Chester Wilmot - Tobruk 1941

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Text originally published in 1944 under the same title.

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Publishers Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

TOBRUK 1941:

CAPTURE, SIEGE, RELIEF

BY

CHESTER WILMOT

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TO

GENERAL MORSHEAD

AND HIS MEN

THE CAPTURE OF TOBRUK-THE BREAKTHROUGH, JANUARY 21 ST , 1941

THE CAPTURE OF TOBRUK-LAST PHASE, JANUARY 21 ST -22 ND , 1941

THE TOBRUK DERBYROMMELS ADVANCE INTO CYRENAICA, APRIL 1 ST -9 TH , 1941

THE EASTER BATTLE, APRIL 14 TH , 1941

BATTLE OF THE SALIENTPHASES I AND II, THE GERMAN ATTACK, APRIL 30 TH -MAY 1 ST , 1941

BATTLE OF THE SALIENTPHASE III. THE GARRISONS COUNTERATTACKS, EVENING, MAY 1 ST , 1941

BRITISH ATTEMPT TO RELIEVE TOBRUK, JUNE 15 TH -17 TH 1941

2/23RDS ATTACK ON NORTHERN FLANK OF THE SALIENT, MAY 17 TH , 1941

THE SALIENT SECTOR SHOWING GROUND REGAINED BY THE GARRISON, MAY-JUNE, 1941

THE RELIEF OF TOBRUKPHASE I. THE EIGHTH ARMY ATTACKS, NOVEMBER 18 TH -22 ND , 1941

THE RELIEF OF TOBRUKPHASE II. THE EIGHTH ARMY LINKS UP WITH TOBRUK GARRISON, NOVEMBER 23 RD -29 TH , 1941

THE RELIEF OF TOBRUKPHASE III, ENEMY CUTS EIGHTH ARMYS LINK WITH TOBRUK, BUT FAILS TO RELIEVE BARDIA, NOVEMBER 30 TH -DECEMBER 10 TH , 1941

THE Libyan Desert is one of the great natural defensive barriers of the world. From September 1940 to November 1942 it was the chief bulwark of the defence of Egypt. The battle for the Suez Canal was fought in this desert and throughout 1941 the hub of that battle was Tobruk. Its capture by General Wavells Anglo-Australian forces in January of that year determined the immediate fate of Cyrenaica. Without first taking Tobruk Wavell could never have gone on to Benghazi.

The holding of Tobruk by Australian, British, Indian and later Polish troops from April 10 th to December 10 th 1941 was fatal to whatever hopes Rommel had of Egyptian conquest that year. Without first taking Tobruk he could not push on far towards Suez. In November 1941, when General Auchinleck launched his counter-offensive, the Tobruk garrison played a crucial part in Rommels defeat. It is not too much to say that without the capture and holding of Tobruk in 1941, Cyrenaica could not have been conquered by Wavell; Rommel could not have been checked on the frontier of Egypt and Libya from April to November, nor could he have been driven back beyond Benghazi before the end of the year.

Today when the myth of German invincibility has been finally dispelled on the battlefields of Russia and North Africa, we may be inclined to forget that in April 1941 the Germans were still unchecked on land. The German forces that Rommel brought against Tobruk came fresh from triumphs that had already carried the swastika from Poland to the Pyrenees, from Norway to North Africa. Until then the German blitzkrieg tactics had never been countered. No force or fortress had withstood the Nazi assault. During the first eighteen months of the war the Allied armies suffered one severe defeat after another. Then came the siege of Tobruk, and during the next eight months, when the German armies in the Balkans and Russia were still carrying all before them, Tobruk alone held out unconquered.

This book tellsso far as is possible in wartimethe story of the fighting at and around Tobruk during 1941. It is not a personal story, nor is it a full military history. It is an attempt to record what one man was able to learn of what took place. It deals not only with events but with the men responsible for themhow they lived as well as how they fought. Wherever possible it is told in their own words.

The extent of my indebtedness to officers and men of the A.I.F. is evident on almost every page. The skeleton of the book was pieced together from official A.I.F. and enemy documents. My own observations provide some of the flesh but most of it comes from the eyewitness stories of the men themselves. I am most grateful to those who have made available personal papers, given me firsthand accounts of many incidents and actions or have checked portions of the manuscript. They are too numerous for me to list them here but I do thank them all.

Much of this material was gathered while I was a member of the Australian Broadcasting Commissions Field Unit in the Middle East with the 6 th Australian Division during the original capture of Tobruk, with the 9 th Division during three monthsAugust, September, Octoberof the siege and with the British forces that set out to relieve Tobruk in May and November. Wherever possible documentary sources and eyewitness accounts have been cross-checked, but the full story of Tobruk can only be written when all the documentsBritish and Axisare available.

Because of the lack of firsthand material I have not attempted to give an account of what happened when Rommel eventually captured Tobruk in 1942. But it is clear that there is no valid comparison between the situation in 1941 and that in 1942. In the latter year Tobruk was attacked by Axis forces, which had already proved strong enough to rout the entire Eighth Army. The garrison was stormed by far stronger forces than Rommel used in 1941 and, moreover, these were not distracted by any British intervention from the frontier. If the Axis attack of June 1942 could have been delivered in April 1941, it is very doubtful whether General Morsheads garrison could have withstood it. After the war, no doubt military scientists will find it most profitable to make a comparative study of the attacks of the two years, but this book deals only with the events of 1941.

For the opportunity to see something of these events I am much indebted to the field commanders concernedGeneral MacKay and General Morsheadand to the Australian Broadcasting Commission, which gave me as well permission to draw on dispatches I sent it from the Middle East. I am most grateful also to the official historian of the 1 st A.I.F. (Dr. C. E. W. Bean) and to his successor (Gavin Long), both of whom gave me valuable advice and assistance; to Colonel L. E. Vail, who checked the proofs; to Sergeant H. B. Paterson, A.I.F., for permission to publish his verses, which appear in Chapter XII; to Corporal Jim Emery, A.I.F., who drew the special relief map; to Noel OConnor, who designed the jacket; and above all to H. M. Scales whose unflagging aid in the revision and checking of the manuscript was invaluable.