Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The siege of Tobruk (/ t ə ˈ b r ʊ k, t oʊ-/) took place between 10 April and 27 November 1941, during the Western Desert campaign (1940–1943) of the Second World War.An Allied force, consisting mostly of the 9th Australian Division, commanded by Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead, was besieged in the North African port of Tobruk by German and Italian forces.
Aerial photograph of the port of Tobruk during the 1941 siege. The small port of Tobruk in Italian Cyrenaica had been fortified by the Italians from 1935. 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 ...
By 7 January the bulk of the British forces had arrived and cut off Tobruk. [4] The 19th Australian Brigade group placed itself opposite the eastern defences of Tobruk and the 16th Australian Brigade group took over on the western side. The 4th Armoured Brigade moved to the west of the city, the 7th Support Group blocked the western exits and ...
10 April: Siege of Tobruk begins with Australian, British and Indian forces defending; 15 April: British forces are pushed back to Sollum on Egyptian border with Libya; 30 April: Australian forces lose a small part of their positions in Tobruk during the Battle of Salient, roughly a 6th of Tobruk is now held by Germans
Tobruk had been besieged for nine months in 1941 but this time the Royal Navy could not guarantee the supply of the garrison and Auchinleck viewed Tobruk as expendable but expected that it could hold out for two months. [75] On 21 June, 35,000 Eighth Army troops surrendered to Lieutenant-General Enea Navarini, the commander of XXI Corps. [76]
Closer to the front and after months of political debate, it was decided that the Australian garrison in Tobruk had to be relieved. This took place between September and October, as the Australians were gradually replaced by the British 70th Infantry Division which was shipped into the port. [10] [11]
The dismounted portion of the battalion with 3rd Armoured Bde Group formed part of the garrison for the first month of the Siege of Tobruk, and were then evacuated by sea to the Nile Delta to refit. Campbell's mobile column (one of the so-called 'Jock Columns') withdrew slowly through Gambut and Buq Buq, then from 22 April patrolled the ...
Operation Battleaxe (15–17 June 1941) was a British Army offensive during the Second World War to raise the Siege of Tobruk and re-capture eastern Cyrenaica from German and Italian forces.