Woven cloth badge : HMAS Tobruk (II) Communicators

Circular woven cloth white badge with a dark blue border featuring a rat wearing headphones and holding two red and orange signal flags. There is a yellow lighting bolt above the rat's head and he is surrounded by scrolls in which are the words, 'HMAS TOBRUK COMMUNICATORS'.

Badge collected by Chief Petty Officer Signals Yeoman (CPOSY) Duncan John Perryman, RAN during his service in HMAS Tobruk as part of UN operations in Somalia. UNOSOM II (United Nations Operation in Somalia) was the second phase of the United Nations intervention in Somalia. It ran from March 1993 until March 1995. UNOSOM II carried on from the US-controlled (but UN sanctioned) UNITAF, which had in turn taken over from the ineffectual UNOSOM I mission. All three of these interventions were aimed at creating a secure enough environment for humanitarian operations to be carried out in the increasingly lawless and famine-struck country. The RAN played an important part in the UNOSOM deployment, transporting the battalion group equipment, vehicles, and some troops, to Somalia on board the training ship HMAS Jervis Bay and the heavy landing ship HMAS Tobruk. Tobruk subsequently remained in the area in support, providing logistic support to the Australians and UNITAF, and conducted surveillance off the Somali coast. Its helicopter was used in ship-to-shore transport of personnel. Tobruk was also used by the land forces for rest and recreation.