description
Object description
Australian private served with 2/1st Pioneer Bn, 9th Australian Infantry Div in North Africa, 1940-1941
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Newcastle, Australia, 1917-1940: family; education; reasons for volunteering for army, 1940. Recollections of operations with 2/1st Pioneer Bn, 9th Australian Infantry Div in North Africa, 1940-1941: duties during Allied advances in North Africa, winter 1940-1941; retreat into Tobruk perimeter, Libya, 4/1941; food and water supplies in perimeter; evacuation of Australians by Royal Navy destroyer; attachment of his unit to 107th Royal Horse Artillery; question of strategic German mistakes during Siege of Tobruk; evacuation by HMS Abdiel; method of infantry defence of Tobruk, Libya; physical state he was in after Siege of Tobruk. Aspects of period as NCO with 2/1st Pioneer Bn, Australian Imperial Forces in Australia, 1942-1945: reasons for delay in rejoining unit after return to Australia, 8/1942; role as training instructor at the Jungle Training Centre, Canungra, 1945.
