Description
Object description
Australian officer served with 2/28th Bn 24th Australian Infantry Bde, 9th Australian Infantry Div in North Africa, 3/1941-12/1942
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Narrogin, Australia, 1909-1935: summary military service and ranks held; family; opinion of GB and Commonwealth; reaction to threat of war; employment; joining Militia, 1935. Aspects of enlistment as officer with 2/28th Bn, Australian Army, 1940: story of volunteering for regular army and failure to get into 2/11th or 2/16th Bns; enlistment as lieutenant in 2/28th Bn, 7/1940; attitude of troops towards officers. Recollection of operations as officer with 2/28th Bn 24th Australian Infantry Bde, 9th Australian Infantry Div during Siege of Tobruk, Libya, 4/1941-9/1941: arrival in Palestine, 2/1941; question of lack of training; move to Tobruk, 3/1941; lack of equipment and utilisation of captured Italian equipment; situation in Tobruk; deployment in positions on Tobruk Perimeter; reaction to start of siege; sight of Royal Horse Artillery in action; question of his age and feelings towards Commonwealth; story of bond between 2/28th Bn and 1st Bn Royal Northumberland Fusiliers; withdrawal from perimeter to Blue Line; opinion of why battalion was withdrawn from Tobruk Perimeter.
REEL 2 Continues: aspects of the siege including, flies, water, rations, night patrols and listening posts; features marking Tobruk Perimeter; story of German tank attack, 5/1941; story of award of posthumous Victoria Cross to Corporal John Edmondson of 2/17th Bn for action at Tobruk, 14/4/1941; flies, fleas, sun and lack of water; shaving; dust storms; efficient use of water; heat haze; personal hygiene; question of hunger and rations; reconnaissance patrols; daily routine; visit to salient position; review of defensive positions, question of psychological effects of living in bunkers; reasons for holding Tobruk; withdrawal to Egypt, 9/1941; desert sores and fatigue.
REEL 3 Continues: arrival on board HMS Kimberley in Alexandria, Egypt; story of staff officer asking why troops were so quiet; psychological effects of patrolling; question of Germans inability to take Tobruk; question of Australian troops discipline out of action; story relating to orderly during siege; story of effect of beer on troops after siege; pride in 9th Australian Infantry Div; Recollections of operations as officer with 2/28th Bn, 24th Australian Infantry Bde, 9th Australian Infantry Div in Egypt and French Syria, 10/1941-12/1942: opinion of General Claude Auchinleck's tactics; opinion of Valentine Tank; story of tank attack, 17/6/1942; question of return to Australia after Japan's entry into Second World War, 12/1941; desert training at Homs, French Syria; story of secret move to Egypt, 6/1942; taking up positions at Tel el Eisa, Egypt; story of collecting British stragglers; move into defensive box; attacks on Ruin Ridge, Egypt during First Battle of El Alamein, Egypt, 26/7/1942-27/7/1942; failure of attacks on Ruin Ridge, Egypt; night attack on Ruin Ridge, Egypt, 26/7/1942 including bayonet charge on German 88mm Gun positions; background to bayonet training.
REEL 4 Continues: wounding and treatment for wounds; result of night attack on Ruin Ridge, Egypt, 26/7/1942, story of collecting German prisoners of war and return journey through minefield; sight of burning vehicles in minefield; situation on Ruin Ridge, dawn 27/7/1942; hospitalisation in Egypt, 7/1942-11/1942; story of capture of 2/28th Battalion at Ruin Ridge, Egypt and subsequent effect on morale. Aspects of period as officer with Australian Army in Papua New Guinea and Australia, 1943-1945: story of illness and hospitalisation in New Guinea; serving at Cowra Camp in Australia at time of mass escape of Japanese prisoners of war from neighbouring prisoner of war camp, 5/8/1944; opinion of GB and Commonwealth.