwatchers on Tarawa (Kiribati) who were beheaded by the Japanese.




It's hard to imagine the bravery of the people who operated in Japanese occupied territory, virtually unsupported, with the sure knowlegde of what waited for them if they were ever caught.

 

Never been prouder to be an aussie after reading that thanks spidge mate.
Jack

 

(morse1001 @ Jul 21 2005, 04:57 PM) [post=36720]Originally posted by Dac@Jul 21 2005, 10:38 PM
Didn't Australian coastwatchers provide valuable intelligence all through the Solomons campaign, at great cost? Marines should be grateful for that.
<div align="right">[post=36719]Quoted post[/post]</div>


It was a coast watcher who help JFK and his crew of PT109 when it sank.

.
[/b]
Yes, Arthur Reginald (Reg) Evans, whose code was a Playfair, based on "Royal New Zealand Navy." Easy to break. Had the Japanese broken his messages, they might have scooped up John F. Kennedy, and the history of the world would be changed.

Kennedy did not remember Evans's name, and a fictional name was used in John Hersey's account of the incident. It was not until Robert Donovan wrote "PT 109," which became a movie with Cliff Robertson as JFK, that Evans' name was revealed. He got a reunion with the president whose life he saved.

The details are in "PT 109," and "Lonely Vigil," by Walter Lord, and "The Code Breakers," by David Kahn. The latter discusses the Japanese codebreaking failure.

Evans was a brave man, as were all the Coastwatchers. Only one of them was an American. The rest were Britons, Australians, New Zealanders, along with a Belgian priest.

 

The US, the Brits, and the Germans were in a relative sense, very well equipped. I believe that an abundance of supply and armament makes soldiers somewhat sloppy. With the Aussies and the New Englanders, they had a very limited supply that made them ridiculously efficient and tough fighters and they became experienced and hardened at it.

Seems to me that when you dig in, and it comes down to soldier versus soldier (all other advantages neutralized) I have to think that you would much rather face one of the former three soldiers than one of the latter two soldiers.

Not that Yanks, Brits, and Germans were bad soldiers, but when it comes down to a point in battle where you have to be resourceful, you don't to fight an enemy that has made a career out being resourceful.

Every time I have read about the colonial forces, they always seem like a bunch of angry hornets and the attackers, even when they won the skirmish, always seemed to have a bloody nose at the end of it and somewhat dissatisfied with his victory.

 

Good observation.

 

I'd like to correct something about the Coastwatchers. There were actually a number of USMC soldiers attached to it, to thicken up the reporting network in the Solomons Campaign. They are listed by name in Feldt's first book, he had to cut out quite a few pages after it was published given the leaking of Official Secrets. The subsequent edition misses, from memory about 100 pages, as do the more recent reprints.

 

Hi Green Acorn and Welcome.

I don't feel the post(s) in respect to Coastwatchers needs to be corrected. The greater percentage of Coastwatchers were not military. There were marines attached. They just had not been mentioned.

A combat reconnaissance school with experienced Marine and Army personnel and selected coastwatchers as instructors was organized at Guadalcanal , and about 100 men were trained and formed into scouting teams. Halsey found their reports invaluable, and beginning with ELKTON planning, "never made a forward move without their help.


From Feldt's book p.149
The patrols continued to shuttle back to New Georgia for more information. Coastwatchers A. R. Evans on Kolombangara, Dick Horton and Harry Wickham at Rendova, and Kennedy at Segi played hosts to furtive guests who slipped in by native canoes from submarines, fast destroyers, or PBYs. The patrols searched openings in the barrier reef of Roviana, checked overland trails from Rice Anchorage on the north coast to Zanana Beach on the south in Roviana, and looked for easy access to Munda field. In this connection, Wickham--who had lived on New Georgia most of his life--"was particularly valuable."

Cheers

Geoff

 

(green_acorn @ Jan 17 2006, 06:54 AM) [post=44467]I'd like to correct something about the Coastwatchers. There were actually a number of USMC soldiers attached to it, to thicken up the reporting network in the Solomons Campaign. They are listed by name in Feldt's first book, he had to cut out quite a few pages after it was published given the leaking of Official Secrets. The subsequent edition misses, from memory about 100 pages, as do the more recent reprints.
[/b]

There may have been Marines assigned to the Coastwatchers -- certainly on Guadalcanal to handle logistics and security, as well as communications, but there was only one American Coastwatcher, a guy named Frank Nash.