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. Mission 2 - … The Battle of Stalingrad is near mythical in its status as a decisive battle during World War II. [58][77] Because of the tenuous supply line that Rommel depended on, his troops had been living on very short rations and the British supplies were enthusiastically received, especially chocolate, canned milk and vegetables; stores of shirts and socks were enthusiastically looted. To protect them, British cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Galatea and Australian cruiser HMAS Hobart, escorted by destroyers HMS Griffin and HMS Jaguar, bombarded German coastal guns near Tobruk. After holding off the offensive for most of the day, German tanks broke through at 1730 hours, capturing the town by 1900 hours. On 3 May, the Australians launched a counterattack with men of the Australian 18th Brigade, thus far held in reserve; the counterattack was only able to capture one post, while the Italian defenders fought of attacks on all other posts. [71][72], In parliament, there was a growing feeling that Churchill was responsible for the muddle and lack of direction in the management of the war, despite his popularity with the public. The division had been based in Tobruk since the end of March; Klopper had been in command since 14 May, having been a divisional staff officer. Tobruk is the most important port in northern Africa, because its deep water allows large ships to dock there. Lavarack was withdrawn to Egypt, thus would not play a direct role in the eventual Axis siege of Tobruk. Tobruk was the only deep water port in Eastern Libya and as a consequence it had been heavily fortified by its former Italian garrison. Within the early 1930s, Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor (later Führer) of the country. On 8 Apr, commanding officer of the Australian 7th Infantry Division Major General John Lavarack assumed Neame's responsibilities. On 15 June, El Adem was attacked three times by the 90th Light Division but were repulsed by the defenders. [56] A meeting was arranged with Klopper, who surrendered to Rommel on the Via Balbia about 6 km (4 mi) west of Tobruk at 9:40 a.m. on 21 June. They would arrive overnight and return on the following day. They would return to Alexandria in the morning of the next day. Siege of Tobruk The Siege of Tobruk took place in the Western Desert of North Africa in 1941 at the height of the Second World War. The subsequent attack on Tobruk, Libya by the Italian Ariete Armoured Division saw the Italians capturing several bunkers, but the assault was deemed unsuccessful. To the south was the Italian X Corps with the 27th Infantry Division Brescia forward and the 17th Infantry Division Pavia in reserve. The recent capture of airfields close to the Tobruk perimeter allowed for rapid refuelling and rearming. [39], Wishing to exploit the disorganisation of the Eighth Army, Rommel issued his orders for the assault on 18 June and reconnaissance of deployment areas commenced early the next day. [35], A plan for the rapid capture of Tobruk had been agreed between Kesselring and Cavallero on 10 June, consisting of an attack in stages from the south and west. During the day, German Deputy Chief of Staff Friedrich Paulus ordered Erwin Rommel to delay the planned ground assault on Tobruk. In the early hours of 1 May, posts S5 fell, followed by S4, S6, S7, and R2 through R7 after daybreak. 1. Long line of German prisoners from the Siege of Tobruk cph.3b18198.jpg 1,504 × 1,034; 332 KB Morshead (AWM 009517).jpg 477 × 637; 145 KB Panzer II hit near Tobruk 1941.jpg 591 × … BACKGROUND A general overview of the early North Africa campaign, from the Italian invasion of Egypt, through the long siege of Tobruk, to Operation Crusader, and the Afrika Korps’ counterstroke that would bring them to the Gazala Line in early 1942. The World War II Database is founded and managed by Ritchie informed Auchinleck that he would attempt to hold the Acroma–El Adem line with troops from XXX Corps but warned that if this failed, Tobruk might either become "temporarily isolated" or be evacuated and asked which option was to be taken. ww2dbaseDuring the night of 19 to 20 Apr, the British launched a raid on Bardia behind German lines. [9] The Axis forces forestalled the British with Unternehmen Venezia (known to the British as the Battle of Gazala), which began on 26 May 1942. The new Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin, announced that the Australian garrison in Tobruk, Libya would be withdrawn immediately. Australian troops on the front line destroyed a leading German armored car, but they were soon overwhelmed by German tanks. 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. Although she settled in 10 feet of water, her 6-inch gun was still above water, and thus she would remain useful as a stationary anti-aircraft gun platform while repairs were being done. The loss of Tobruk came as a severe blow to the British leadership and precipitated a political crisis in Britain. The Ariete Division, the spearhead of XX Corps, had failed to penetrate the line held by 2nd Battalion, Cameron Highlanders and were redirected into the breach made by the Afrika Korps and then sent westwards towards Fort Pilastrino. [58] [59] The Germans left the task of housing the prisoners to the Italians, who lacked the infrastructure to treat the prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Convention. British commanders had decided not to defend Tobruk for a second time and its minefields had been stripped for use in the Gazala Line to the west. On the previous day, Auchinleck had confirmed to Ritchie that, if all else failed, the frontier should be "a rallying point". The 15th Panzer Division had begun to advance westwards along the Pilastrino Ridge, where elements of the 201st Guards Brigade had taken up exposed positions at short notice. The siege of Tobruk (10 April-16/17 December 1941) saw a beleaguered Allied garrison hold out for eight months against German and Italian attacks, and helped prevent Rommel taking full advantage of his victory in his first offensive, which had seen him conquer … Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel, untried before the French campaign but by now a proven effective field commander, took command of this force. Axis troops captured Benghazi, Libya, which was evacuated by British forces on the previous day. Also includes background on the invasion of Crete and the Italian campaign in East Africa. First, it is aiming to offer interesting Of these, 300,000 were killed,… At 1730 hours, 1,000 Italian troops attacked the defensive line held by the 2nd Battalion of the Australian 24th Brigade, overrunning one position quickly; only the arrival of an additional company plus heavy artillery fire by the 51st Field Artillery Regiment drove back the Italians. 100 kilometers to the west, British gunboat HMS Ladybird bombarded Axis positions at Derna. Axis forces opened Rommel's offensive in North Africa at 0600 hours. Australian troops repulsed the repeated attacks. [2] An immense stock of supplies of every description had been accumulated around the port for a British offensive but the Axis forestalled the attack with Operation Venice (Unternehmen Venezia and the Battle of Gazala began on 26 May 1942. 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. Journalist Richard Capell paid tribute in a radio broadcast the defenders of Tobruk, Libya, with specific mention of anti-aircraft gunners but also generally of Australians, Indians, and British "[b]oys", who "within weeks, turn[ed] into hardened men.". 27 Australians were killed and 28 were wounded in this action. British Commander-in-Chief Middle East General Wavell requested for more tanks to reinforce Tobruk, Libya. For one reason or another, the Italians offered little resistance and many surrendered without fighting. Klopper was put in charge of the Tobruk garrison on 15 June, five days before the Axis attack. ww2dbaseThe siege on Tobruk was lifted in late Nov due to the success of the Allied Operation Crusader offensive which began on 18 Nov 1941. After these losses, the British moved the anti-aircraft guns to conceal positions while dummy guns were constructed in the old anti-aircraft gun positions. Captain Sainthill of the Coldstream Guards and 199 of his officers and men were able to break out of the south-west perimeter in their battalion transport and rejoin the Eighth Army. [47] The 7th RTR moved up in support on their own initiative but half were diverted to assist the Camerons. 250 Italians were killed and 113 were captured in this failed attack. The 15th Panzer Division and 21st Panzer Division were in the east, on either side of the village of Kambut. In the evening, Australian 2/48th Battalion conducted a counterattack but it was repulsed with heavy casualties. [29] Each infantry battalion had to defend a frontage of about 35 mi (56 km) on average and each anti-tank gun would have had to defend a frontage of 750 yd (690 m) if they had been spread evenly across the perimeter. German Luftwaffe bombers attacked Tobruk habor in Libya, sinking several ships at the cost of 6 German aircraft. This would be the final Operation Supercharge supply run for the besieged city. German troops besieged Mechili by 1700 hours. [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. Auchinleck replied to Churchill that Ritchie had sufficient troops to hold Tobruk. The French were bled white, but so were the Germans. The only British air raid that morning was called in by the forward air control "tentacle" to bomb Axis vehicles moving through the south-east breach and was carried out by nine Douglas Bostons escorted by long-range Kittyhawk fighters. For inquiries about military records for members of the World War II armed forces, please see our FAQ. [17] This withdrawal arrangement was formalised as Operation Freeborn. Between April and August 1941 around 14,000 Australian soldiers were besieged in Tobruk by a German–Italian army commanded by General Erwin Rommel. HTML tags are not allowed. With the Afrika Korp distracted, Tobruk could be relieved. New!! The Afrika Korps defeated the British armour in detail, aided by constant attack from the air. Peter Fitzsimons can tell a story, and the Siege of Tobruk is an important part of our history, and thus a great story to tell. [85], List of British military equipment of World War II, List of German military equipment of World War II, List of Italian military equipment in World War II, "The Surrender of Tobruk in 1942: Press Reports and Soldiers' Memories", Hansard: Central Direction of the War. [67] It was commonly accepted that there was no intention of defending Tobruk against another siege, therefore Tobruk was never prepared to defend against either a siege or a determined assault. He brought forward along the coast road, elements of the 1… The brigade had been hurriedly reformed after the Gazala battles and had about ninety tanks in composite units but lacked much of its artillery, which had been detached to form harassing columns. [48], By noon, Rommel had 113 tanks inside the perimeter. WW2DB site administrators reserve the right to moderate, censor, and/or remove any comment. [45], At Klopper's headquarters, after believing the attack in the south-east to be a feint, it was thought that orders for a counter-attack by the 32nd Army Tank Brigade, supported by whatever elements of the Guards and Indian brigades they required had been received. The surrender was the second largest capitulation by the British Army in the war, after the Battle of Singapore in February 1942. The siege of Tobruk (17-21 June 1942) was one of the more embarrassing British defeats in North Africa, and helped to reduce Churchill's confidence in General Auchinleck's abilities as a commander. [36], On the western end of the line was the Italian XXI Corps comprising the 7th Bersaglieri Regiment, the 60th Infantry Division Sabratha and the 102nd Motorised Division Trento, southwards from the coast. ww2dbaseOn 15 Apr, Rommel shifted the weight of the attack on the western side of Tobruk. He immediate set forth an aggressive plan, starting his offensive on 24 Mar 1941, capturing El Agheila on the first day. The Axis forces had not yet attacked Mechili due to sandstorms; Rommel ordered that an attack must be launched on the next day. ww2dbaseOn 10 Apr, Rommel ordered the 15th Panzer Division under General Heinrich von Prittwitz und Gaffron to attack Tobruk directly from the west. Nothing could exceed the sympathy and chivalry of my two friends. Major General John Lavarack assumed the duties of Lieutenant General Philip Neame as the British military governor of Cyrenaica, Libya; Neame was captured by a German patrol on the previous day. The book begins with an historical overview of the actions around Tobruk, complete with a map and detailed force breakdown for all the main combatants. Italian troops fought back with ferocity, halting the attack after inflicting heavy casualties. The siege of Tobruk was not technically a siege, as the defenders were still able to move supplies and reinforcements into the city via the port. In the desert to the south, while German 5th Light Division was held in place waiting for a resupply of fuel, the British did not realize the German offensive through the desert had paused and continued to fall back. For Italy in the 1920s, Benito Mussolini rose to power. By 1938, the Germans peacefully annexed the Sudetenland and Austria after Italian forces took Ethiopia in 1935. The perimeter was 35 mi (56 km) long, and the coastline added another 20 mi (32 km). Playfair wrote in 1960 that "the reasons for the disaster are plain enough". 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. Large quantities of barbed wire and land mines had been removed to bolster the Gazala defences, while some of the old Italian mines which remained were found to be defective. 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. After World War I and the failure of the Weimar Republic, Germany was left in ruins. At 1500 hours, 400 German infantry advanced, but this attack was also stopped. I always feel that the Tobruk episode in the President's study did a great deal towards laying the foundations of friendship and understanding built up during the war between the President and Marshall on the one hand and Churchill and myself on the other. [8], Supplied with more modern tanks, the second Axis offensive saw the reoccupation of western Cyrenaica but the Axis advance ran out of supplies west of Gazala. This particular attack represented the last Australian attempt to regain positions lost in early May 1941. German troops captured Agedabia and Zuetania in North Africa. The day's engagement cost the British 60 men killed, 8 armored carriers destroyed, and 1 anti-aircraft gun destroyed. The Battle of Verdun--fought from February 21-December 18 1916 in the Western Front of France--was horrifying and hellish even by the standards of World War One. Racing around the advancing enemy, he tried to cut them off from the rear. Allied troops held the pass all day, but after dark they withdrew to Buq Buq, Egypt. [19], Auchinleck signalled to Ritchie that he was to hold a line from Acroma (west of Tobruk) extending south-east to El Adem, which would screen Tobruk. He began to deploy his forces to their jumping-off positions on 18 June. On 2 Aug, two Australian companies attacked Italian positions with the support of over 60 field guns. Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire delivered fresh Australian troops to Tobruk, Libya at 0100 hours; the artillery pieces that arrived with the destroyer were deployed on the front lines as early as 0530 hours. Behind two old outlying forts, they constructed a novel fortification, consisting of a double line of concrete-lined trenches 54 km (34 mi) long, connecting 128 weapons pits protected by concealed anti-tank ditches but the fortifications lacked overhead protection and there were no defences in depth. German bombers attacked Allied defenses at Tobruk, Libya as well as its harbor, sinking HMS Chakla. Ignoring a peace-time conference in Munich, Hitler gradually took al… 24 German bombers escorted by 21 fighters attacked Tobruk, Libya, sinking 2 ships and damaging another 2. [40] When the Axis artillery arrived at their positions near El Adem, they found Axis ammunition, which had been abandoned in November and had never been cleared away. A British Court of Inquiry was held in absentia in 1942, which found Klopper to be largely blameless for the surrender and ascribed the defeat to failures among the British high command. The Axis capture of Tobruk, also known as the Fall of Tobruk and the Second Battle of Tobruk (17–21 June 1942) was part of the Western Desert Campaign in Libya during the Second World War. The Allied occupation of Tobruk was a threat to the Axis communications, it denied them the use of the port, and it tied down four Italian divisions and three German battalions, a force twice the size of the garrison. To the east of Tobruk stood troops of the German 5th Light Division; to the south was the German 15th Panzer Division; finally, the Italian Brescia Division was positioned west of Tobruk. Prittwitz was killed while personally leading a reconnaissance mission by armored cars. In the air, British, German, and Italian fighters engaged in combat in the air while 40 German Stuka dive bombers attacked the Tobruk harbor. 2. Admiral Andrew Cunningham sent the message to her commanding officer "Great fighting finish worthy of highest ideals and tradition of the Navy and an inspiration for all who fight on the seas.". After dark, British generals General Neame and O'Connor began evacuating themselves to Tmimi west of Tobruk. Around the same time, Morshead was replaced by Major General Ronald Scobie. [11][12], On 1 May 1942, a meeting of Axis leaders was held at the Berghof in Berchtesgaden, with Adolf Hitler and Albert Kesselring, the Wehrmacht Commander-in-Chief South, representing Germany, and Benito Mussolini and Ugo Cavallero, the Chief of the Defence Staff representing Italy. ww2dbaseThe successive failures by the Italian and German troops to break through caused Rommel to shift strategy.
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