HE ADMITS he still has searing dreams about those days more than 70 years ago. Henry Tranter, World War II veteran and proud Rat of Tobruk, will turn 100 this July - something he thought he would never achieve when serving his country in Tobruk and hell-holes such as El Alamein and the New Guinea jungle.
He was 20 when he left his home of Millaa Millaa in the Atherton Tablelands to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force in June 1940. He was drafted into the 2/15th Battalion and at a tent camp near Caloundra was introduced to the Army Communications Unit.
"The most basic requirement was to attain knowledge of Morse Code with expectations a signalman could receive, or transmit, better than 20 words per minute," Henry explained.
"Although soldiers in communications carried weapons and were considered to be fighting troops, their primary role was transmitting messages from such places as forward posts, army headquarters in the rear or laterally when in combat."
Following a further stint in communications at Bathurst, NSW, the then Army Private Tranter, along with his comrades, sailed from Sydney in no less than the SS Queen Mary.The journey was eventually to land him in Tobruk where the Tobruk Corpus - components of the Australian 20th Brigade - gallantly became etched into history while capturing the important Mediterranean port by routing the Italian Army.
The loss of this strategic stronghold did not go down well with the Axis and a smarting German Command unleashed its elite Afrika Korps, under the leadership of decorated general Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, whose crack troops had yet to taste defeat after numerous battles.
Henry smiled as he recalled how the German propaganda machine, through voice-piece "Lord Haw Haw", issued insulting challenges to the Australians, such as "You are rats, you live like rats and you will die like rats".
"The insults simply had a galvanising effect on we Aussies," Henry said."We had prepared for what was to become the Siege of Tobruk by digging trenches and dug-out shelters to mainly live underground as protection from the shrapnel caused by high explosive shelling by enemy artillery.
"This underground living was the likely catalyst for the 'living like rats part', yet all it did was earn us the title of Rats of Tobruk - and I am so proud to wear that name.
"Our commander, Major-General Morshead, told us the German tanks that were likely to lead the assault could only inflict minimal damage, with the following troops the strongest danger. He advised us to lie low until the tanks were past and then rise to the occasion and deal with the troops."
This proved sage advice because records show the German tanks carried on through the Tobruk battlefield and became trapped in the purpose-dug trenches on the harbour foreshore, while the following troops were dealt with severely by the emerging Rats of Tobruk.
On April 10, 1941, battle was resumed twice, making it three times Rommel's crack unit attacked the marooned Rats, and three times the Rats fought like tigers to inflict the first defeat of the war on the Afrika Korps.
It was to become a turning point in World War II.
Savouring the victory was "a wonderful experience", after which Henry's unit was dispatched to El Alamein to support other sectors of the AIF in the battle to take control of that area.
Again the Axis forces were beaten, but Henry was not there when victory songs were sung. The vehicle he was in, travelling in convoy, was caught in a Luftwaffe bombing attack that destroyed his truck and six others.
"I still can remember the explosion but can't recall being thrown clear of the wreckage," Henry said.
"The next reality was finding I was on the ground with fire burning all around me and telling myself to get out of the fire - and somehow I did manage to get clear of it.
"Eventually I was taken to hospital with burns to my face, pieces of shrapnel in my head, damaged hearing and a painful back injury. Despite several operations my hearing has never recovered."
Once patched up, Henry was repatriated back to Australia and sent to the Tablelands for training in jungle warfare which, as he said, was like throwing Brer Rabbit into the briar patch.
But there was to be no fairytale outcome. He was sent to New Guinea to take on the Japanese advance.
"Fortunately, the Battle of the Coral Sea off the North Queensland coast was won by the Allies," Henry said."It was a first-time defeat for the Japanese and proved to be the turning point for the war in the Pacific."
The war was soon to be over and back in "Civvy Street", Henry returned to the Tablelands where he married Army nurse Elaine, met during his convalescence. They raised four children.
He also embarked on a new career, becoming chief assistant to a CSIRO scientist giving advice on pasture improvement, aided by tree-planting, to return the soil to prior de-forestry program quality.
"I spent the first half of my life removing trees and the second half returning them to compensate for the loss of the soil fertility which had happened over the ensuing years," he said with a grin.
As for being a Rat, Henry still wears this title as a badge of honour.
"We served our country," he said proudly. "But now I have the dreams. When I was over there I would dream of the green back home but now I vividly recall the horror. Don't let it happen again."
