What he did and what he went through for the five years he was in uniform must rank as a truly remarkable and illustrious career and one tinged with a lot of luck.

Or, as Jim prefers to call it, ‘divine providence’.

Jim was born in Manangatang in 1921, leaving school in the depression years to work on the family farm. He put his age up one year to join the army in June,1940, and initially trained at Royal Park in Melbourne.

In June 1941, he went overseas aboard the troop ship and converted liner Queen Mary, with one stop at Fremantle and the other at Ceylon, before heading up the Red Sea to Port Tewfik. After some time in Alexandria, he was sent to Tobruk aboard a British warship as a reinforcement. The ship had to continually zig zag to avoid German U-boat attacks.

The Siege of Tobruk started in April 1941, with a perimeter line about 50 kilometres long and nine kilometres deep. Jim was first put on a captured Italian Breda gun. The Italians had mostly surrendered and left behind usable guns with lots of ammunition. The Breda fired a two-pound armour piercing round. The only training soldiers had was firing at a tank that was towed across the area with a cable. 

“We called ourselves the bush artillery,” Jim said.

The siege area, especially the port, was almost under continuous attack from Stuka dive bombers and other attack aircraft. The Stukas would machine gun us as they made their dive. They looked rather like a huge eagle and had sirens under their wings, which gave off a banshee wail. 

German Panzer tanks were also used, but the 25-pounders took good care of them. The main supply route for Tobruk was through the port and great credit has to be given to the British and Australian navy forces for keeping that open. There were 12,000 Australians, 10,000 British and 1500 Ghurkhas to keep the supplies up to.

“We never heard the broadcasts, but we did find out that Lord Haw Haw, a British broadcaster who had changed sides, was calling us the Rats of Tobruk,” Jim said.

“That title stuck. We’re very proud of it.”

In October 1941, the troops were repatriated out of Tobruk and replaced by a Polish and South African army. The army lost Tobruk in two days. The ninth division was recalled to take it back. “While in the Middle East we were told that a Mr Bullfinch was coming to inspect us,” Jim said.

“We all lined up and saw the official car with motorcycle escort. Who should get out of the car but Winston Churchill.

“’Bullfinch’ was his code name. As he came along our lines one of our boys yelled out, ‘what about a cigar Mr Churchill?’ Churchill stopped, turned towards the man, and gave him one.

“We also had a competition to write a poem about what we missed the most: a cold bottle of beer. The winning poem was submitted by our teetotaller lieutenant Ken Reid.” 

Oh! Sleek brown shape – thou prize of my desiring,

Mine inner man cries out for thee,

My eager lips, my thirsty throat aspiring,

To taste thee, brew sublime – and free.

In dreams I see thee held aloft, and shining,

Thy sparkling fluid trembleth near,

Ah! Bliss divining what need now my repining,

Soon soon, I’ll taste I’ll taste thy precious beer.

Thus dream I, soon ‘twill be my lot,

Beneath thy lips to hold my eager pot.

“We all lived in dugouts, some were better than others. Some were shared and others just a single one,” Jim said.

“When the Stukas came over for their raid we headed to the dugouts pretty pronto. 

“A chap just up from me had a pretty flash dugout and one day a few blokes caught a small wild donkey and pushed it into the dugout just before a raid. 

“When the air raid started we all dived for our dugouts and this bloke went into his landing right on top of the donkey. 

“He came out quicker than when he went in.”

The Battle of Alamein was imminent and Montgomery, a brilliant tactician, had formed and trained up the 8th army, comprising the Australians, New Zealanders, British, South African, Indian, free French, Gurkhas and Greek divisions.

Jim’s unit, the 2/23 Battalion, was in reserve for the battle but never far from the front. At one stage Jim had two badly wounded German prisoners in quite a state. 

He took time to bandage their wounds and show some humanity. The German soldiers greatly appreciated Jim’s intervention and care for them.

The Battle of El Alamein was over in a fortnight. 

“We were then taken by ship to Palestine for a short break before being repatriated back to Australia on the troop ship the Nieuw Amsterdam,” Jim said. 

“We did our big parade through the streets of Melbourne but were marched straight down to Spencer Street station and put on a train back to Puckapunyal. 

“Five weeks leave followed before we were shipped up to the Atherton Tablelands for jungle training, before being sent to New Guinea and the islands to defend the country from the Japanese onslaught.”

In his memoir, Montgomery says one of his proudest moments was his command of the Australian ninth division.