This week, 70 years ago, the “Rats of Tobruk” were being relieved.  The “Rats of Tobruk” were primarily soldiers of the Ninth Australian Division, and had been given that sobriquet by traitorous radio announcer William Joyce, a/k/a “Lord Haw-Haw.” They had defended the Libyan port since April 1941, when Rommel had launched his first offensive and driven Commonwealth forces out of Libya - except for Tobruk. During the defense of Tobruk, the Aussies suffered about 3000 casualties, and 941 taken prisoner. The Australian Government and Army leaders were demanding that the Australian soldiers be withdrawn from Tobruk. In addition to three brigades of the Ninth, the defenders included a brigade of the Seventh Australian Division and an Indian cavalry brigade, all under the command of Maj. Gen. Leslie Morshead, nicknamed, by his troops, “Ming the Merciless.”  Twice weekly, the Royal Navy resupplied the garrison.
    In response to Australian demands, the British 70th Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Ronald Scobie, who would command the garrison, together with the 5000 man Polish Carpathian Brigade, commanded by Stanislaw Kopanski, and the Czech Eleventh Infantry Battalion, commanded by Lt.Col. Karel Klapálek, were substituted for the Australian soldiers as the defenders of the Libyan port of Tobruk. Because of the losses the Royal Navy was suffering during this operation, it ceased before all of the Aussies could be withdrawn, leaving a battalion to continue as part of the port’s defense.
    Tobruk is located in Libya on the Mediterranean Sea, less than 80 miles from the Egyptian border. It is 288 miles east of Benghazi, 388 miles east of Agedabia and 630 miles east of Tripoli, by air. It probably has the best natural harbor in North Africa which made it important for any Axis invasion of Egypt from Libya.
    In January 1941, the Sixth Australian Division had captured the port and its 25,000 man Italian garrison. The following month, German General Erwin Rommel had arrived, together with the German Fifth Light Afrika Division, commanded by Johannes Streich, and the Italian Ariete Armored Division, commanded by Ettore Baldassare. General Franco Lo Sardo (ret.), who, at the time was a lieutenant in a field artillery unit of the Ariete, said that General Baldassare was a very good commander. By the end of March, the new German general was on the move. By mid-April, Axis forces had advanced more than 600 miles, driving Commonwealth forces out of Libya - except for Tobruk, which the Axis surrounded on three sides and besieged.
    The importance of holding Tobruk cannot be overstated. With Tobruk in Commonwealth hands, the Axis could not continue their advance, east, into Egypt towards the Suez Canal, for two reasons: (1) they could not afford to leave an enemy force in their rear astride their line of supply; and (2) they desperately needed the port because the port of Tripoli was 800 miles distant, and did not have sufficient capacity to handle all that the Axis forces needed. Any advance had to be supplied from Tripoli if Tobruk was unavailable.
    The first Axis attempt to recapture Tobruk was undertaken by the Italian Brescia Motorized Infantry Division - at that time commanded by Bortolo Zambon - which departed Derna on April 8, 1941, headed for Tobruk. The Italian soldiers were followed by elements of the German Fifth Light Afrika Division, the Ariete Armored Division and the lead elements of the 15th Panzer Division, commanded by Heinrich von Prittwitz und Gaffron, which had just arrived on the African continent. By the next evening, Axis forces were 25 miles west of Tobruk. The next day they came within 14 miles of the city, when General von Prittwitz und Gaffron was killed by Allied artillery fire. Rommel mistakenly thought that the enemy was evacuating the port by sea, and on April 11 sent Brescia in to take advantage of the situation.
    The Commonwealth forces had not been idle in the two months between the capture of the fortress and the Axis offensive. They had improved on the Italian defenses, so that the fortress was stronger than when they had captured it. It consisted of two concentric rings, the outermost of which was nine miles from the sea at its furthest point. It consisted of mutually supporting strong points along an antitank ditch protected by a belt of barbed wire. It was also protected by extensive minefields.
    When Brescia was unable to capture the port, Rommel ordered the 5th Light to attack from the south on April13. This cost the Germans 16 of the 38 tanks involved in the assault. After that effort failed, Rommel threw everything he had at the fortress on April 16, which by this time also included the Trento Division, commanded by Giuseppe de Stefanis. Italian losses were 24 dead, 112 wounded and 436 captured.
    After this failed effort, one more assault was launched on April 30. After three days, casualties were: German - 125 dead, 402 wounded, and 131 missing; Italian - 155 dead, 347 wounded and 238 missing; Commonwealth - 59 dead, 355 wounded and 383 missing. After that failure, it was siege warfare until Commonwealth forces finally broke the siege in November with Operation Crusader.
    In between, the Commonwealth, under pressure from Churchill, launched two unsuccessful relief efforts - Operations Brevity and Battleaxe, both of which were costly, and embarrassing, failures.
    Finally, on November 18, 1941, the British Eighth Army, under the command of Lt. Gen. Alan Cunningham launched Operation Crusader. Gen. Cunningham was the younger brother of Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham and was fresh off the conquest of Italian East Africa.
    The Commonwealth’s forces consisted of 118,000 men, 738 tanks and 616 planes, divided into two corps, and the Tobruk garrison. Shortly before the Operation began XXX Corps’ commander, Vivyan Pope was killed in a plane crash, and Charles Willoughby Moke Norrie assumed command. His Corps consisted of the 7th Armoured Division, commanded by William Gott and First South African Division under George Brink. Reade Godwin-Austin commanded XII Corps which included Second New Zealand Division, commanded by Bernard Freyberg, who had been responsible for the Allied debacle at Crete, and Fourth Indian Infantry Division under Frank Messervy.
    The Commonwealth offensive had come as somewhat of a jolt to General Rommel, who had ignored Italian intelligence, and aerial reconnaissance, warning of the coming attack.
    Axis forces were under the nominal command of Ettore Bastico, whom General Rommel initially didn’t like and called “Bombastico,” and who later became one of Rommel’s greatest allies in his struggles with Commando Supremo. Axis forces included Panzergruppe Afrika commanded by General Rommel and XX Corps commanded by Gastone Gambara. Both Italian generals were veterans of the Spanish Civil War. The XX Corps consisted of the best Italian division in North Africa - the Ariete Armored - now commanded by Mario Balotta - and Trieste Motorized Infantry Division, commanded by Alessandro Piazzoni.
    Panzergruppe Afrika contained the Deutsche Afrika Korps, commanded by Ludwig Crüwell and the Italian XXI Infantry Corps, commanded by Enea Navarrini. The DAK included the 15th and 21st Panzer, 90th Light, and the Italian Savona Infantry Divisions, under the command of, respectively, Walter Neumann-Silkow, Johann von Ravenstein, and Max Sümmermann and Fedele di Giorgis. General von Ravenstein would be captured by New Zealanders on November 28, and spend the rest of the war in Canada, while General Neumann-Silkow would die of wounds, at a military hospital in Derna on December 9. General Sümmermann was killed in an air raid the next day. The XXI Corps included the Pavia, Bologna, Brescia and Trento Infantry Divisions commanded by, respectively, Antonio Franceschini, Alessandro Gloria, Benvenuto Gioda and Giuseppe de Stefanis
    Gen. Gott sent the 22nd South African Armored Brigade to capture Bir el Gobi which was defended by General Balotta’s Ariete Armored Division, and was, therefore, thought to be “easy pickin`s.” The Italians at Bir el Gobi had the responsibility of, literally, covering Rommel’s back.  Although the Ariete lost 34 tanks, nine antitank guns, 15 dead, 80 wounded and 82 missing, the Division held, sending the South Africans packing with the loss of 52 tanks.
    Over the next few days, Sidi Rezegh was lost and recovered by the Axis, while Tobruk’s garrison also mounted an assault in an attempt to connect with the relief forces. The effort, which included the famed “Black Watch,” was thwarted, several times, by the Bologna and Pavia Divisions. Indian troops captured Sidi Omar on November 22.
    Mussolini transferred the Italian XX Corps to Panzergruppe Afrika on November 23. By this time, Commonwealth forces had lost 257 tanks.
    On November 24, Gen. Cunningham came forward to consult with Generals Gott and Norrie. While they were conferring, about 20 German tanks overran their headquarters area and Gen. Cunningham barely escaped in his plane. When “The Auk” met with Gen. Cunningham, he could see that defeatism had overtaken his frontline commander and replaced him, on November 27,with Neil Ritchie.
    Rommel went on the offensive, on the 25th, ordering the 15th and 21st Panzer and Ariete Divisions east, toward the Egyptian border, in the “Dash to the Wire.”  In the meantime, the garrison, inside, and the New Zealanders outside, the besieged port, were hammering at the besiegers in an effort to lift the siege. By November 26, a narrow corridor between the two had been opened. After 240 days the siege - the longest in British history -  had been lifted. Rommel ordered the three Axis’ armored divisions back from the Wire in an unsuccessful effort to contain the breakout. This left the Axis garrisons at Bardia, Sollum and Halfaya Pass at the mercy of the Allied forces.
    By December 2, both sides were exhausted and there was a break in the action. The Axis had lost 257 armored fighting vehicles, with German casualties totaling 600 killed, 1900 wounded and 2200 missing. The Allies had lost 800 armored fighting vehicles and more than 9000 of their soldiers had been captured.  But the supply situation for the Allies was much better and their losses easier to replace.
    From December 2 - 4, occurred “The Stand in the Sand,” as the Giovani Fascisti, commanded by Fulvio Balisti, and two regiments of the elite Bersaglieri, who had replaced Ariete, repulsed repeated assaults by the 11th Indian Brigade at Bir el Gobi.
    When the Allies once again went on the offensive on December 8, Rommel gave the order to retreat and to abandon Cyrenaica (eastern Libya) and the Tobruk siege. By Christmas, Benghazi had fallen and Agedabia taken - again, although not for long. Bardia fell on January 2 and 7700 Italians and 300 Germans marched into captivity. By January 7, the Axis reached their prepared positions at Marsa al-Brega. Even before their arrival, the “Desert Fox” was planning his next offensive.
    Now, the Axis’ supply lines were shorter and the Allies’ were longer. Meanwhile, the garrison at Helfaya Pass - hundreds of miles to the east - still held out. But when its water supply was cut, it surrendered on January 17, 1942. General Rommel said that, “Superb leadership was shown by General Di Giorgis....”
    Two days latter, the “Desert Fox” launched his second offensive.

NEXT WEEK: SIEGE OF LENINGRAD    

Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.