‘Don’t make me a martyr’, says last surviving Australian Rat of Tobruk

Tom Pritchard, 102, is the last man left standing – the last of the legendary Australian Rats of Tobruk alive. Tom Pritchard, the last living Rat of Tobruk. Credit: Liza-Jayne Lyons/AWM 2017.520.1.1975The saga of the Rats is extraordinary, perhaps the greatest in Australia’s military history. In April 1941, the situation was more than merely grim for the Allies. The forces of Adolf Hitler had already rolled through continental Europe, knocking over every army that opposed it.