World War II digger Bill Robinson is accustomed to long, tough battles.

The latest one for the 97-year-old ended at the RSL’s South Australian headquarters last month, when the former Rat of Tobruk was presented with a Polish Pro Patria medal.

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“It did take a big effort just to get here today. I am getting ancient you know,” Mr Robinson said.

“I thought I might kick the bucket first, but I am glad to get this medal.”

The story of how Mr Robinson came to be awarded one of Poland’s highest civil orders began 70 years ago in North Africa.

General Edwin Rommel’s crack North Africa corps had swept all before them and they expected to breeze into strategically crucial Tobruk.

The Germans crowed the defenders were “rats stuck in a trap”. The Australians first turned the insult into a badge of honour and then hung on to Tobruk.

Mr Robinson’s most vivid memory is that Tobruk was hot, dusty and very, very dry.

“We didn’t shower for eight months,” he said.

“Not enough water. Not like now at the nursing home, they want me to shower every five minutes!”

‘I think he just wanted to forget the war’: David Lyas

Later in the siege, the Australians were relieved by Polish forces who had escaped the Nazi conquest of their homeland.

Bill Robinson was a Rat of Tobruk during WWII. Photo: ABC

Bill Corey, who served alongside Mr Robinson in the 2nd/43rd battalion, said he remembered those soldiers.

“Their country had suffered and those who’d escaped and got to Palestine and formed up into the Polish Army, you know, they couldn’t get at the Germans quick enough,” he recalled.

In the view of the Polish government, fighting alongside their soldiers qualified other Allied servicemen for a medal. But after Africa’s deserts, Mr Robinson had gone on to fight in New Guinea’s jungles.

And after that, the RSL’s David Lyas explained, Mr Robinson was done with war.

“He had a hell of a time and I think he just wanted to forget the war, like so many of them,” he said.

“Bill didn’t march on Anzac days. He just got on with his life and really fell off the radar.”

Mr Robinson resurfaced in 2012 when a young army reservist named Eamon McGarry convinced him to get on an RSL jeep for the Anzac Day march.

Mr Lyas said it did not take long to realise Mr Robinson had never received his Polish medal.

“We had all the service records, that was easy,” he said.

“But they also wanted anecdotal evidence and affidavits from people who were at Tobruk with Bill and there’s not too many rats left.”

Rats of Tobruk medal discontinued

No campaign runs smoothly, and documents were translated from Polish to English and then back again.

Then it was discovered the medal originally awarded to the Rats of Tobruk had been discontinued.

But in February this year, the Polish consul general Regina Jurkowska phoned the RSL with good news: after three years, there was a medal for Mr Robinson.

“It is called the Pro Patria medal,” Mr Jurkowska said.

“It’s given for serving the cause of Polish freedom and fighting against oppression.”

The consul general said the Pro Patria is rare. Indeed, Mr Robinson’s medal was the first she had awarded.

“I am very proud to be doing this,” she said.

As she pinned the medal to Bill Robinson’s frail chest, Ms Jurkowska said to him: “You are a hero.”

“No I’m not,” Mr Robinson replied.

“The ones who didn’t come home, they are the heroes.”