Nambour Museum to hold Open Day honouring our Rats of Tobruk
On Saturday April 17 Nambour Museum is holding a special open day from 10am to 3pm to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the commencement of the Siege of Tobruk. This is a great opportunity to view the museum’s interesting Rats of Tobruk and HMAS Tobruk collection.
Also on the same day the museum will be unveiling their refurbished ‘Remembrance Room’ where the stories of many of our local heroes are told.
The Siege of Tobruk
By April 1941 the Australian 9th Division along with the regiments of the British Royal Horse Artillery had taken up defensive positions in and around the Libyan port city of Tobruk. So began the Siege of Tobruk.
On April 14 a German attack was repulsed by the Australians and British artillery. This was the first time German land forces had been defeated in World War II. The Australians held Tobruk for eight months.
Holding Tobruk denied the Germans use of the harbour and slowed their advance towards Egypt and the strategic Suez Canal.
The Australians and their comrades became known as the Rats of Tobruk, a name bestowed upon them by a German propaganda broadcaster who described them as rats living in holes in the ground.
In typical fashion the Australians turned the intended insult into a ‘badge of honour’. As the ‘Rats’ never received much recognition for their efforts the Rats of Tobruk Association struck their own distinctive T medal.