Private Oliver Neall being presented with the Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1941. A member of the 2/8th Battalion, Neall fought at Bardia and Derna. He received this decoration for his gallantry in destroying Italian tanks at Tobruk on 21 January 1941. Neall went on to survive the fighting in Greece, where, in an echo of an earlier Australian campaign fought just a few hundred kilometres away, he distinguished himself by using a donkey to help carry wounded men during the withdrawal from Mount Olympus. Neall went on to serve on Crete, and returned to Australia with his unit in March 1942. By the time the 2/8th returned to action in New Guinea in late 1944, ill health prevented Neall from joining them; he was still in Australia, having by then been commissioned, when the war ended. (AWM P04243.004)
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