![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/bomb_happy_valley_tobruk-1024x708.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/tobruk_harbour1-1024x724.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tThe monument on Anzac Avenue is modelled after another one which you can see in the black and white photo, constructed in the cemetery at Tobruk but destroyed a few months after. Beside it is the present monument in Canberra in a photo I took today. On the front of the new one is a bronze eternal flame that faces the avenue, below which were laid wreaths for the 75th anniversary of the siege:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/monument_tobruk_1941_blog-680x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/tobruk-monument-canberra-683x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/relic-tobruk-memorial-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tThe Tobruk siege is significant for two firsts. It was the first defeat of Hitler’s troops on land. And Corporal John Hurst Edmondson, who died from wounds and is buried in Tobruk cemetery (and whose grave photo is also in my father’s album) was the first Australian to be awarded the Victoria Cross in the war (awarded posthumously).<\/p>\n
Finally, a poem. Here are the first two stanzas of Wounded from Tobruk<\/em>, recorded by my father in his poetry book, but written by James Andrew “Tip” Kelaher and published in The Bulletin<\/em> on 29 October 1941. Sadly, Tip Kelaher was killed the following year at El Alamein in Libya. Here’s the page in my father’s writing, followed by my transcription with corrections:<\/p>\n You come limping down the gangplank Perhaps you\u2019re smiled at by a bearer, Poets, photographers, artists, sculptors, and a corporal who saved a man but sacrificed his own life. We must write about them lest we forget.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The siege of Tobruk began 75 years ago on 10th April, 1941, and yesterday in Canberra the anniversary was marked at the ‘Rats of Tobruk’ memorial on Anzac Avenue. Tobruk is a small town on the Libyan coast with a deep water harbour, which Australian, British and Indian troops were charged with protecting in 1941 … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/wounded-from-tobruk-p1-823x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nOr you\u2019re carried down instead,
\nCovered by a dusty blanket
\nWith a boot beneath your head,
\nAnd you all look lean and hungry
\nUnderneath that Aussie grin,
\nSick of bully beef and biscuits,
\nBut the sort that won\u2019t give in.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nWho is muscular and big,
\nFishing fags out of his pocket
\nWith a \u201cBetter have one, Dig\u201d.
\nAnd you take it as he lights it,
\nAnd return the wry old grin,
\nMaking little of your troubles,
\nBut there\u2019s no one taken in.<\/span><\/p>\n