The Black Rats of Tobruk

Research is continuing to reveal stories of the Indigenous presence among soldiers of the Second Australian Imperial Force.

For some years, the Australian War Memorial has committed itself to discovering the identities of Australian service personnel of Indigenous heritage. During the centenary of the First World War, our focus was on finding men in the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF), a process complicated by a regulation that aimed to prohibit the enlistment of Indigenous men – though many managed to evade the regulation. Our attention has now shifted to identifying and recognising Indigenous service in the Second World War. In December 2018, a blogpost on the Memorial’s website commemorated the anniversary of the end of the siege of Tobruk on 7 December 1941. The aim of the post was to discover the identities of some more of the Black Rats of Tobruk.

The Rats of Tobruk Association website, and the Rats of Tobruk Inc tribute website, identify a Rat as an Allied soldier who has been proved to have served during the siege in the period 10 April to 7 December 1941 (see Wartime Issue 54). Black Rats are men who qualify as Rats and are also of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent. The name “Black Rats” is adopted from the poem “The Black Rat” by Iris Clayton, daughter of Cecil Robert Clayton, NX36259 2/13th Battalion. The poem was first published in Inside Black Australia: an anthology of Aboriginal poetry, edited by Kevin Gilbert in 1988.

A first roll-call

We currently have identified 19 Black Rats:

Here is a sample of the stories of just two of these men.

Archibald Driscoll, QX3571, 2/3rd Field Ambulance

Driscoll was an Aboriginal man of the Munanjali peoples from around the Beaudesert and Mt Tamborine area of south-east Queensland. He was born in 1909 and enlisted in the Second AIF on 20 October 1939, giving his occupation as cane cutter; he initially gave his father, Albert Driscoll, as his next of kin, though this was later altered to Olive Driscoll, his sister. Driscoll was immediately allocated to the 2/3rd Field Ambulance, embarking from Sydney on 4 May 1940 and arriving (via Gourock, Scotland) in the Middle East in March 1941 and eventually Tobruk. Driscoll served with the 9th Division’s 2/3rd Field Ambulance for the duration of the war, including in their North African campaign at the first and second battles of El Alamein.

In 1942 he returned briefly to Australia before serving in New Guinea, where he received a shrapnel wound to his back in late 1943. He returned to duty and continued in Labuan in north Borneo, until his discharge on 26 November 1945.

Aside from his extensive service record, Driscoll has another highly unusual claim to fame – his role in the feature film The Rats of Tobruk, directed by Charles Chauvel. Driscoll took part in the film’s battle re-enactments, and he appears prominently in a still that was made into the poster promoting the film. It was released in 1944 on the third anniversary of the end of the Tobruk siege. But Driscoll’s participation in the armed forces, from the very beginning, was in direct contradiction to the restriction imposed by the 1903 Defence Act (amended 1910). Section 61, Persons exempt from service, reads: “Persons who are not substantially of European origin or descent, of which the medical authorities appointed under the Regulation shall be the judges.” This regulation was not rescinded until 1949, by which time many Indigenous men and women had served with distinction.

The prominent role Archibald played in the re-enactment of the siege of Tobruk, and his selection by Chauvel for the film’s promotional imagery, are open to interpretation. The image of the handsome, strong and imposing figure of the fighting Australian soldier best suited the narrative of the film and the reputation of the Rats of Tobruk. Archibald’s selection, irrespective of his heritage, showed that he embodied the larrikin and sardonic spirit that fitted the Anzac legend.

Timothy Hughes MM, SX1570 2/10th Battalion

Timothy Hughes (1917–76), a Narannga man, was born at Point Pearce Aboriginal Community, also known as Bhoodkayana Aboriginal Station, on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia. Timothy was the son of Aboriginal parents Walter Stanford Hughes, a Narangga man, and his mother Gladys, a Kaurna woman. Hughes had limited educational opportunities, and after the 5th grade he left school to work with his father on his share farm, and later as a contract shearer.

Hughes enlisted in the Second AIF on 4 December 1939, and was posted to the 9th Platoon of the 2/10th Battalion. He was in Brighton, England, in 1940 before embarking for the Middle East and Tobruk, where he served in the defence of Tobruk from April to August 1941. After the battalion was redeployed to the Pacific theatre, Hughes fought in Papua in the battle of Milne Bay in August–September 1942. In December of that year his unit joined the Allied forces assaulting Buna on Papua’s north coast. On the 26th, during the advance along the old Buna airstrip, Hughes’s platoon was pinned down by machine[1]gun fire. He volunteered to climb on top of the wall of a dispersal bay protecting parked planes. From there, despite coming under concentrated fire from three directions, he engaged two Japanese posts with grenades. Armed with a sub-machine gun, he protected his comrades while they took cover; he then made three sorties to silence the enemy’s weapons, enabling the platoon to consolidate its position.

Tim Hughes was awarded the Military Medal for his act of conspicuous gallantry and bravery during the advance of the battalion supporting American units at the Buna Aerodrome. His citation states that he “showed remarkable bravery, exceptional coolness and initiative. His total disregard for his own safety set a fine example throughout the Platoon and also throughout the Company.”

On 19 January 1943 he received a gunshot wound to his right upper arm at Sanananda, while he was also suffering from malaria. He returned to Australia in March for medical treatment. On recovery he was promoted to substantive corporal in June, and joined the 31st Employment Company in South Australia in August 1943. After being hospitalised repeatedly for malaria, Hughes was discharged from the 2nd AIF on 5 September 1945.

In the 1950s Hughes took up a Soldier Settlers’ farm in south-east South Australia, which he named Bhoodkayana, the traditional name of the Point Pearce Aboriginal Community lands where he came from.