Rats of Tobruk, The

AUST MILITARY
xiv, 119 p., [17] p. of plates ; 22 cm. #120522
Contemporary account.
The Rats of Tobruk were soldiers of the Australian-led Allied garrison that held the Libyan port of Tobruk against the Afrika Korps, during the Siege of Tobruk in World War II. The siege started on 11 April 1941 and was relieved on 10 December
The defenders had adopted Tobruk’s excellent network of below-ground defensive positions which had been built pre-war by the Italian Army. The propagandist for Germany, William Joyce, better known as “Lord Haw-Haw”, began describing the besieged men as living like rats in underground dug-outs and caves. In radio broadcasts, he derisively referred to and addressed the garrison as the “rats of Tobruk”.[1] Likewise, the ageing warships that supplied and evacuated Tobruk were also denigrated by German propaganda as “scrap iron”. The ships became known affectionately to the garrison as the “Scrap Iron Flotilla”[citation needed] and the “Tobruk ferry service”.[1]

Australians reclaimed the name as a badge of pride, even going so far as to strike their own unofficial medal bearing the likeness of a rat. The metal used to make the medals came from a German bomber that the Rats had shot down with captured German guns. Throughout the conflict, the enemy attack had at least twice the manpower and had the advantage of strong air support, while the Tobruk garrison had little air support because of remoteness from friendly air bases. This made the supply of the garrison, necessarily by sea, very difficult with ships having to arrive, unload and depart under the cover of darkness.[2]