Siege of Tobruk

SIEGE OF TOBRUK

The Siege of Tobruck was a confrontation that lasted for 241 days between allied forces (mainly Australia) and German/Italian forces in North Africa during the Western Desert Campign of the Second World War.

The siege started on the 11th April 1941, when Tobruk was attacked by an Italian-German force under Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel,and continued for 240 days up to 27 November 1941, when it was relieved by the Australian 8th Army during Operation Crusader.

It was vital for the Allies' defence of Egypt and the Suez Canal to hold the town of Tobruk with its harbour, as this forced the enemy to bring most of their supplies overland from the port of Tripoli which is now the capital city of Libya, across 1,500 kilometers of desert.

For much of the siege, Tobruk was defended by the reinforced Australian 9th division which the Germans called "rats" - a term the soldiers embraced as an ironic compliment since Tobruk was subject to nearly constant shelling and bombing.

OPERATION COMPASSHOW IT BEGAN

In early 1941, British forces were engaged in Operation Compass, an attempt to drive the Italians out of North Africa. On 21 January 1941, the Australian 6th Division made an assault to capture the Italian-garrisoned port of Tobruk, which offered one of the few good harbours between Alexandria and Tripoli. The Italian Army was unable to put up an effective resistance. The Italian commander, General Petassi Manella, was taken prisoner after 12 hours of battle, and 24 hours later the Australian troops had cleaned up the remaining resistance. The Australians lost 49 dead and 306 wounded, while capturing 27,000 Italian POWs, 208 guns and 28 tanks. Many serviceable trucks and a large quantity of supplies were also captured (as the Italian Army was getting ready to advance toward Egypt). The Italians had constructed some impressive defences, including a perimeter of concrete pits. By the end of the first week in February, Operation Compass had resulted in the Italian forces being driven from Cyrenaica and in the surrender of the Italian 10th army.

EASTERATTACKS

OPERATION COMPASSPART TWO

EL ADEMJust after noon on 11 April 1941, the German and Italian forces positioned themselves for a concentrated attack on the city. To exaggerate the size of their force and strike fear in the defenders, they were ordered to make more dust than normal. The 5th Panzer Regiment of the 5th Light Division drew fire first to try to assess the defences, advancing against the front held by 20th Australian Infantry Brigade just west of the El Adem road.Within an hour, five of the German tanks were destroyed and the others pulled back. At 15:00, the men of the 2/13th Battalion saw about 400 German soldiers approach. The Australians' defensive fire forced the Germans to retreat, carrying their dead and wounded with them.

However, the Allies were unable to take advantage of their victory. With the Italians close to collapse, Winston Churchill commanded the British to send their better troops to Greece to fight in the Battle of Greece.The experienced 6th Australian Division and the fully trained and equipped New Zealand Division were withdrawn from Egypt and the Western desert to go to Greece. Meanwhile, the tanks of the 7th Armoured Division—after eight months of fighting—needed a complete overhaul, and the division was withdrawn to Cairo and ceased to be available as a fighting formation. Cyrenaica was left with only inexperienced and under-strength troops. Supply difficulties caused by air attacks on Benghazi, also hampered their position.Stripped of anti-aircraft and fighter defences which had been sent to Greece, the port had become so dangerous for Allied shipping that, by the third week in February, it had had to be closed and forward units supplied from Tobruk, a further 200 mi (320 km) east. As a result, practically all available vehicles had to be committed to transporting supplies, so compromising the mobility of the fighting units.Despite all of these obstacles, the allied forces held Tobruk for 241 days.

The siege ended when Rommel had been told on 5 December by the Italian Comando Supremo that supply could not improve until the end of the month when the airborne supply from Sicily would start. Realising that success was now unlikely at other battles he decided to narrow his front and shorten his lines of communication by abandoning the Tobruk front and withdrawing to the positions at Gazala. This led to the complete relief of Tobruk and the occupation of the whole of Cyrenaica by the end of the year.This meant the allied forces had won the siege.The Siege Of Tobruk was a major part of the Second World War with it depending on who would win the giant war.

END OF THE SIEGE