Doug Foster

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B. ? D. August, 2006

To his mates Doug Foster was known as the Babe of Tobruk. Doug Foster, of the 2/17th AIF battalion (Australian 9th Division) was a normal, fun loving larikin. He was only 16 when he joined the force in the belleaguered outpost in early April, 1941. The youngest soldier in the command. Yet he characterised so much of the men of his unit. Fiercely loyal to his colleagues and willing to do what needed to be done not out of courage but cameraderie.

Doug was involved in the very first clash between German and Australian forces in World War II. He was also part of a group of 7 men involved in the night assault that won the first Victoria Cross awarded to an Australian in World War II^{[citation needed]}. This action was during the Easter Battle for Tobruk in April 41. This action may well have been instrumental in allowing Tobruk to stand, as it forced out a couple of platoons of German soldiers that had breached th outer defences and were holding a perimeter while they awaited reinforcements.

A bullet Foster acquired in this action precipitated his final undoing. It had lodged in his spinal column, slowly severing his nerves. In 2000-2001 the 'souvenir' completed its work, leaving him in a wheel chair, from which he succumbed to other medical complaints.

To the end of his days he remained loyal to his comrades - both the living and the dead - even representing the late Victoria Cross winner at a school that was named in his honour just months before he died.

The defence of Tobruk by this small garrison is well worth a closer analysis in the following link to the Australian history of this siege: Austrailian War Memorial Website. It is an account of stubborn men, fighting with single purpose and to the plan of an excellent general. To a beleaguered Britain, then fighting alone in the dark days of 1941, it was the first ray of hope against the seemingly unstoppable might of the German armed forces.