[Image] 2/13th goes through the wire at R27.

8th September, 1941. Tobruk, Libya.

Men of the 2/13th go through the wire.

These two men of the 2/13th are preparing to go through the wire on a small patrol out from post R27 in the Red Line. On the left holding Lee-Enfield .303 rifle with fixed bayonet is NX36511 Sgt. William F. Kubank. To his right is NX36399 Pvt. Stanley C. Hutton with the Thompson submachinegun.

Post R27 in the Red Line is opposite the El-Adem Escarpment, behind which camped the Afrika Korps. The low ground in front of the escarpment was covered extensively by German machine gun posts but these were regularly monitored and dealt with by nocturnal patrols into no-man's land.

image 020784 Australian War Memorial.

[Image] The long walk to the cage

April, 1941. Tobruk, Libya.

2/48th Captures 70 Italian POW's.

A lone Digger of the 2/48th Infantry Battalion leads a column of Italian POW's on the long walk back from the front lines to the Prisoner of War cage. This was a march of approximately 10 kilometres. With shouldered Lee-Enfield .303 and fixed bayonet he leads the prisoners past the HQ of the 26th Brigade.

It was because of the Italian's general reluctance to fight, and the fact that they felt they would be treated better by the Australians than the Germans, that they willingly surrendered in large numbers. Many captured Italian soldiers possessed a white silk handkerchief and were not afraid to use it. Italian soldiers would often withstand sustained small arms fire from a distance but would crack at the sight of the fixed bayonet up close. Even many of the Afrika Korps chose to spend the rest of the war as a POW than fall victim to an Aussie bayonet. Making this choice is not an act of cowardice.

Many of these Italian prisoners were sent back to Australia and sent to work on farms in rural areas, often later immigrating back after the war to purchase their own farms.

image p02242.018 Australian War Memorial.

[Image] The Digger of Alamein

The Australian Digger, Alamein 1942.

This photo taken at the Alamein War Museum in Egypt shows the typical Australian Infantry soldier of the Western Desert of 1942. A Lee-Enfield .303 rifle, a bayonet and of course the tin hat are ever present.

Several things differ between the model soldier here and photos of actual Aussie soldiers at Alamein that are worth mentioning. I think that this photo is how the regulation Australian soldier should have looked. In reality the Australian soldier at Alamein was most likely bare chested. He was more likely to wear a slouch hat than a tin hat and was more often than not bare footed. This Digger is also way too white in skin tone to have spent any length of time in the Western Desert.

The Diggers of the 9th Division may have gone away white but came back the very image of the 'bronzed aussie'. This was an era decades before sunscreen. As a result skin cancers were a huge concern for returned men of the 9th Division even way into their latter years. For some it wasn't the Germans that killed them but the Western Desert sun itself many decades later.

The Australians were a casual lot with their uniforms in all theatres of the second world war. This is what makes some of the photos even more powerful because of the contrast in their casual appearance and the horrible nature of their surroundings.

image Alamein War Museum, Egypt.

[Image] The Gateway to Fortress Tobruk

El-Adem Road Gateway, Red Line,

Tobruk, April, 1941.

The gateway to the heart of Tobruk and it's inner defenses and harbour lay through the southern approaching El-Adem Road. It is at this point that Rommel first probed the defenses of the Garrison in the Easter Battle of 1941.

This heavily fortified and defended position is guarded by Pvt. Earl of the 2/13th Battalion. I have not been able to identify this digger any further at this stage. He sits astride a concrete pillar with his Lee-Enfield .303 with fixed bayonet. Being on the line he is also wearing his Tin Hat.

The gateway was surrounded by an anti-tank ditch and huge amount of barbed wire. The steel poles set into the concrete could be slid back to allow access for approved vehicles. Interestingly, when Rommel's tanks did first attack Tobruk in this area they chose not to breech the line at this point. That was one of their only wise decisions that weekend.

image 007499 Australian War Memorial.

[Image] 9th Division Digger at Alamein

3rd November, 1942
El Alamein, Egypt.

An Australian Digger of the 9th Division menaces with bayonet fixed on his Lee-Enfield .303 rifle. He wears the standard Commonwealth Tin Hat and his shirt looks bleached from the North African sun.

Unfortunately the identity of this soldier is unknown but I wouldn't stand in his way. Many a German or Italian would have felt the same when confronted by this bloke and his bayonet. The Australian bayonet used in WW2 was a surplus item from WW1. It was quite long and had a very intimidating look when fixed (as is obvious from the photo above). Many an Axis soldier feared the Australian wielding a fixed bayonet.

image 042078 Australian War Memorial.

[Image] 9th Division troops guard Axis prisoners of war at Alamein

Australian troops of the 9th Division guard Axis prisoners of war at Alamein. Note the fixed bayonets on the Lee-Enfield .303's. The German prisoners appear to be in formal battle dress whilst the Italians are much more casually attired.

image Imperial War Museum E2478

[Image] Tobruk Patrol by Day

Image taken from "Active Service - with Australia in the Middle East". Australian War Memorial 1941.

A patrol of 9th Division troops goes outside the wire of Tobruk's defenses into no mans land. Patrols like this constantly harassed the enemy at Tobruk. It was commonly felt amongst Australian troops that they "owned no-man's land". Major-General Leslie Morshead, commander of the Tobruk garrison implemented a series of relentless patrolling around the besieged troops in a constant source of concern for both Germans and Italians alike.

The patrol pictured appears to be a standard section patrol of 8 men. 6 with Lee-Enfield .303's with fixed bayonets (a constant source of fear amongst Axis troops) and two with the American Thompson submachinegun. The man in front, the leader of the patrol has the larger 50 round drum magazine whilst the other "Tommy Gunner" appears to have the smaller 20 or 30 round box magazine. All men wear the standard commonwealth tin hat helmet, shorts and carry only extra ammo, grenades and field dressings.

Morshead organised two different types of patrol around Tobruk. Reconnaissance and Fighting. A Recon patrol would often go out after dark, lightly armed for thousands of yards to often lie for hours in the cold desert within yards of enemy positions to gather intelligence about enemy troop dispositions and movements. Often a recon patrol would return, report the night's findings and return to their positions after up to 6 hours in the desert without a shot being fired or a word spoken.

The other type of patrol, the Fighting Patrol, would often go out the next night to attack targets watched the night before. These patrols were often larger in number and more heavily armed than usual. They would often sneak up on the enemy and toss grenades amongst the unsuspecting foes only to charge them with fixed bayonets or blazing Tommy Guns. There was even a report of a fighting patrol of 11 men who attacked 188 Germans with fixed bayonets at night and killed over 20 and captured the rest, including a dreaded Flak 88 gun and many Spandau MG's without a word being spoken or a shot being fired.

The patrols wreaked havoc amongst the Italians around Tobruk with their own leaflet campaign. 9th Division recon patrols would sneak into the Italian positions and stick leaflets with the words "V per Vittoria" (V for Victory) written on them all over the place. There was even a report of an Italian soldier waking up in the morning in his dugout with a "V per Vittoria" leaflet neatly tied around his bootlaces at the foot of his bedding.

image 009394 Australian War Memorial.

[Image] The Alamein Heaven Photo

For me, this is one of the most powerful photos of the Second World War. A lone shirtless Australian soldier of the 9th Division carves the word "Heaven" and an upwards pointing arrow in the soft stone wall of the Alamein railway station with the tip of his bayonet. I've seen the significance of this being explained as "Alamein is a slice of heaven". I like to look on it more as that of a digger taking the piss. If Heaven is above them as the arrow would indicate I think the digger means to liken Alamein to Hell. And he would be right. More on Alamein later.