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This article appears in: November Yet another name became legendary in World War II as a symbol of heroic and determined resistance: the Siege of Tobruk. After routing dispirited Italian forces in Libya during the campaign to protect the vital Suez Canal and other imperial interests, in the spring of the British Army found itself up against far tougher opposition: Lt. Erwin Rommel and his newly formed Deutsches Afrika Korps. The aggressive, headstrong Rommel had arrived in Tripoli that February and was eager to get at the British. Nevertheless, he decided to seize the initiative with a surprise attack on the over extended British and Commonwealth forces. Rommel launched his assault on March 24, , sending three mechanized columns rumbling northward and eastward. The fast-moving Germans chased the retreating British along the coast road, rolled into Benghazi, and swept on to Barce and Derna. One panzer column captured inland fuel dumps and burst out onto the coastal plain at Gazala. Another column executed a wide flanking movement to try to capture British units evacuating from Cyrenaica. Philip Neame. They pushed on relentlessly eastward toward Egypt and the Suez Canal. Bypassed in the enemy advance was the Mediterranean port of Tobruk, 75 miles west of the Egyptian frontier. With one of the best deep-water harbors in the Mediterranean, Tobruk was the only suitable port in Cyrenaica east of Benghazi. Rommel would probably make every effort to drive the defenders into the sea, while British reinforcements and supplies would have to be brought in by ship under the bombs and guns of the Luftwaffe. Rommel, too, was aware of this. As his forces pushed eastward, the British stronghold at Tobruk posed a serious threat to his flank and rear. Its capture was to become a seven-month obsession. The 23,man garrison dug in behind two old Italian defense perimeters that embraced a foot antitank ditch, 70 strongpoints, and a minefield crisscrossed with barbed wire. The mile outer perimeter, called the Red Line, was studded with concrete-shielded dugouts manned by machine-gun and Bren gun crews. Elsewhere in the square-mile Tobruk enclave, the defenders waited with their ton Matilda infantry tanks, pounder field guns, and heavy antiaircraft batteries. The garrison commander was the resolute Maj. Leslie J. A former teacher in Sydney, he was as tenacious as Rommel. There is to be no surrender and no retreat. The Afrika Korps started its drive on Tobruk on Friday, April 11, , with a series of reconnaissance thrusts against the perimeter by panzer and German and Italian infantry units. These were beaten off by artillery. Next, Rommel decided to launch a major armored assault on the southern Tobruk perimeter in the early hours of April 14, Easter Monday. At am, supported by artillery fire and screaming Junkers Ju Stuka dive bombers, German panzers rumbled unmolested through a gap blasted in the southern perimeter wire. The staunch, light-hearted Australian defenders huddled in the perimeter strongpoints made no attempt to engage the enemy tanks. Then, as the German infantrymen passed the strongpoints, a murderous fire hit them from the rear. The panzers ground on until the leading battalion was two miles inside the Tobruk perimeter. They were moving into an elaborate trap. Suddenly, the German tank crews found themselves caught in a corridor of heavy gunfire. British and Australian field guns blasted them from both flanks at a range of only yards. Clouds of dust and smoke obscured the vision of the German drivers and gunners as the panzers milled about in confusion. Joining in the Allied barrage were 2-pounder antitank guns and captured Italian coastal pieces that the resourceful Aussies had turned around to face inland. One hit sheared the turret of a panzer clean from its mountings, and a staff car was blown to bits. The Allied gunners destroyed 16 out of 38 panzers, forcing the rest to withdraw. The Desert Fox attempted another assault two days later, on April This time, he took personal command and sent the Italian Ariete Armored Division and an Italian infantry division against the western perimeter. The Italian tanks took refuge in a wadi, and Rommel could not induce their commanders to continue the attack. The Italian infantrymen took the brunt of an Australian counterattack and quickly surrendered. One whole company gave up to a British scout car crew. In all, Italians were taken prisoner. The Ariete Division lost at least 90 percent of its tanks to breakdowns. The following day, Rommel called off the attack. He still believed that he could take Tobruk, but he was underestimating the fighting spirit of its defenders. Every night, man Allied patrols sneaked out to harass the Germans. An entire battalion of a crack Italian Bersaglieri rifle regiment was captured one evening, while an Indian Army patrol returned another night with two small sacks containing 32 human ears. For the men guarding the Tobruk perimeter, concealment was vital. They stayed underground during daylight hours to escape the attention of German snipers, and they swept away footprints outside their camouflaged dugouts so that Luftwaffe air crews would not see the tracks. Along with the Germans and Italians, the Allied soldiers battled heat, dust, fleas, lice, flies, dysentery, and boredom. The fleas marched up and down our twitching bodies until we thought we would go crazy. The Tobruk defenders endured regular attacks by enemy bombers and Stukas but tried to make the best of it. There was a shortage of fresh food and drinking water, so the troops took vitamin tablets. Some fresh water was produced in ingenious stills made from old gasoline drums, but the taste was always sulfurous. Water was rationed to six pints a day per man. The Rats of Tobruk subsisted chiefly on the old British Army standby of bully corned beef. It was cooked in a variety of ways, from rissoles hamburgers to hash, and augmented by canned stew, canned fruit, and rock-hard Army biscuits. Living quarters in the town were mainly stone houses, bombproof tunnels that had been dug by the Italians, and shelters constructed of concrete slabs, assorted bits of wood and tin, and sandbags. The defenders kept up their morale by listening to BBC news broadcasts every night from London which were preceded by the famous chimes of Big Ben. When not manning their guns against enemy raiders, they staged variety shows in an improvised theater, gambled, ironed uniforms, darned socks, and read their own newspaper, Tobruk Truth. After receiving panzer reinforcements, Rommel planned another assault on Tobruk—a do-or-die operation. At pm on April 30, , the Afrika Korps mounted its heaviest attack to date on the garrison. Stukas and artillery pieces pounded the Allied positions while panzers and grenadier units rushed the southwestern corner of the defenses. The defenders had been forewarned by their intelligence service, but the Germans managed to gain a toehold on the outer defenses and push two miles inside the perimeter. Again, losses were heavy. Even their wounded went on defending themselves and stayed in the fight to their last breath. The battle raged on through the night, and the Allied strongpoints were still active the following morning. They harassed the invaders from behind as other British units retaliated with artillery and tank fire. Dust storms made tactical coordination difficult for both sides. The seesaw struggle continued for three days before Rommel called off the offensive on May 4. His troops retained a two-mile-deep salient near Fort Pilastrino for the rest of the siege, but it had been his most costly attack so far; the Afro lost more than a thousand men. The Desert Fox received orders from Berlin forbidding him to attack Tobruk again or from advancing further into Egypt. He was told to hold his position and conserve his forces. The hard-driving general was bitter at being compelled to wage a defensive campaign. So far, the British forces had destroyed about German tanks and inflicted 38, casualties twice those of the Allies. The British had been reinforced by the arrival of almost tanks, dispatched in a fast convoy, on the orders of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Tobruk, however, still held out. General Morshead nevertheless faced problems. His Australian brigades had lost men killed, 2, wounded, and about captured in the April fighting. His government demanded that the remaining troops be pulled out and reunited with other Australian units in Egypt. So, in daring night operations carried out under the noses of the enemy, most of the Tobruk garrison was replaced by fresh British, Indian, South African, and Polish troops. Starting on the moonless nights of mid-August, British ships ferried in troops, a tank battalion, food, and other supplies. The transports, berthed in darkness between the rusting wrecks of Italian ships in Tobruk harbor, were swiftly unloaded and were on their way back to Alexandria or Mersa Matruh within the hour. After several months of relative calm, the Germans started increasing their attacks on Tobruk. This time, the defenders faced the scourge of 88mm flak guns, one of the deadliest weapons of the war. Originally used as an antiaircraft gun, the 88 became a devastating antitank weapon. At the start of September , the garrison was hammered by Stukas and repeated tank attacks were beaten off throughout October. That month, the siege of Tobruk entered its sixth month. On November 17, the Western Desert was lashed by heavy rains. The sands became a sea of mud as units of Lt. On the following day, British Tank Corps groups clashed in driving rain with panzer elements around Sidi Rezegh, 10 miles southeast of the Tobruk perimeter. Eventually, after bitter fighting with heavy losses on both sides, tough New Zealand infantrymen with fixed bayonets linked up with British Matildas from Tobruk that had battered through the German lines. With bagpipes skirling, relieving troops marched into the town on December Rommel, however, was far from being finished. After a five-month lull during which he built up his German and Italian forces, he launched another offensive on May 26, German panzer and infantry formations hit the Gazala Line, swung around Bir Hacheim, gallantly defended by a Free French force, and battled with British Guards and armored units in the Cauldron, an area so named because of its relentless heat and the intensity of the fighting there. The panzers battered their way out of the Cauldron, swept northward, and eventually rolled into Tobruk on June The British, Indian, and South African defenders had fought bravely, but, outgunned and outnumbered three to one, were overwhelmed. He survived it by to 25 votes. Tobruk would remain in German hands until it was retaken during General Bernard L. Back to the issue this appears in. You must be logged in to post a comment. A Seemingly Unstoppable Advance… Rommel launched his assault on March 24, , sending three mechanized columns rumbling northward and eastward. Moving Toward an Elaborate Trap At am, supported by artillery fire and screaming Junkers Ju Stuka dive bombers, German panzers rumbled unmolested through a gap blasted in the southern perimeter wire. Rommel, dressed in tropical helmet and shorts, inspects a captured British Crusader tank. Advancing on Tobruk, German soldiers move through a tangle of barbed wire. Smoke rises from German bombs during the major Luftwaffe air raid on Tobruk. Leave a Reply Cancel reply You must be logged in to post a comment. Related Articles. European Theater Stand at St. Vith Read More. From Around the Network. WWII Lt.

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This was the case with my father, he would only talk about parts of his experiences, but not to any depth. On several occasions over a few beers and glasses of wine, I tried to get Dad to discuss in more detail his experiences. All I achieved was a hangover in the morning. He was captured, when wounded in action. From there, Dad, with two mates, escaped making it to the advancing Russian front line in Ukraine. From what Dad told me, I have pieced together some of the jig saw from his service records, and other references. From an early age he had to learn how to look after himself. Despite this harsh upbringing, he developed a set of values that held him in good stead the whole of his life. By the time he was 18 years old, although short in stature, cm tall 5 ft 2 in , he was extremely fit having worked hard as a labourer on farms and in the timber industry. He was good looking and always maintained a neat appearance. Whilst he could only afford a single pair of shoes, those shoes were always shiny and well maintained. He was very musical, teaching himself to play by ear, the piano, banjo, and mouth organ. At around 18 years of age, Ern befriended the Harry family. The matriarch of the family was Maude Harry, a widow who had eight children the majority of whom lived in the family home, a two-story terrace house in Flemington Road, Parkville. He was made to feel welcome like a lost son. This gave him the family he never had. He nominated Maude Harry as his next of kin on his Attestation Form. Just before Ern departed to the Middle East, Maude and two of her daughters, Dorothy, and Joan, gave him a gold signet ring with his initials engraved on its face. The ship was the Strathmore, a passenger liner converted to a troop ship. The Strathmore sailed to Fremantle where it joined a convoy. The troops disembarked on 17 December They were then moved by rail to Dimra in Palestine where joining the 26th Brigade, they underwent further extensive training for the next few months. Whilst on leave, Ern and 17 other men from his battalion decided to visit the port town of Jaffa for a bit of fun and recreation. After many beers, they started to enjoy themselves a little too much. Their antics brought the attention of the British Military Police. It is no secret that most Australian soldiers had little respect for the British military hierarchy. A skirmish broke out and the Australians came off second best. This was no surprise as the Military Police were armed with truncheons and they did not hold back on using them. Dad and his mates were thrown in the Jaffa Jail for the night. On return to their camp the next day, all the 18 were charged with various misconduct offences. The platoon became disoriented in the early morning darkness and haze of battle. They were surrounded by Germans. Whilst sheltering in a German trench, Ern put his head up to try to see where they were. He was shot through the left side. A German soldier pulled him to safety saving his life. All the members of the platoon were captured. He was later treated for his injuries in a German field hospital. He was reported missing on 17 May He arrived in September, four months after being wounded and taken prisoner. On arrival in Italy most POWs were in a pitiful state enduring many months with limited supplies on the North African front. Early in , he was moved to Campo 57 at Gruppignano in north-east Italy. The camp was commanded by Colonel Vittorio Calcaterra who was considered a sadist. Conditions at Campo 57 were extremely hash and overcrowded. Ern was at Campo 57 for around 16 months. The trains were so cramped the prisoners spent days and nights standing up with little food and water and no toilet facilities. He was later moved to a sub-camp of the infamous Stalag VB later renumbered to Stalag during November Sub-camp E was located at Dombrova. Here Ern and the other prisoners were forced to work as slave labour in a coal mine. Conditions were harsh and dangerous. Towards the end of , with Germany facing defeat, the prisoners were concerned what would happen to them. During the final months of the Second World War in Europe, allied POWs were being force-marched westward across Poland and Germany in appalling winter conditions, resulting in many deaths. If they were recaptured by the Germans, there was a high probability that they would be executed. After several days with the support of local patriots and after several close calls, they finally achieved their objective. When they finally met up with the Russians, they were taken to a freed POW Camp, where they were identified and after several weeks, passed on for transport to Odessa, Ukraine. They reached Odessa in March The route was via Palestine where they changed ships. He had been away almost four and a half years. He was 27 years old. If that ring could talk what a story it could tell. An Officer offered him a lift which Ern declined. He was greeted at the front door by Maude Harry. Ern rushed inside, ran up the stairs and jumped on the bed of Dorothy, waking her up. Ern would have been in the centre of the room leading everyone in a good old sing along. Later that year Ern married Dorothy. They went on to have three children: Robert, Michael, and Josephine. Ern worked extremely hard for many years, so that he could give his children everything he never had when growing up. He had several war related ailments and eventually received a TPI Pension. There is no doubt that Ern also suffered from what is now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which raised its head from time to time. Ern noticed that a number of his mates who had a similar service record, had an additional medal. It was the Defence Medal awarded for six months service in non-operational areas. Erm felt cheated and challenged the ruling. He was eventually awarded the Defence Medal. Dorothy died on 16 January They had been happily married for 53 years. Ern looked after himself for most of the next 11 years, using the skills he developed when growing up. This was despite his vision becoming severely impaired due to macular degeneration. On several occasions at the Age Care Facility, he was found walking the corridors looking for a way to escape. Music sustained Ern throughout his life, so at his funeral, country singer Billy Bridge sang a few songs. Billy was so moved by one of the eulogies which included the story of the ring, he wrote and recorded a song about it. July Skip to content. Ernest William Kiernan Ern. Ern died peacefully on 13 December ; he was He had lived an incredible life. 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