The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (VX5403) Private Ken Atock, 2/7th Battalion, 2nd AIF, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (VX5403) Private Ken Atock, 2/7th Battalion, 2nd AIF, Second World War.

VX5403 Private Ken Atock, 2/7th Battalion, 2nd AIF
KIA 13 July 1941
Photograph: P02466.110

Story delivered 20 May 2016

Today we pay tribute to Private Kenneth James Atock, who was killed on active service during the Second World War.

Born in Sydney, Kenneth Atock, known as “Ken”, was the son of Vivian Henry Edward Atock and Edna Lois Atock of East Hawthorn, Melbourne. He found employment as a newspaper compositor and was working in a chemist when the Second World War began in September 1939.

Shortly after the outbreak of war the Australian government announced the raising of a Second Australian Imperial Force – an all-volunteer force for overseas service. Atock was among of the first wave of volunteers, enlisting on 20 October 1939 at Melbourne Showgrounds. On his papers Atock – or “Bluey” to his mates in the army – stated that he was 20 years old. It seems, however, that he was actually 18 and below the recruitment age limit for front-line units at the time.

Atock was posted to the newly raised 2/7th Battalion, part of the 17th Brigade of the 6th Australian Division. The battalion began basic training at the camp at Puckapunyal in central Victoria, and during this time Atock became a member of the 2/7th Battalion’s intelligence section.

The battalion departed for overseas service in April 1940. On arriving in the Middle East it conducted further training in Palestine and Egypt. Atock served with the battalion throughout its first campaign in Libya, fighting in battles at Bardia and Tobruk.

In April 1941 the 2/7th Battalion and the rest of the 6th Division were deployed to Greece ahead of the anticipated German invasion. For the 2/7th the Greek campaign was essentially one long withdrawal through a series of rearguard positions. Most of its men were evacuated from Kalamata aboard the Costa Rica later that month, but the next day the ship was crippled by German aircraft, and the men had to be rescued by a pair of British destroyers and taken to Crete. The 2/7th was initially deployed to defend the coastline around Georgioupolis, but was soon moved up to join the fighting around Canea. In May the battalion took part in a wild bayonet charge at 42nd Street that temporarily rebuffed the German advance, and subsequently played a critical rearguard role as the Allied forces retreated across the island to Sphakia. As a member of the intelligence section, Atock played an important part in guiding the remnants of 2/7th Battalion through the rocky valleys in its retreat across Crete.

In June, after the last evacuation vessels left Sphakia, those men remaining on Crete were taken prisoners of war. Atock was one of more than 5,000 Australians imprisoned by the Germans during the ill–fated campaigns on Greece and Crete.

The prisoners on Crete were marched to a transit camp at Galatas, known by the Germans as Dulag Kreta. Designed to hold the captives before the long journey into the German Reich, it was little more than a holding pen surrounded by a six-foot-high wire fence. Few shelters or amenities had been prepared and the prisoners soon became sick, hungry, and weary under the hot Cretan sun.

A handful of prisoners managed to escape through the wire at night. Some remained on Crete, evading capture, while some made their way off the island and back to Allied forces in Egypt and Palestine.

On the night of 13 July Atock tried to escape the camp. Spotted by the German guards, he was shot and killed. As a warning to others, the Germans left Atock’s body hanging from the wire throughout the following day. He was just 20 years old.

Atock’s body is buried in the British and Commonwealth War Cemetery at Suda Bay on Crete. In recognition of his “gallant and distinguished services” during the battle for Crete, he was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches.

Atock’s name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around 40,000 others from the Second World War. His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Kenneth James Atock, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant Historian, Military History Section