He immediate set forth an aggressive plan, starting his offensive on 24 Mar 1941, capturing El Agheila on the first day. Many of these ships were lost – Fiona and Chakla  were sunk in April, the Vita was lost to heavy air raids in Tobruk harbour, HMS Ladybird was lost on 12 May. The Axis advance was halted at the First Battle of Alamein in July 1942. [24] The next morning, 18 June, Rommel was able to report to Berlin that Tobruk had been surrounded and was under siege. [4] Tobruk was captured by Australian forces in January 1941 during Operation Compass, the first large Allied military operation of the Western Desert Campaign. [30] Although many non-essential troops had been evacuated, there remained a number of administrative units under the command of a brigadier. Even $1 per month will go a long way! On the night of 2-3 May Morshead counterattacked on both sides of the salient, hoping to pinch it out. [29] Each infantry battalion had to defend a frontage of about 35 mi (56 km) on average and each anti-tank gun would have had to defend a frontage of 750 yd (690 m) if they had been spread evenly across the perimeter. into Egypt. Italian Tenth Army out of Egypt, and to finally score a major victory Von Prittwitz himself was killed when his car was hit by an anti-tank shell. The only British air raid that morning was called in by the forward air control "tentacle" to bomb Axis vehicles moving through the south-east breach and was carried out by nine Douglas Bostons escorted by long-range Kittyhawk fighters. Axis artillery bombarded Allied defensive positions at Tobruk, Libya at 1700 hours, and 30 minutes later German 5th Light Division, Italian Ariete Division, and Italian Trento Division commenced an attack. the last Axis troops were driven out of Libya. in the longest siege in Allied military history. On 16 April Rommel organised another Italian attack, this time at Ras el Madauur. [79], In the afternoon of 21 June, the day of the surrender, Kesselring visited Rommel's headquarters and reminded him of the agreement that the invasion of Malta would follow the capture of Tobruk and that his aircraft were already returning to Italy. Morshead also began the siege with four regiments of 25-pounder field guns (1st, 104th (Essex Yeomanry) and 107th (South Nottingham Hussars) Regiments Royal Horse Artillery and 51st Field Regiment Royal Artillery),  and a number of light and heavy anti-aircraft guns (two regiments of 3.7in guns, three regiments of 40mm Bofors guns, and some captured Italian 102mm guns), the Indian 18th Cavalry, Vickers machine guns of the 1st Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, two regiments of anti-tank guns (3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery and 2/3rd Australian Anti-Tank Regiment).

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