This is the story of Bill Corey OAM.

Born in Riverton, Bill grew up in Walkerville and went to Adelaide High. He was working as a butcher when he enlisted in June 1940, aged 22.

In August 1941 he took part in the famous Siege of Tobruk.  The soldiers who held the garrison of the port of Tobruk during fierce fighting became known as the ‘Rats of Tobruk’.

Bill went on to serve with the 2^nd/43^rd Battalion in El Alamein and Syria before returning to Australia in 1943 to fight against the Japanese in New Guinea before taking part in the campaign to re-capture Borneo from the Japanese in June 1945.

Bill’s story was collected as part of a oral history community project called World War II in Words where South Australian World War Two veterans shared their stories in their own words.