[Image] Cairo, Egypt.

"View of ancient portion of Cairo".

image by NX17811 Cpl. L.J. McCarthy, 2/17th Infantry Battalion from the author's personal collection.

Click on image to enlarge.

[Image] Post R49 Tobruk Explained

Post R49

Red Line Outer Defenses.

Tobruk, Libya, 1941.

This German aerial reconnaissance image shows the outer perimeter defenses at post R49. This post is one of those built in the early 1930's by the Italian occupation force. It consisted of concrete trenches and weapons pits, an anti-tank ditch and even a underground bunker for when you were under artillery fire. All this surrounded by miles of razor wire and fields of landmines.

The numbers in the picture refer to the following;

1. Main anti-tank ditch
2. Barbed Wire
3. Barbed Wire
4. Weapons pit with connecting trench and bomb-proof shelter
5. Local anti-tank ditch
6. Supply road

9th Division troops would occupy these posts for weeks on end. Some of the posts were within 400 yards of German lines and even raising your head two inches above the sandbags would draw intense fire from German snipers.

Days in the line would often be spent resting due to the intense heat and the lack of usable cover in the desert. Exposing yourself in daylight hours would often be fatal. In Tobruk, it was said that the Australians owned the night. Once the harsh African sun set it would be time for the nightly patrols to commence.

Patrols would leave posts like the above one pictured to venture thousands of yards beyond the wire to gather intelligence (usually by capturing prisoners for interrogation) or to destroy a known objective. At this activity the Australian's excelled.

image #44246L3 by Ullstein as scanned from "The Rats Remain - The Siege of Tobruk, 1941" by J.S. Cumpston, Grayflower Productions 1966.

[Weapon: Allies] The Lee-Enfield .303 Rifle

Photograph taken by Coggansfield, 2006 and used with permission.

The Digger's Best Mate

This is the Lee-Enfield .303 rifle. It was standard issue to all Australian Infantry Battalions during World War 2. Many of these rifles were left overs from World War One and as such were old, heavy and bolt actioned. Needless to say they were durable, accurate and sturdy. No photo of a Digger from either World War is complete without a .303 somewhere in the picture. I don't plan to get technical about the weapons at this stage but if I do I will tag the post with a [Tech] tag.

[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.