Ming The Merciless was a nick name given to one of our most outstanding Australian military commanders of WW2.
His name was Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead. He was the Commanding Officer of the 9th Division of the 2nd AIF, Commander of the garrison of Tobruk during its period under siege from April to December, 1941, the chief Rat of Tobruk one might say, and still in command when the 9th got around the German defences to break the deadlock in the Battle of El Alamein in October, 1942.
He has been rightly described as “The Hero of Tobruk and Alamein”
His greatest achievements were against the German General Erwin Rommel, known as The Desert Fox but Morshead outfoxed him at every throw of the dice.
Read more: MING THE MERCILESS - Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead - a military hero
We have just enjoyed an enormously successful month and our heartfelt thanks must go out to the posters that contributed to our Military Memory Month in the lead up to ANZAC Day.
As a site devoted to all things patriotic, I wanted to share my hopes and visions for our future and seek your feedback on what we hope to achieve.
What is Patriotism?
The Biden-Boris green virus which infects most of the west has become a danger to Australia. PM Morrison has promised one billion dollars for “hydrogen, CCUS (carbon capture usage or storage), batteries and critical minerals - all to achieve “net zero”.
NOT ONE of these green dreams will produce one light-bulb of new energy – all will consume massive amounts of energy and money.
It is the 25th April, and a German man and his wife from Munich are taking a motoring holiday to the South of France. They pass through the northern French city of Amiens. They observe much gaiety among the populace and are wondering what it is all about.
They pass through the city and 15kms down the road they approach a small town. On the outskirts, they pass a cemetery which has a sign “Adelaide Cemetery”.
Says the man, " that is not a French name. What does it mean? "
Read more: The 25th of April - from the Somme to Sydney, it is still ANZAC Day
ANZAC Day has been sabotaged. Yet again. This time by quotas. Registrations and redtape.
I remember when it was a simple display of heartfelt patriotism and a love of the men and women who fell in service to our Nation.
I remember when it was about standing at dawn on the morning of 25 April and honouring all those who fell because they were patriots. They fell for our way of life and our belief in freedom.
Now we are being asked in many parts of Australia to register to honour our dead. Register? What idiocy is this?
Read more: I remember when... I first experienced the ANZAC tradition
Sydneys III, IV and V did not get the opportunity to show their true mettle as did numbers I and II. After 1945 there were no more “real” wars that involved our country. There were UN peacekeeping operations and participation in conflicts undertaken by the Coalition of the Willing. Korea was officially dubbed a UN peacekeeping operation. Vietnam was a war between North & South Vietnam where our role was to support an ally, the USA in flushing out the Viet Cong.
Nevertheless to those who were taking part the bullets, bombs and shells were real and lethal regardless of the handle given to the conflict and whenever the call went out to give support to our allies our response as always was “Australia will be there!”
I dedicate this article to the women who fought, died and tragically were lost. Alongside the brave men who did the same. I dedicate it to the women who kept the wheels turning on the farms and in the mines and in the factories and in the family homes.
There is great equality in life and in death. But nowhere as great as in the love we feel in our hearts.
Read more: Women at War and the women who kept the homefires burning
Over the past month, we have been reading articles from Happy Expat about our boys on the frontline. I have to hand it to him. It made me start to think again.
The journey down the path of a road we never knew we wanted to explore but found ourselves walking down nonetheless. We have marched side by side through the swamps and quagmires of our wartorn past and felt the bite of a thousand mosquitoes; dysentery and malnutrition. And these days, all we do is view it from the comfort of our heated or air-conditioned homes as part of a news story.
And we say, almost with an automatic response, Lest We Forget. Are we saying this because it rolls off the tongue? No meaning? Have we forgotten what these brave people did?
The Scrap Iron Flotilla was an Australian destroyer group that operated in the Mediterranean during WW2.
Its story is synonymous with the Rats of Tobruk. It was the means of supply to the beleaguered town under siege between 10th April, 1941 and 7th December, 1941.
Its name was conferred on it by Dr.Goebbels, the German propaganda minister intending to demean and undermine morale of the five Australian ships that made up the flotilla. As happened with the conferring of the name “Rats of Tobruk” on the garrison troops by Lord Haw Haw, instead of depressing morale it spurred them to greater acts of defiance. Neither understood the make-up of the Australian character.
Read more: The Scrap Iron Flotilla - a tale of the great Aussie Spirit
I would venture to say that the two most famous and well known phrases of our military history are “Gallipoli” and “The Rats of Tobruk”. One was a magnificent defeat. The other was a magnificent triumph.
Field Marshall Sir William Slim, 13th Governor General of Australia and at the time, General commanding the 14th Army said after the triumph over the Japanese at Milne Bay that “…..Some of us may forget that, of all the Allies, it was the Australians who first broke the invincibility of the Japanese army and it was the Australians who first broke the invincibility of the German army.”
In speaking of the defeat of the German Army he was speaking about Tobruk.
Read more: Our Rats of Tobruk - the faces of unlikely heroes
I have just watched the funeral of Prince Philip. There was something so different, so sad and so moving that I felt the need to put it into words. To witness the passing of this great Naval Officer and servant of the People was and will become one of those moments in history where, as Shaydee wrote some time ago, we record our snapshots of momentous occasions and our brains realise that something momentous just occurred.
Today, we watched the passing of the old guard. The handing over of our future to a group of people who have never learned that, without respect for the past, we will be given a future that none of us could ever have imagined or ever wanted.
It is a future that fills me with dread.
Beneath the swaying trees and the green grass of Norfolk Island lies a brutal chapter…
71 hits
In a world that seems determined to teach us to hate our countries, I remember…
283 hits
By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble In a stunning turn of events, Peter “Cooker” Fookit - who…
337 hits
For nearly three decades, the Port Arthur Massacre has been remembered as Australia's darkest day…
449 hits
Who pays the Ferryman? In the old myths, no soul crossed the river Styx without…
279 hits
By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble, Special Correspondent for Ratty News Roderick Whiskers McNibble here, tail fluffed…
340 hits
Each war seems to produce its own under-appreciated heroes who, for reasons that have nothing…
384 hits
Just before dawn on August 7, 1915, the men of the 8th and 10th Australian…
376 hits
It is not often that a hero can also be a larrikin and vice versa.…
330 hits
On ANZAC Day we remember the fallen, the brave, the heroic. But behind every name…
357 hits
Magic happens everywhere and goodness, wonder and delight can be found alive and well throughout…
151 hits
How many people around the world have been warning about the danger we are in? …
163 hits
Two names. Two battles. One legend. At Chunuk Bair and Lone Pine, ANZAC soldiers faced…
484 hits
It has been truly said that Australia arrived in Gallipoli as six separate States and…
368 hits
By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble, Investigative Reporter Extraordinaire The Ratty News Foreign Desk | Special Report…
382 hits
There are men who live great adventures and there are men who write about them.…
397 hits
When life collapses and the weight of grief threatens to bury us, we have two…
401 hits
He was short, wiry, and came from the dusty outskirts of Clermont in rural Queensland.…
500 hits
As the sun rises on another ANZAC Day in less than two weeks, and an…
284 hits
Some memories shimmer in the mind like a heat haze, half mischief, half magic. This…
285 hits
For over five years now, this blog has grown into more than just a place…
284 hits
In a stunning turn of events, Roderick “Whiskers” McNibble - microphone-wielding rat and founding fur…
373 hits
How did it happen? How did a failed artist and fringe political agitator rise from…
324 hits
What happens when the battlefield goes silent....but the war doesn’t end? When soldiers come home,…
457 hits
John B. Calhoun’s “rat utopia” experiments of the 1960s, designed to be paradises with unlimited…
313 hits
Throughout history, religion has been hailed as a guiding light, a beacon of morality and…
366 hits
In a fast-changing Australia, where new cultures and identities weave fresh threads into our ever…
310 hits
When I was a young lass, I was a fencer. No, not the farming type…
331 hits
By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble, Ratty News Investigative Correspondent Heard Island, Antarctica - A once-quiet expanse of…
465 hits
In a world obsessed with competition, the most powerful alliances are often overlooked, those between…
323 hits
Fear has always been the most powerful weapon of control, whether wielded by governments against…
309 hits
On a chilly October night in 1938, millions of Americans huddled around their radios, unaware…
284 hits