Siege of Tobruk
The Siege of Tobruk (/təˈbrʊk, toʊ-/) took place between 10 April and 27 November 1941, when elements of the Allied Army were trapped and besieged in the North African port of Tobruk by German and Italian forces. The defenders quickly became known as The Rats of Tobruk.
The siege lasted for 231 days in 1941, after Axis forces advanced through Cyrenaica from el Agheila in Operation Sonnenblume against Allied forces in Libya, during the Western Desert campaign (1940–1943) of the Second World War. In late 1940, the Allies had defeated the Italian 10th Army during Operation Compass (9 December 1940 – 9 February 1941) and trapped the remnants at Beda Fomm.
But the balance between the armies shifted in early 1941. Much of the British Western Desert Force (WDF) was sent to the Greek and Syria–Lebanon campaigns. As German troops and Italian reinforcements reached Libya, only a skeleton of an Allied force remained, short of equipment and supplies. Operation Sonnenblume (6 February – 25 May 1941), forced the Allies into a retreat to the Egyptian border.
A garrison, consisting mostly of the 9th Australian Division (led by Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead) remained at Tobruk, to defend the port from the Axis, while the WDF reorganized and prepared a counter-offensive.
The Axis siege of Tobruk began on 10 April, when the port was attacked by a force under Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel and continued during three relief attempts, Operation Brevity (15–16 May), Operation Battleaxe (15–17 June) and Operation Crusader (18 November – 30 December). The occupation of Tobruk deprived the Axis of a supply port closer to the Egyptian–Libyan border than Benghazi, 560 mi (900 km) west of the Egyptian frontier, which was within the range of RAF bombers; Tripoli was 930 mi (1,500 km) to the west in Tripolitania.
The siege diverted Axis troops from the frontier and the Tobruk garrison repulsed several Axis attacks. The port was frequently bombarded by artillery, dive-bombers and medium bombers, as the RAF flew defensive sorties from airfields far away in Egypt. Allied naval forces, such as the British Mediterranean Fleet (including the Inshore Squadron) ran the blockade, carrying reinforcements and supplies in and the wounded and prisoners out.
On 27 November, Tobruk was reinforced by the Eighth Army (which controlled British and other Allied ground forces in the Western Desert from September 1941) as part of Operation Crusader.
Siege[edit]
Investment of Tobruk[edit]
By 8 April, the most advanced German units had arrived at Derna; but some units which had cut across the chord of the Jebel Akhdar ran out of water and fuel at Tengeder. Heinrich von Prittwitz und Gaffron, the commander of the 15th Panzer Division, was sent ahead with a column of reconnaissance, anti-tank, machine-gun, and artillery units to block the eastern exit from Tobruk as the 5th Light Division moved from the southwest and the 27th Infantry Division "Brescia" advanced from the west. On 10 April, Rommel made the Suez Canal the objective of the Afrika Korps and ordered that a breakout from Tobruk be prevented. The next day, the port was invested; but the rush ended with the 5th Light Division on the east side, the Prittwitz group to the south (Prittwitz having been killed), and the 27th Infantry Division "Brescia" to the west. Reconnaissance Unit 3 went on to Bardia, and a composite force was sent on to Sollum to try to reach Mersa Matruh. The British Mobile Force (Brigadier William Gott), on the frontier from Halfaya Pass to Sidi Barrani, conducted a delaying-action around Sollum and Capuzzo.[21]