The Rat of Tobruk was one of 14,000 Allied soldiers who withstood the five-month German and Italian bombardment of the Libyan city between April and August 1941.
Forced to dig into the North African city, the Allied troops were likened to rats by German propagandist William Joyce, a name they proudly adopted.
The Como resident of 50 years was one of the last to reach Tobruk by road ahead of the attack and said he and others emerged differently months later.
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READ NOW"We had so many air raids in five months," he said.
"The bombs got bloody close sometimes, you couldn't take your mind off it.
"You've got to understand we went up as rookies; very few of us had been through anything like that before."
Mr Thomas said that although war produced camaraderie, he was apprehensive about making friends.
"You had a few mates around but you weren't game to have a good mate all the time because he could disappear," he said.
He also lost his cousin during the five-month ordeal and has an intrinsically Australian outlook on war and the lessons it provided him and others.
"Human nature allows you to forget things very easily, but the war will always remain in the background of your thoughts," he said.