Italian brass tank plaque : Lieutenant B Brock, HQ Company, 2/2 Battalion, AIF

Circular Italian armoured tank plaque made from brass with a serrated circumference, the plaque features a central design of the Roman Fasces, with a five-pointed star alongside to the right and underneath the star is the text 'ROETO', the abbreviation for the Regio Eserito (Royal Army). These plaques were fitted to all Italian tanks during the Second World War.

This brass tank plaque was collected by Lieutenant Bruce Brock, HQ Company Signals Officer, 2/2nd Battalion between December 1941 and January 1942 near Bardia, in Libya.

Brock was born on 31 March 1907 at Darwin and was working as a school teacher at Woonona NSW. He had been a Lieutenant with the Illawarra based 34 (Militia) Battalion before he was seconded to the 2/2nd Battalion AIF on 13 November 1939, and given service number NX239. Brock embarked from Australia in January 1940 with 2/2nd Battalion which arrived in Egypt a month later and trained in Palestine till the end of August of that year. Promoted to the rank of captain in July 1941, Brook took part in 2/2nd Battalion's early battles in Bardia and Tobruk in Libya, and afterwards in the Greek Campaign. Brook returned to Australia in mid-1942 via Papua New Guinea aboard the Ambulance Transport 'Felix Roussel'. He was discharged from service in January 1944.