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Australia

Private Stanely Alec Giggins (Service No: VX24807) 26th Australian Ant-Tank Company, Australian Army, 2nd A.I.F.

Stan was one of eight children born to John and Emma Giggins. Stan was born on 5 October 1907 in Strood, Kent in England and immigrated to Australia in 1914 with his mother and four other siblings. The family settled in Malvern, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria.

Stan married his first wife Gladys Beresford on 5 August 1939, in St Georges Church of England, Malvern, shortly before the start of WW2.

Stan voluntarily enlisted in the Australian Army (Second Australian Imperial Forces, 2nd A.I.F) in Caulfield, on 24 June 1940, at age 33 years; - one of three Giggins brothers to enlist in the 2nd A.I.F. during World War 2.

On the 20 Aug 1940, after enlisting and being transferred to Albury in southern New South Wales, Stan was posted from the 4th Training Battalion to the newly formed 26th Anti-Tank Company, 26th Brigade, part of the 7th Australian Division.  The 7th Division was the second division raised of the 2nd A.I.F. following the outbreak of World War II.

On 25 Sep 1940 the 26th Anti-Tank Company relocated from the Albury Showgrounds to a newly constructed military camp at Bonegilla, which was located about 12 km from Albury, on the southern bank of the Murray River just above Hume Dam, in north-east Victoria.

On the 13 Nov 1940, Stan Giggins and the 26th Anti-Tank Company left Albury by train, arriving in Sydney where they embarked the following day (14 November 1940) aboard the HMT Orion, accompanied by HMAS Adelaide.

Four weeks later, on the 17 December 1940, the 26th Anti-Tank Company arrived in Haifa, Palestine, where they disembarked and then travelled by train to Dimra to join the rest of the Brigade who were already in camp there.

Military records indicate that on the 19 Jan 1941 Private Stanley Giggins is one of 8 soldiers who were sent as a detachment from 26th Anti-Tank Company for convoy work in Egypt.  The 26th Anti-Tank Company continued training in Palestine, until early 1941 when in January they were relocated by train to Marsa Matruh, a small port on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, from where they travelled further up the coast.

Around this time the Company were finally issued with 9 Breda 47/32 Ant-Tank guns at Tobruk (“having never seen any guns in our life prior to that” according the entries within the Commanding Officer's War Diary), from where they continued their journey to Barchi and on towards Tocra in northeastern Libya.

In March 1941 the 6th Division was sent to Greece and were replaced in Libya by the 9th Division of the AIF and a brigade from the 7th Division.

Following the German advance, the 26th Anti-Tank Company were sent back to the defence of Tobruk sometime around the period of the 26 March – 10 April 1941. The siege started on the 10 April 1941 when the first shots were exchanged with the Germans after they had encircled Tobruk and ended on 7 December 1941 when the Germans were finally forced to abandon the siege. The Tobruk siege lasted 242 days and witnessed some of the most intense fighting of the war. Around 14,000 Australians were in Tobruk during the siege.

The “Rats of Tobruk” was the name given to the soldiers of the garrison who held the Libyan port of Tobruk against the German Afrika Corps during the siege. During broadcast about the Tobruk siege, the announcer scoffed that the men defending the garrison were ‘caught like rats in a trap’ and often referred to them as poor desert rats of Tobruk, who live like rats and will die like rats. The Australian soldiers loved the term ‘Rats of Tobruk’ and defiantly adopted the term as a badge of honour.

During this period, on the 31 March 1941, Private Stan Giggins is transferred (taken on strength) to the HQ 26th Infantry Brigade, 9th Division, also located at Tobruk.

From 13 Jan to 26 Jan 1942 Private Stan Giggins is attached to the HQ 9th Australian Division in Dimra Palestine, from where thereafter he rejoins his unit - HQ 26th Infantry Brigade.

The 26th Anti-Tank Company was finally disbanded on 18 February 1942, and having been taken on strength as part of the 4th Australian Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, which was raised in Palestine during early 1942, as part of the Australian 9th Division.

Private Stanley Giggins returned to Australia on 9 November 1942, where on the 10 November 1942 he is situated in Perth, Western Australia, attached to the HQ Western Australia, Line of Communication (L of C). Stan spent the remainder of the war within Australia, transferred between New South Wales HQ, Line of Communication (L of C) and Victoria L of C.

Private Stanely Giggins was promoted to Corporal on 11 Jan 1943, and again promoted to Lance Sergeant 10 May 1943. His final promotion to Sergeant occurred on 1 July 1943 while enlisted with the New South Wales HQ L of C.

Sergeant Stanley Giggins was discharged 20 April 1944, having served 1,250 days (almost three and a half years) in the 2nd A.I.F - 722 of those days overseas (almost 60 per cent) in the middle east, including the defence of Tobruk.

Shortly after the war ended, in August 1945, Stan changed his surname from ‘Giggins’ to Stanely Alec ‘Alexander’. He remarried in 1951 and lived out the remainder of his life with his family in Bentleigh, a metropolitan suburb in southeast Melbourne, Victoria. He died on the 15 March 1996, aged 89 years, survived by his wife Margaret and his six children.

Of Stan’s two brothers who also enlisted during WW2, only one Frank (Service No: VX281030) survived. Corporal Jack Giggins was killed in action in Greece in the early part of the war in 1941. Stan’s brother-in-law Leo White (Service No: VX3302, who also served alongside Corporal Jack Giggins in the 2nd/5th Australian Infantry Battalion) also survived WW2.