Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Joseph was born in Carlton, Victoria on the 29th December 1918, the only son of Charles Henry and Peggy Russell Buckley.
Post school Joseph became a station hand working in Broken Hill, droving stock in the area, including for the Pooncarie Station. Many other young men, including the Hoare brothers also worked with Joe. With the outbreak of WWII a huge local recruiting drive was conducted to encourage young men, particularly those from country areas, to enlist. With its large population, especially of single men, Broken Hill was an ideal recruiting ground. A report from the ‘Barrier Miner’ in November ’39 reported that ‘Recruiting reopened today, and in the morning session 10 men were accepted. None were objected to because of man power restrictions, and one man was rejected because he was under the required height—5ft. 6in.’
By July the following year, Joe and four of the Hoare brothers, 25-year-old John Nye, 24-year-old George Francis, 21-year-old Patrick and 20-year-old William Edward had enlisted with three other local young men. By July 8th Joe was one of eight who left via train for Adelaide in preparation for a second medical before going into training camp. The local Broken Hill Returned Soldiers’ League instituted a practice that the young recruits would be provided with a free breakfast at the Riverton railway refreshment rooms.
Officially the young men enlisted on the 10th July, 1940 at Wayville in South Australia and were allocated successive numbers, Joe SX8459 John Hoare SX8467, Patrick Hoare SX8468, William Howard SX8469, and George Hoare SX8470 and SX8471 Frank Edward Dorman all were allocated to the newly formed 2/48th Battalion. Their initial days were spent in the sheds at Wayville, now the Adelaide Showgrounds, before continuing in the comparatively bleak conditions of Woodside in the Adelaide Hills, which were quite a contrast to Broken Hill. Having worked outdoors in that much warmer climate, the cooler confined conditions resulted in Joe contracting pharyngitis and having leave to recuperate.
On pre-embarkation leave, a farewell party was organised for the Hoare brothers and about 40 other members of the fighting forces on leave in Broken Hill were also invited to the function, together with their relatives and friends. In all about 300 people attended Tait's Masonic Hall, which had been loaned by Mrs Dearlove. The hall was beflagged, and when the party broke up, resounded to the strains of "Auld Lang Syne."’
Joe and his fellow soldiers soon departed on the ‘Stratheden’ finally heading for the Middle East, arriving on the 17th November ’40. Their fate in Tobruk and beyond was yet to be written. The Hoare brothers came to be known as the ‘Four Musketeers’ with their letters home being published in the ‘Barrier Miner’ with the explanation that they were members of a party of drovers, including Joe who enlisted in a body at the local recruiting depot last year. Another local, Private Collin Campbell, also serving in the Middle East reported: 'Things are very tough out here in the desert. The dust storms are ten times worse than in Broken Hill and they blow for days and days at a time. The din of bombing and shell fire, and machine gun fire are terrific at times.’ This was Tobruk and the makings of the Rats of Tobruk.
By May ’41 Joe was wounded in action with gunshot wounds to his head and chest, spending several months in hospital. At the time, his battalion was under severe shelling as the enemy attempted to take the strategic Hill 209. The offensive was preceded by enemy planes dive bombing and strafing the area. John Glenn in ‘Tobruk to Tarakan’ described how the Stukas, sirens blaring, swooped down. ‘Soon Hill 209 was enveloped in a thick pall of smoke and dust, which almost hid the flashes of orange fire as bomb after bomb saturated the area. As the smoke cleared, the enemy opened up with artillery on the wire and forward posts and cut all communications.’ Glenn concluded that ‘Rommel was out to dislodge the rats from Tobruk.’
In these challenging conditions, Joe went absent without leave in October and again in May the following year with the consequent loss of a substantial forfeiture of pay on both occasions. Coincidentally John Hoare was also fined at a similar time for that offence. Within days Joe was with the field ambulance with a painful hernia and received basic treatment. Over that month and November the men saw fierce fighting with conditions for those in the 2/48th ever-changing and the fighting continuous. Fighting for Trig 29 had begun on the night of the 23rd October. John Glenn in Tobruk to Tarakan described that ‘the 2/48th had stirred up a real hornets’ nest.’ On that night alone nine of the Battalion were killed and 20 wounded in action. Of these 16 were from South Australia and the remainder from Western Australia.’
He added how ‘The darkness was rent by flashes from the mouths of over eight hundred guns. The night exploded as no night before had ever done. The desert burst into flame and shattering sound that shook the earth with its fury. Then came the dreadful whispering of thousands of shells rushing by overhead, the shock of explosions as they smashed into the enemy’s guns, men, tanks and communications. The bombers joined in, raining their bombs on the German gunlines. The tranquil stars seemed to quake in their heaven and to recede in horror at such destruction as had never before been witnessed in this land as old as time itself, or perhaps in any land. The smell of cordite drifted chokingly through the air, then dust billowed up and blotted out the flashing guns.’

The action between October 25th and 26th 1942 meant that the remains of the fallen men involved in an horrific explosion and subsequent fighting were not always able to be immediately retrieved. 23-year-old Joe was killed under these conditions. John Glenn described the carnage caused by the chance hit by an enemy shell on a truck loaded with mines.
‘An ear shattering explosion dwarfed the sound of the guns into insignificance. Seven other trucks, all ladened with mines, had been set off. The whole area became a ghastly raging inferno. As trucks burned and exploded a great wall of fire shot into the sky. The gun flashes seemed dimmed; night was turned into day. The concussion was terrific. Steve Fitzgerald who was bringing up the mortar truck, which was laden with bombs, was seventy or so yards behind the trucks when the first one went off. His vehicle rocked in the blast, and, blinded by the flash, he was thrown clear out of it and onto the ground. Russ Lucas and Doug Richardson, who were manning a wireless set in a nearby trench, were temporarily stunned, but by gallant effort they got one man out of the trucks. He died in their arms. Parts of their wireless set were never found; the batteries were picked up two hundred yards away. Two thousand mines went up in this explosion; all the war equipment of both B and D Companies was destroyed. Of the ten men who were in the vehicles, not one was saved. They were: Corporal R. Bryant, W.D. Cockshell, W.C. Quinn, J.J. Buckley, H.S. Searle, W.A. Craig, C. Fraser, C.H. Schulz, C.E. Dolling and E. Parkyn.’
Fellow Broken Hill enlistees with Joe, 22-year-old Patrick Hoare and Charles Holman (SX13570), were also killed on the 25th in the same offensive.

Where possible, those who survived brought their fallen comrades back to give an honourable burial and mark their grave with a simple wooden cross bearing the soldier’s name. In some instances, because of the ferocity of the fighting several days passed before the dead could be brought in and formally identified. Lists of those who died or were wounded were constantly being updated and the news relayed back to Australia. Initially it was believed that Joseph was missing in action, believed killed before it was definitively established that he was killed in action, just two months before his 24th birthday.
A poignant photo survived of the original graves of the young men from the 2/48th battalion who died on the 25th and 26th October. Initially Joe was buried in the El Alamein War Cemetery with his fellow soldiers killed in the freak explosion. They were:
SX7296 Cpl Roland Bryant, Glenelg, SA, killed in action between 25 and 26 October 1942, aged 28;
SX10464 Pte William Daniel Colin Cockshell, Jabuk, SA, killed in action between 25 and 26 October 1942, aged 28;
SX7176 L/Cpl William Christopher Quinn, Clarence Park, SA, killed in action on 25 October 1942, aged 27;
SX8459 Pte Joseph Buckley, Albury, NSW, killed in action on 25 October 1942, aged 23;
SX8143 Pte Harry Stephen Searle, Angaston, SA, killed in action between 25 and 26 October 1942, aged 23;
WX9850 Pte William Alfred Craig, South Perth, WA, killed in action between 25 and 26 October 1942, aged 30;
SX7260 Sgt Charles Fraser, Kent Town, SA (formerly Scotland) killed in action on 25 October 1942, aged 30;
SX7732 Pte Clem Harold Schulz, Yorketown, SA, killed in action between 25 and 26 October 1942, aged 22;
SX13512 Pte Charles Edward Dolling, Wokurna, SA, killed in action on 25 October 1942, aged 26; SX7506 Pte Ernest Edward Parkyn, Woodchester, SA, killed in action between 25 and 26 October 1942, aged 26.
Back home, the December issue of the Chronicle published a list of those wounded or killed with Joseph. Many were from his 2/48th battalion, including SX1719 Sgt. Donald A. L. Harlem, Adelaide; SX12880 Pte. A. J. Matthews, Seaton Park; SX13029 Pte. Henry B. Wall. Peebinga. Missing, Believed Killed. — SX8459 Pte. Joseph Buckley, Albert Park, Vic; SX9327 Lt. Thomas H. Bowman. Ardrossan. Died Of Wounds.— SX13191 Pte. William R. Bowd, Dartmoor, Vic.
Joe was later reburied in the El Alamein War Cemetery at Matruh in Egypt in Plot IV Row E Grave 12 where his parents chose the inscription ‘Some Day We Will Meet Again’ for his headstone. He rests now with his mates from the 2/48th. They include Privates William Craig, William Cockshell Charles Dolling, Ernest Parkyn and Clem Schulz, Staff Sgt Charles Fraser, Corporal William Quinn and Alexander Hill WX9822, killed on the 31st October, all from the 2/48th Battalion. Others rest nearby, Corporal Roland Bryant SX7296, and Harry Searle SX8143 and an un-named soldier, ‘Known unto God’.
The following year, Joe’s parents and Broken Hill Joseph Wilson, (extended family) continued to remember and grieve him.
News Monday 25 October 1943, BUCKLEY.—SX8459 Private J. Buckley, killed in action at Alamein, October 25, 1942. "It's a year today since you were taken away, and nobody knows how our heartache grows. You meant the world, there could be no other, both sweet and kind as my dear step-brother.—Inserted by Cpl. Wilson, J. W. H. (R.A.A.F.), and mum and dad. Border Morning Mail Monday 25 October 1943, BUCKLEY.—In loving memory of our only son Joe, killed in action Middle East, October 25, 1S42. "Resting where no shadows fall." —Inserted by his loving father and mother.
Border Morning Mail Wednesday 25 October 1944, BUCKLEY.—In memory of our only son, Joe. killed in Middle East. October 25, 1942. Although his voice is silent. And his smile we see no more, in our hearts his memory lingers. Just as dearly as before. —Inserted by his loving father and mother. C. and P. Buckley.
As so many Broken Hill young men had enlisted to serve, Anzac Day celebrations there were always a poignant tribute to the fallen of both World Wars. The ’47 Dawn service was described in the ‘Barrier Daily Truth’. ‘Just before dawn groups of men standing near the Soldiers Hostel formed up and marched to the war memorial; past the crowd of silent citizens where they gathered as 'Stand To' and then the 'Last Post' and 'Reveille' were played by Bugler J. Keenen, as the first streaks of dawn appeared in the eastern sky. The impressive short ceremony was pregnant with meaning and the spirit of Anzac as the long dead comrades and friends came to mind. No one but felt the deep solemnity of this occasion, the 32nd Anzac Day. By daylight the Memorial presented a beautiful sight bedecked with the numbers of wreaths from relatives and friends.’
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.