ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: WW2
Volume 34
TOBRUK 1941
TOBRUK 1941 The Desert Siege
TIMOTHY HALL
First published in 1984 by Methuen Australia
This edition first published in 2022
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
1984 Timothy Hall
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-03-201217-9 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-00-319367-8 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-03-207931-8 (Volume 34) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-03-207935-6 (Volume 34) (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-00-321214-0 (Volume 34) (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003212140
Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
TOBRUK 1941 The Desert Siege
Timothy Hall
For Tim
With love
Devised and produced by Taylor-Type
Publications (Australia) Pty Ltd
First published in 1984 by
Methuen Australia Pty Ltd
44-50 Waterloo Road, North Ryde 2113
Timothy Hall 1984
This book is copyright. Apart from
any fair dealing for the purposes
of private study, research, criticism
or review, as permitted under the
Copyright Act, no part may be
reproduced by any process without
written permission. Inquiries should
be addressed to Methuen Australia Pty Ltd.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication data
Hall, Timothy.
Tobruk 1941.
ISBN 0 454 00667 5.
1. Tobruk, Battles of, 1941-1942.
2. World War, 1939-1945 Campaigns Africa, North. I. Title.
940.54 23
Typesetting by Rochester Photosetting
Service, Sydney
Designed by M. D. Camp
Printed in Hong Kong
Contents
Introduction
The Superb Tactician
Retreat and Defence
The Fierce Onslaught
Security and Prisoners
Holding Out
Under Siege
Your Magnificent Defence ...
Stalemate
Operation Battleaxe
Operation Crusader
Bibliography
The war in Africa is something different. It is simply a question of man against man, eye to eye, blow for blow. Were the battle not so brutal, one could compare it with the romantic idea of jousting among knights.
From the diary of a German tank commander.
The whole Empire is watching your steadfast and spirited defence of this important outpost of Egypt, with gratitude and admiration.
Winston Churchill, 7 May 1941.
Immensely big and powerful men, who without question represented an lite formation of the British Empire.
General Erwin Rommel, of the Australians defending Tobruk.
The Eastern Mediterranean
The Western Desert
Introduction
Siege conjures up many images, usually of men standing their ground against superior odds, prepared to fight to the last rather than surrender. The siege of Tobruk was certainly not in conflict with that picture.
Early in 1941 the Allies, fleeing ignominiously before the forces of the brilliant new German Desert Commander, Erwin Rommel, suddenly turned on their pursuers at the former Italian fortress of Tobruk. There they made their stand. They fought back tooth and claw for nearly eight months and tied up the Axis army so effectively that Rommel was prevented from taking his attack into Egypt and was denied a most vital base in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The men who withstood the siege with such bravery and persistence were largely Australian infantrymen supported by British artillery. The conditions they fought under were appalling, the strain sometimes unbearable.
The Desert War has always been thought of as one of the more civilised campaigns of World War II a curious word for a struggle of fearsome bloodiness where hand-to-hand fighting with the bayonet was a daily event; where the flame-thrower was frequently used at close range; and where men were forced to lie or crouch all day in shallow trenches, certain only that if they stood up even momentarily in daylight, they would die for their carelessness.
Yet it is not difficult to see how this myth developed. Both sides fought under equally appalling conditions, almost eyeball-to-eyeball on either side of the barbed wire perimeter fence; enduring the flies, the awful heat and dust and dirt, the constant stomach disorders; wondering if it would ever end and if the miserable patch of sand they were fighting over was worth all the suffering and death.
Germans and Australians alike developed a very strong mutual respect for each others courage and skill as soldiers; just as Germans and Australians alike shared a healthy and useful contempt for the much despised Italian infantrymen who were almost as much a liability to their German allies as they were cluttering up the fortress when they ran to surrender in their thousands. One of the enduring cameos in the campaign is of German panzer units breaking off an attack on the Australian lines to fire a contemptuous volley at the fast-retreating backs of the Italians as they scurried to the safety of the nearest sand dune as soon as they came under fire.
In no campaign was so strong a link forged between Australians and British fighting together. The catalyst throughout the siege was the Fortress Commander, Australian General Leslie Morshead. He was a difficult man to serve under and to understand, and not all his conduct comfortably stands the glare of close examination; but he remains one of Australias legendary commanders.
Tobruk was a very proud interlude for Australia in a war that was not going well for the Allies a war that in fact was going disastrously wrong. The defence of Tobruk was not only marked by great heroism on the part of the Australians, but it was also entirely successful. It was an epic battle and this book is its story, as told by men who served there and by the record that survives in war diaries as well as private diaries kept in the heat of the battle and personal letters.
