A collection of Siege of Tobruk war medals will have pride-of-place at Dandenong-Cranbourne RSL.
The RSL sub-branch’s committee members had a commemoration ceremony with the donor Jim Wetherall at Dandenong on Tuesday 25 February.
The medals were awarded to Mr Wetherall’s late father James Wetherall, who fought in the siege of Tobruk during the Second World War.
“We’ve now got the medals and we’re going to put them into a frame with a photo and put them onto our wall to thank him for giving us the medals,” Dandenong-Cranbourne RSL secretary Marcus Osborne said.
Mr Osborne said the ceremony went very well.
“It was more of a commemoration of about 14,000 Australians that were involved in the siege at Tobruk,” he said.
“James was in the middle of it for the eight months that they were surrounded by the Germans.
“His son Jim has graciously given us the medals to display.”
Mr Osborne said he felt compelled to share a story told by Jim during the lunch.
“He was only young when his father passed away. But he said his father told them that a German soldier, who was the enemy, would sit in his trench and sing country and western songs in English to the Australian soldiers,” Mr Osborne recalled.
“And then he would say, that’s all today, Aussies. And they would all clap and cheer him, and then the night would come.
“He did that for quite some time. But one day, he didn’t play his song. And they never heard from him again.
“If there’s something out of that story, it shows that they were human too, the generals.”
