Victor Taylor - Gordon Cricket's Rat of Tobruk
Gordon District Cricket Club | July 26, 2025
On Saturday August 3, 2024, Tom Pritchard, the last Rat of Tobruk died aged 102. Tom served in the 2/5th Australian Field Ambulance during the siege of Tobruk in 1941. Gordon cricketer Victor Taylor served in the 2/13th Battalion at the same time as Tom, however died in 1952 at the age of 33 still suffering from the effects of his time in the war.
Victor Campbell Taylor lived at 29 Beaconsfield Parade, Lindfield and after finishing school, joined the Gordon club at the end of the 1937-38 season during which he played five games. The following year, he played the full season: he started in Fourth Grade, scoring 161 runs, was promoted to Third Grade for only two games where he scored 120 runs including an innings of 118 and then finished the season in Second Grade, collecting another 104 runs. For the season, he totalled 385 runs at an average of 21.38. While his prospects were high for the 1939-40 season, they didn’t turn out as planned; he played three games in First Grade for 35 runs, seven games in Second Grade for 141 runs, four games in Third Grade for 70 runs and two games in Fourth Grade for 9 runs. I think that is a record for any club to go from First Grade to Fourth Grade in one season.
Maybe he thought he would have better luck in the AIF and Victor enlisted at the age of twenty one on 28 May 1940 and was posted directly into the 2/13th Battalion which had been established in April 1940 from Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) volunteers. He arrived in the Middle East in November and went into camp at Kilo 89 in Palestine. By April the following year, Vic would begin a 242 day direct involvement in the Australian defense of Tobruk against the German army led by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. The defense began when the British were forced to evacuate Benghazi and fall back to Tobruk and Victor and the 2/13th covered the division's withdrawal.
The 2/13th was the first complete Australian unit to fight German troops during the Second World War. The battle took place at Er Regima on 4 April 1941, with the battalion thinly spread along an 11 kilometre front against a German force of about 3,000 men. The battle began mid-afternoon and continued into the night. Outnumbered and vulnerable, Victor with his battalion fought on until 10 pm before withdrawing. After two days on the road, Victor and the 2/13th joined the rest of the division at Tobruk to defend the ‘fortress’ which was surrounded by German and Italian troops.
During the siege, Victor occupied the perimeter and undertook defensive duties under direct fire from the Germans, remaining there for eight months. Victor and his Battalion had the distinction of being the only Australian infantry battalion to see out the full length of the siege, remaining alongside the new garrison built around the British 70th Division. Defenders at Tobruk had to adjust to life in stifling heat, under constant artillery and air bombardment. Supplies of food and water decreased, and the troops were plagued by flies, fleas and illness.
There was a limited opportunity to be extracted in October 1941, but the convoy scheduled to take them out of Tobruk had been repelled by an Axis air attack. The British later asked for the battalion, minus its advanced party which had already been evacuated, to remain for a subsequent break out attempt.
In mid-November, the British launched a major offensive, Operation Crusader, to destroy Rommel’s forces and lift the siege. The operation soon became a confusing series of tank and infantry battles. As the offensive staggered towards Tobruk, the garrison broke out and captured the high ground at Ed Duda ridge, east of the fortress, only to lose part of it later during the battle.
Victor and the 2/13th Battalion became crucially involved in this fight. From 29 November to 1 December, they participated in the recapture of Ed Duda ridge in a night bayonet attack. They then helped hold the ridge despite heavy enemy artillery fire. The ferocity left even veterans of the earlier Tobruk battles lost for words.
‘We were shelled continually for two days’ wrote Private Arthur Armstrong. It was terrible, I can’t describe it.
During this artillery bombardment at Ed Duda ridge, Victor Taylor was badly hurt, hit by gunfire in the back and left thigh. Fortunately, he was able to be evacuated from the battlefield ironically by the 2/5th Field Ambulance including Tom Pritchard and taken to the nearest field hospital to be stabilised. After treatment in three further hospitals, Victor was classified as not being fit for service and was sent home to Australia in May 1942. As history shows, the Tobruk siege eventually ended on December 7, ironically the same day as the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbour and 6 days after Victor was wounded. During the defense of Tobruk, the 9th Division including Victor’s 2/13th Battalion lost 832 men with 2,177 wounded and 941 taken prisoner. He had survived one the worst ordeals endured by any Australians in war but unfortunately, he would suffer the consequences.
On his return to Australia, Victor received specialist orthopaedic treatment for over a year which enabled him to play thirteen games for Third Grade and two games for Second Grade during the 1942-43 season. Although Victor hadn’t bowled previously for Gordon, he took 5 for 60 in one Third Grade game, a late calling perhaps.
Tragically, however, Victor was significantly affected mentally by his time at Tobruk and after a further ten troubled years he died at Concord Hospital on 13 August 1952. He was only thirty three years old.
The “Rats of Tobruk” will be best remembered for the determination and tenacity they showed at Tobruk. They showed that the Germans could be beaten. They defeated German tank attacks and dominated no man’s land. In doing so, they became immortalised in Australian folklore.
The Gordon District Cricket Club had its own Rat of Tobruk and Victor Taylor should always be remembered as the humble cricketer who suffered far more than anyone should have to in the defence of his country and way of life.
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