VETERAN RELIVES CARNAGE OF BATTLE
El Alamein was hell on earth, recalls Digger Rex Stoffell
REX Stoffell was just a teenager when he waded through the depths of hell trying to find which of his mates were still alive following the carnage of the First Battle of El Alamein.
“We lost 400 that first morning wounded and killed. I was sent out to pick them up,” Mr Stoffell said.
“I was only 19. I’d never been in a battle before. I’d never seen anything like it.
“One of the people I saved was Lieutenant Ken Clark from Sydney. He lived to be 100 and every single July he would ring me to thank me.”
At another point during the battle, Mr Stoffell was sent up a hill to retrieve a Lieutenant Colonel who was trapped under heavy fire.
“I got blown out of the carrier and to this day I’ve had eight operations on my knee and it still gives me trouble,” he said.
“The half colonel had jumped for cover and didn’t take me with him.
“He gave me a half tin of sweets and a bottle of whiskey and I shared them with my mates.”
Like so many of the brave boys of his generation, Mr Stoffell, now 94, fibbed about his age in order to be able to serve.
As a result, he was only 16 when in September 1939 the Richmond-born teen was drafted into the militia and tasked with defending home soil against the very real threat of invasion by the enemy.
Two years later he was on board the Queen Mary with the 2/23 Battalion 9th Division bound for Egypt.
The Bren Gun Carrier skipper’s war service took him to not just North Africa where the historic battle took place but also through Tripoli and Aleppo where sadly the fighting continues today.
He also went to Papua New Guinea but has few memories of that time as he got both malnutrition and malaria.
Mr Stoffell was finally discharged from the Army in 1945 aged just 22 but with six years service to the nation under his belt.
He met his beloved wife Betty after the war and they married in 1948.
Together, the couple had two sons and a beautiful baby girl who they lost at birth.
They moved to Currumbin Waters 25 years ago to enjoy a well earned retirement following Mr Stoffell’s career in insurance.
Sadly, Betty died three years ago and the forever gallant Mr Stoffell was there holding her hand until her last breath.
Last month Mr Stoffell travelled to Canberra to commem- orate the 75th anniversary of the three Battles of El Alamein which took place between July and November 1942.
On Saturday Mr Stoffell will once again lay a wreath on behalf of the Army at the Currumbin RSL Remembrance Day service.
Federal Member for McPherson, Karen Andrews, urged all Gold Coasters to stop and reflect on the sacrifice of veterans young and old this weekend.
“I had the honour of speaking with Mr Stoffell to personally thank him for his service to our nation,” Mrs Andrews said.
“Rex’s deeds in the service of his country should be an inspiration to all.”
Remembrance Day services will be held across the Gold Coast at 11am on Saturday.
Lest We Forget.