To prevent the re-deployment of Matildas, either to reinforce the 7th Armoured Brigade as Beresford-Peirse planned or to assist the British forces at Halfaya, Neumann-Silkow was ordered to attack Capuzzo. [69], General Alan Brooke, the British Chief of the General Staff, who was also in the room when the news broke, later wrote. [57] The 4th Armoured Brigade had been reduced to 17 Matildas.[58]. Come and see why. said Roosevelt. The 2/38th Australian Battalion raided a hillock southwest of Ras el Medauar on April 22 and took 370 POWs of the Fabris Detachment while the 2/23rd Battalion crossed the Derna road and captured 100 POWs of the Italian 27th Infantry Division. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. In the anti-tank batteries in Tobruk there were fifteen new 6-pounders, 32 of the older and less effective 2-pounders and eight Bofors 37 mm anti-tank guns. At the dawn of April 12, the 5th Panzer drove a breach through El Adem then split up – one headed north toward the port and the other headed west to cut off the Allied retreat toward the port. Some units did not receive the order; the 2nd Battalion, 7th Gurkha Rifles, on the eastern perimeter, fought on until that evening, while the Cameron Highlanders continued fighting until the morning of 22 June. The 50th and 1st South African divisions were saved from encirclement but were withdrawn beyond the line which Auchinleck intended them to hold. We pay our respects to elders past and present. The British lost over half of their tanks on the first day and only one of three attacks succeeded. Marshall ordered the 2nd Armored Division, which was training with the new M4 Sherman tanks, to prepare to move to Egypt. When a right-wing Conservative, Sir John Wardlaw-Milne, tabled a motion of no-confidence in the coalition government, there was speculation that it might go the way of the Norway Debate, which had led to the resignation of the previous prime minister, Neville Chamberlain in May 1940. Diary extracts and quotes offer a real insight into what it was like for the Allied soldiers to live under siege. [52], At last light, the Axis units halted for the night. The 5th Light Division and the 15th Panzer Division, attacking from the south-west and north-west respectively, were only 9 mi (14 km) from Halfaya. Wilmot's book is based on his broadcastes and experiences of the seige of Tobruk 1941. Left behind on the battlefield: 4th RTR: 30 Infantry tanks Mk II, 1 Light tank Mk VIc; 7th RTR: 35 Infantry tanks Mk II, 1 Cruiser Mk I , 2 light tanks Mk VIc; 2nd RTR: 12 cruisers; 6th RTR: 16 Cruiser Mk VI; 7th Armoured Brigade HQ: 1 Cruiser Mk II. The equally deprived Italian troops tended to be excluded from the plundering. Unfortunately, our petrol stocks were badly depleted, and it was with some anxiety that we contemplated the coming British attack, for we knew that our moves would be decided more by the petrol gauge than by tactical requirements. The siege of Tobruk lasted 240 days during which the 'gallant garrison' of Allied soldiers, including the famous 'Desert Rats' held out against constant attacks from Rommel's Afrika Korps. We recognise their continuing connection to land, sea and. [80] He had the latest pessimistic report from the U.S. military attaché Bonner Fellers in Cairo to Washington on the British dispositions, which concluded with the phrase; "If Rommel intends to take the Delta, now is the time"; the supplies captured at Tobruk made that possible. [60] At Capuzzo, the early morning movements of the 15th Panzer Division led Messervy to believe another attack was imminent, and he thus cancelled Beresford-Peirse's orders for the 4th Armoured Brigade to reinforce the 7th so that they could be retained. [19] The tanks were intended for the 7th Armoured Division, which had been out of action since February, after most of its tanks had worn out during Operation Compass. [73], The Nazi hierarchy shared Churchill's view of the symbolic importance of Tobruk and Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda, made much of its capture. [49], Through the intelligence interception service, Rommel had a fairly clear picture of the British situation, including their losses, problems and the new orders issued by Beresford-Peirse. Written during the war and first published in 1944 it does at times appear to lean toward propaganda. Discussions between Klopper, his brigadiers and staff officers followed. Laddas ned direkt. On 22 January 1941, a joint force of British, Australian, and Indian troops captured the Libyan port city of Tobruk – making it the only Allied-held city in Axis-controlled territory. The recent capture of airfields close to the Tobruk perimeter allowed for rapid refuelling and rearming. An American aide arrived with the news of the Tobruk surrender, which he gave to the President who then passed it to Churchill. A small group of 188 South Africans, largely of the Kaffrarian Rifles, escaped eastwards along the coast and reached El Alamein 38 days later. In many places, the trenches and the anti-tank ditch had collapsed or filled with drifting sand and part of the ditch had been filled in to allow the British armour to deploy during the December 1941 breakout. [19] Poor signals security in the 7th Armoured Division gave Rommel nine hours notice of the operation. In the meantime, the garrison would "fight to the last man and the last round". Siege of Tobruk Men of the 2/13th Australian Infantry Battalion 'digging in'. The Australian War Memorial was voted the number one landmark in Australia by travellers in the 2016 Trip Advisor awards. Before Gott left, he ordered Klopper to prepare three plans – for co-operating with the Allied forces outside Tobruk, for re-establishing a presence at Belhamed and for the evacuation of the garrison eastwards. The legendary Rats of Tobruk and their fierce defence of the garrison in Tobruk have been compared to the ANZACs at Gallipoli and of course the men on the Kokoda Track. 5th Panzer Regiment lost 4 tanks destroyed (2 Panzer II and 2 Panzer III) and 8th Panzer Regiment lost 8 tanks destroyed (3 Panzer II, 4 Panzer III and 1 Panzer IV). On the following day, Lieutenant-General William Gott (XIII Corps) whose headquarters were still in the port, suggested that he should take command but was overruled by Ritchie and withdrew, leaving three of his staff officers to assist Klopper. By mid-1942, the garrison included many inexperienced troops and on 15 June 1942, the newly promoted Major-General Hendrik Klopper of the 2nd South African Division took command. On the eastern boundary was the Italian XX Motorised Corps with the 101st Motorised Division Trieste forward; the armoured 132nd Armoured Division Ariete was in the south-west at Bir er Reghem and the newly arrived 133rd Armoured Division Littorio was moving in behind it. The last outpost of the defensive line was Belhamed, a hill adjacent to Sidi Rezegh, which was held by the 20th Indian Infantry Brigade, a new formation. In the evening, after A Squadron was down to only one remaining tank, the sixteen tanks of B Squadron were brought into action and Point 206 was captured. The pass was retaken by a small German force on 27 May, in Operation Skorpion. On the previous day, Auchinleck had confirmed to Ritchie that, if all else failed, the frontier should be "a rallying point". The fightersof 40 Squadron SAAF had been withdrawn from the airfield within the perimeter but a forward air control unit, known as a "tentacle", remained. [12] Beresford-Peirse and Tedder established headquarters well to the rear, at Sidi Barrani and Maaten Baggush. This left the airfields on the coast at RAF Gambut vulnerable, causing the Desert Air Force (DAF) to withdraw eastwards, severely limiting air support. [12] Such was the priority on Battleaxe that Arthur Tedder (Air Officer Commander-in-Chief, Middle East) was instructed by the Chiefs of Staff to accept significant risks in other theatres by diverting all possible air support for it. On the German front, things weren’t going too well, either. The Eighth Army staff suggested that the breakout should be on the following night (21/22 June) and that it was essential that all the fuel be destroyed. These were stopped by the 2/48th Australian Battalion, which took 803 Italian POWs after destroying five tanks. It was clear to Ritchie that an Axis breakthrough of the Acroma–El Adem line was imminent. Masservy saw this lack of progress and disregarded Beresford-Peirse's orders to release his tanks and decided to retain the few remaining Matildas he had until some breach of the Axis defences could be made. [33][34] Some work had been done by South African engineers to remedy the situation but there is conflicting evidence as to the condition of the defences at the start of the siege.
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