Great Britain. Army. Long Range Desert Group. - Operation agreement: Jewish commandos and the raid on Tobruk

This one is dedicated to both my regular co-authors, Rosie and Silvie.

Sung to the tune of British Grenadiers

You may talk of famous sieges of Lucknow and Cawnpore

Of men like Wellington, Nelson and Admiral Rooke

There was Ladysmith, Mafeking and fierce fighting at Lahore

But none to rank as famous as Heroic Tobruk.

Blue waters to the north, to the south lie desert sands

Huns and Dagoes whichever way we look

But brave men all and free did leave their native lands

And now they stand defending Heroic Tobruk.

Brave youths from Australia and from Indias sunny site

From England and all to their guns have stuck

Daily they are defying Germanys might

The Empire will be proud of Heroic Tobruk.

When all this world is freed from Hitlers boast

And bloody battles are written in a book

Then all free men shall rise and say, a toast

To the gallant defenders of Heroic Tobruk.

J. Campbell, Heroic Tobruk

AUTHOR

Douglas John Sadler BA (Hons), M.Phil., FRHistS FSA (Scotl) is a military historian with some two dozen titles in print or preparation; he lectures at the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Sunderland University and is fellow ol the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries ol Scotland. He is a very experienced and much-travel led battlefield tour iniide, covering most major conflicts in the UK, Europe and North Africa, and he knows the ground over which the Desert War was fought. He is also a keen historical interpreter with much experience of delivering history in innovative ways for schools, the community and the media. He is married with two grown-up daughters and lives in Northumberland.

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2016 John Sadler

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ISBN: 978-1-4728-1488-3
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ePub ISBN: 978-1-4728-1490-6

Front cover and title page: Soldiers from the LRDG on patrol in the Libyan desert in 1941. (akg images)

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IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Many of the photos in this book come from the Imperial War Museums huge collections which cover all aspects of conflict involving Britain and the Commonwealth since the start of the twentieth century. These rich resources are available online to search, browse and buy at. www.iwmcollections.org.uk. In addition to Collections Online, you can visit the Visitor Rooms where you can explore over 8 million photographs, thousands of hours of moving images, the largest sound archive of its kind in the world, thousands of diaries and letters written by people in wartime, and a huge reference library. Imperial War Museum www.iwm.org.uk

Please note that for several of the Imperial War Museum images in this book, and both images from the Jewish Museum, while every effort has been made to obtain copyright permission from the original copyright source it had not always been possible to contact them.

Any queries about copyright should be addressed to the Publisher.

CHRONOLOGY

SEPTEMBER 1942

6 SEPTEMBER

Force B to move out from Kufra Oasis and march to forming up area outside Tobruk defences

10 SEPTEMBER

Midday: Sudan Defence Force elements to march towards Bahariya Oasis in readiness for the attack on Siwa Operation Coastguard

13 SEPTEMBER

Force A sails from Haifa aboard Tribal Class destroyers

Force C MTBs and Launches sail from Alexandria

Midday: Force B reaches Sidi Rezegh

2130 hours: Air raid on Tobruk begins

2145 hours: Force B secures its immediate objectives to prepare beachhead for Force C to land

14 SEPTEMBER

0130 hours: Allied bombers cease dropping flares

0140 hours: Submarine HMS Taku gets Folbot section into the water off Tobruk

0200 hours: Folbots reach shore and mark landing beach for Force A

0200 hours: Force C enters the Mersa Umm Es Sciausc cove provided the appropriate signal has been detected

0230 hours: Force C comes ashore in the inlet

0300 hours: The destroyers arrive off the coast

0340 hours: The first wave of marines to be ashore, followed by second flight

0340 hours: Bombing now ceases but RAF continues to run diversionary flights

0415 hours: All air operations cease

0415 hours: Force C MTBs and launches enter Tobruk harbour to attack shipping

0900 hours: The destroyers now enter the harbour Force Z leaves Kufra to attack Jalo Oasis

16 SEPTEMBER

Force Z to have secured Jalo

MAP 1: THE NORTH AFRICAN THEATRE OF WAR, 194043

MAP2: THE BIG RAIDS, SEPTEMBER 1942

MAP 3: THE BARCE RAID, SEPTEMBER 1942