Stan Gurney

Arthur Stanley Gurney was born on 15 December 1908 at Day Dawn, a gold-mining community in the Murchison goldfields of Western Australia. The fourth of five children born to George Gurney, a miner, and his wife Jane, he spent his early years in a town that was already entering a steady economic decline. When Gurney was fifteen, the family relocated to Perth, where he completed his formal education at the local state school and Stott's Business College. He briefly entered the workforce with a real estate agency before securing permanent employment in June 1927 as a clerk and meter-fixer with the City of Perth Electricity and Gas Department. Outside of his professional life, Gurney was an avid and highly competitive sportsman deeply involved in the League of Western Australian Wheelmen. He officiated at numerous fixtures and competed in long-distance cycling events, securing a major victory in 1929 when he won the C.R. Wilson Shield in a 50-mile open road race.

At the age of 31, Gurney enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force at Claremont on 6 December 1940, receiving the service number WX9858. He embarked at Fremantle for the Middle East on 5 July 1941, disembarking in Egypt before joining D Company of the 2/48th Infantry Battalion on 12 September 1941 during the Siege of Tobruk. The 2/48th Battalion, originally raised in South Australia and attached to the 26th Brigade of the 9th Division, was engaged in the intense, attritional defence of the Libyan port city. Gurney participated in the rigorous regimen of aggressive night patrolling that defined the Australian defensive doctrine at Tobruk, maintaining constant pressure on Axis positions to prevent them from consolidating their lines. The battalion endured continuous artillery bombardment and aerial assault until the garrison was relieved, after which the unit was rotated to Palestine in October 1941 and deployed to Syria in early 1942 for garrison duties.

In June 1942, the 9th Division was rushed to Egypt to intercept Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's advance toward Alexandria. The 2/48th Battalion was moved forward to the Alamein Line on 9 July, tasked with counter-attacking the northern flank of the Axis forces. The tactical objectives included the Hill of Jesus and the Tell El Eisa railway station, coastal ridges that commanded observation over the surrounding flat terrain. On 10 July, the battalion successfully captured Trig 33 and the railway station, taking over 400 Italian prisoners in the process, but the position remained highly contested and subject to continuous counter-attacks. The division commander, Major General Sir Leslie Morshead, received orders from the British Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Claude Auchinleck, to mount another major assault on 22 July. Morshead formally protested the plan, arguing that the operation lacked adequate artillery and armoured support, but the assault proceeded as ordered.

D Company crossed the start-line at approximately 0600 hours on 22 July 1942, immediately encountering devastating machine-gun and mortar fire from prepared German defensive positions less than two hundred metres away. Gurney, operating within No. 17 Platoon, was initially carrying a heavy Boyes anti-tank rifle. Recognizing the weapon's impracticality in a rapid infantry assault, his platoon commander, Lieutenant Jim Wearing-Smith, ordered him to drop the anti-tank weapon and advance with a standard rifle and bayonet. Moments after this exchange, Wearing-Smith was critically wounded, and the platoon sergeant was killed, leaving the unit leaderless and pinned down. Command of the platoon devolved to Private Herb Ashby as casualties mounted rapidly, stripping the company of all its commissioned officers. Understanding that remaining stationary would result in the annihilation of the platoon, Gurney initiated a solo frontal assault against the nearest German machine-gun post. He was closely followed by Private Ivan Hanel as they rushed the position through heavy traversing fire. Gurney threw a grenade and charged the trench, bayoneting three defenders and neutralizing the threat, but Hanel was killed in the exchange before he could reach the perimeter. Operating entirely alone, Gurney advanced on a second emplacement, killed two enemy soldiers with his bayonet, and sent a third out as a prisoner. As he prepared to engage a third fortified post, an enemy stick grenade detonated near him, the blast physically lifting him and knocking him to the ground. Recovering from the concussive impact, he retrieved his rifle and charged the third position, engaging the defenders in close-quarters combat until a fatal burst of machine-gun fire ended his life. His body was subsequently recovered from the captured trench and interred in the El Alamein War Cemetery. The recommendation for his posthumous Victoria Cross was initiated by Private Ashby, reflecting the complete loss of the unit's officer corps during the engagement. The exact official citation for his Victoria Cross was published in the London Gazette on 8 September 1942:

"No. WX. 9858 Private Arthur Stanley Gurney, Australian Military Forces. For gallant and unselfish bravery in silencing enemy machine-gun posts by bayonet assault at Tell El Eisa on 22 July 1942, thus allowing his Company to continue the advance. During an attack on strong German positions in the early morning of 22 July 1942, the Company to which Private Gurney belonged was held up by intense machine-gun fire from posts less than 100 yards ahead, heavy casualties being inflicted on our troops, all the officers being killed or wounded. Grasping the seriousness of the situation and without hesitation, Private Gurney charged the nearest enemy machine-gun post, bayoneted three men and silenced the post. He then continued on to a second post, bayoneted two men and sent out a third as a prisoner. At his stage a stick grenade was thrown at Private Gurney which knocked him to the ground. He rose again, picked up his rifle and charged a third post using the bayonet with great vigour. He then disappeared from view, and later his body was found in an enemy post. By this single-handed act of gallantry in the face of a determined enemy, Private Gurney enabled his Company to press forward to its objective, inflicting heavy losses upon the enemy. The successful outcome of this engagement was almost entirely due to Private Gurney's heroism at the moment when it was needed."