Canberra's Rat of Tobruk, John Fleming, who turned 99 on Friday, has a matter-of-fact way of describing his War War Two experience.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"I went through Tobruk, El Alamein and Syria and didn't get shot until I went to New Guinea,'' he said.
One of the few remaining members of the ACT Rats of Tobruk Association, Mr Fleming celebrated his 99th birthday with students at the Giralang Primary School.
The school has established a strong connection with the Rats of Tobruk, the soldiers who held the Libyan port of Tobruk against the Germans during the Siege of Tobruk in 1941. The connection began in 1999 when some ACT schools were asked to pick a memorial along Anzac Parade to research. Then Giralang Primary teacher Trish Smith picked the Rats of Tobruk Memorial and the association has even resulted in a Rats of Tobruk memorial wall at the school.
In the North Africa campaign, Mr Fleming was a dispatch rider for the 9th Division Signals, riding a Norton motorcycle to transport messages to the frontline.
When asked if it was dangerous work, he simply says "depends''. And then relays the story of how he escaped the Middle East unscathed only to be hit by a shell in New Guinea, suffering a broken arm.
And he doesn't hold much store in the Rat of Tobruk legend. "Well, it doesn't mean anything nowadays,'' he said. "Everyone seems to talk about it. El Alamein was harder on us than Tobruk.''
Giralang school leaders shared sausage rolls and cake with Mr Fleming, a former Lyneham postmaster who now lives in Bruce.
"Oh the kids are great. It's been good,'' he said.
Born in Scotland in 1919, Mr Fleming and his family moved to Australia in 1923. His father had hoped to work on a relative's sugar plantation in Queensland but with "only 10 pounds in his pocket'' decided a dairy farm in Bega would be the cheaper option.
Sent back home to Australia from Tobruk, Mr Fleming had two weeks' leave before being reassigned to New Guinea to ward off the Japanese. He used that fortnight to marry his sweetheart Mary, a nurse originally from Goulburn.
The couple moved to Canberra in the mid-1960s. They had three children. Mary passed away in 2015 aged 92. As to the secret of a long life, Mr Fleming said it was simple.
"Well, it's a case of you really want to live,'' he said. "Mary, in the end, was sick and didn't want to live anymore. Me, I've been sort of well and just kept going.''
And he wants to return to Giralang for his 100th next year. "Well, I have to get the message from the Queen,'' he said.
