Fighting Rats Of Tobruk, The (1944)

aka: The Rats Of Tobruk

Chips Rafferty, Peter Finch, and Grant Taylor (all of whom are Australian) star in this wartime drama about one of Australia's greatest military legends: The Rats of Tobruk. Rafferty and Taylor play two tough Australian soldiers and Finch the slightly stuffy Englishman they befriend, who are part of the battalion commanded to hold the Libyan city of Tobruk against invasion by Germany's Afrika Corps, led by General Erwin Rommel, so that reinforcements could be sent. In the course of the fighting, the Germans blasted insults as well as artillery at the largely Aussie troops, likening them to rats. Using this as a rallying cry, the “rats” of Tobruk defended the city for 250 days, winning an important battle against the Germans and helping to turn the tide of WWII.