Longest Siege: Tobruk: the Battle That Saved North Africa

325 Pages·2010·3.66 MB·English

by  Robert Lyman

ROBERT LYMAN
THE LONGEST SIEGE
TOBRUK – THE BATTLE THAT SAVED NORTH AFRICA
PAN BOOKS
Robert Lyman was for twenty years an officer in the British Army. Educated at
Scotch College, Melbourne and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, he has
degrees from the Universities of York, Wales, London and Cranfield.
For Philip and Isla Brownless
Also by Robert Lyman
Slim, Master of War: Burma and the Birth of Modern Warfare
Iraq 1941: The Battles for Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad
First Victory: Britain's Forgotten Struggle in the Middle East
The Generals: From Defeat to Victory, Leadership in Asia 1941–1945
Acknowledgements
This book is dedicated to the Reverend Philip Brownless, a veteran of the siege
and whose original idea this book was, and his indefatigable wife, Isla, whose
extraordinary capacity for editing has been a serious loss to the publishing
industry.
I wish to thank the many people who made this book possible. In no particular
order they include Ben Brownless (Philip and Isla's son), who accompanied me
to Tobruk; Lieutenant General A.D. Leakey CMG CBE; Mr Roderick Suddaby
and the staff at the Imperial War Museum Department of Documents; the staff of
the Liddell Hart Archives at my alma mater, King's College, London; the staff at
the British Library and the National Archives, Kew; Major George Burns;
Colonel Andrew Duncan; veterans Major R.G. Holmes MM, Peter (and Mrs)
Cochrane, Frank Harrison, Alex Franks, Tom Swallow, Jack (and Mrs) Senior,
Peter Bindloss and Alec Clarke; authors Colin Smith and Ian W. Walker; Hilary
Pethick (for translating German texts); and Mrs Caroline Davies (for translating
Italian texts).
In the United States I was assisted by veterans the Reverend Christopher
Morley and Zbigniew Wolynski, and Mr Peter Guinta; in New Zealand by Alan
Gray and Martyn Thompson. In Libya I wish to thank Mr Sami el-Gibany and
his son Muhammad, who eased my way around the battlefield, as did Mr
Abdelghader Awad Imzainy in Tobruk and the local historian Mr Fadeel Altaib,
son of the Tobruk postmaster during the siege; Mr Muhammad Haneesh, keeper
of the war graves in Tobruk and battleield guide; and Professor Dr Fadhl Ali
Muhammad, keeper of antiquities in Cyrenaica. In Germany I am grateful to
Bernd Peitz; Rudolf Schneider, who served with Rommel's personal battle
squadron, and to Klaus and Elke, his son and daughter-in-law respectively, for
their warm hospitality during my visits to Germany; and to veterans Hans
Werner Schmidt, Rolf-Werner Volker and Rolf Munniger.
In Australia I wish to thank my brother Bruce Lyman, Colonel Bob Breen; the
Australian War Memorial, Canberra; the Oral History Collection, National
Library of Australia, Park, Canberra; Eddie Marlowe; the Polish Carpathian
Brigade veterans Marian Jackiewicz and Mietek Drelich; Barry York; Kristen
Alexander and Alexander Staunton of the Military History Society of Australia. I
am particularly grateful for the help received from Major General Gordon
Maitland AO OBE RFD ED (RL), who set me right on more than one issue and
was a supportive though challenging correspondent.

I wish to acknowledge the following authors and publishers for permission to
quote from their works: Peter Cochrane for Charlie Company; Constable and
Robinson Ltd for Take These Men by Cyril Joly and With Rommel in the Desert
by Heinz Schmidt; Christopher Somerville for Our War: How the British
Commonwealth Fought the Second World War; Martyn Thompson for Our War:
The Grim Digs. New Zealand Soldiers in North Africa, 1940–43; Frank Harrison
for Tobruk; Don West for Warriors in the Know; Colin Smith for War without
Hate; Lieutenant General David Leakey for Leakey's Luck by his father, Major
General Rea Leakey; Paul Carell for The Foxes of the Desert (Die Wüstenfüchse,
Hamburg, 1961); Alex Franks for his delightful conversations and his
unpublished memoir Non Combatant; Angus and Robertson (Sydney) for
permission to quote from Chester Wilmot's Tobruk, 1941 and John Devine's The
Rats of Tobruk; Susan Travers Tomorrow Be Brave; Ian W. Walker for Iron
Hulls, Iron Hearts; Weidenfeld and Nicholson for Robin Neillands The Desert
Rats; David Irving for The Trail of the Fox; HarperCollins for Basil Liddell
Hart's The Rommel Papers; William Heinemann for the Countess of Ranfurly for
To War With Whitaker; Frank Harrison for Tobruk: The Birth of a Legend; and
Cassel and Company for Alan Moorehead's African Trilogy.
To the Imperial War Museum, London, and individual copyright holders I am
grateful for the use of the following material: W.A. Lewis (88/60/ 1); R.L.
Braithwaite (87/6/1); L.A. Passfield (87/29/1); B.R. Thomas (90/26/1); E.G.
Porter (82/32/1); A.C. Collins (92/1/1); H. Atkins (92/28/1); B.R. Cowles
(93/6/1); R.K. Ellis (PP/MCR/388); A.O.C. McGinlay (93/11/1); A. St Clair-
Ford (PP/MCR/365); S.D.H.D. Wallis (91/8/1); F.D. Franks (PP/MCR/351); W.J.
Green (91/16/1); S.C. Hankinson (91/16/1); J.A.J. Dennis (95/5/1); L.E. Tutt
(85/35/1); D. Prosser (Con Shelf); R.B.T. Daniell (67/429/1–2); C.F. Shaw
(67/261/1); R.A. Grimsey (78/52/1); C.M.S. Gardner (99/23/1); J.H. Parker-
Jones (01/10/1); J.E.G. Quinn (P247); J.W. Kelly (P469); J.S. Parish (04/31/1);
P.J. Hurman (99/85/1); H. Wiles (06/99/1); P. Cleere (67/279/1); Lamb (86/11/1);
Pleydell (90/25/1); Owen (95/2/1); T. Stephanides; and H.L. Sykes.
To the BBC and individual copyright holders for use of the People's War
archive, 2004–6: Tom Barker (ID A1904258); Walter Drysdale (ID A4441231);
Preston John Hurman (ID A2057032); Reginald Copper (ID A4513268); David
Boe (ID A3894771); Bill Harvey (ID A4569096); Bob Borthwick (ID
A4544101); Alan Jones (ID A4544011); Richard Hill (IDA2051236); and
Graeme Sorley(ID A2270549).
To the Australian War Memorial, Canberra and individual copyright holders,
for material from the following records: PRO 0603 (16 Infantry Brigade Papers);
MSS 1658 (Richard Stanton); PR91/190 (20 Infantry Brigade); PRO 0213
(Neville Parramore); MSS 1545 (D Company, 2/13th Battalion); PRO0667 (John
Johnson); MSS 0868 (Frank Rolleston); PRO 0339 (Michael Kelly); PR85/250
(Francis Gorman); PR88/125 (Rowland Bourke); PR84/113 (Kevin Thomas);
PR84/163 (Ron Grant); PR83/002 (W Fitzgerald); PR83/138 (David West); PRO
0186 (Andrew Nation); PRO 0303 (H Hennessey); PRO 0434 (W Bradbury);
PRO 0508 (M. Chalmers); PRO 0548 (James Liddiard); PRO 0574 (Unknown
Sailor); PRO 0570 (2/12th Battalion); MSS 1572 (John Haslam); PRO 0656
(Francis Pinwell); MSS 1656 (Philip Hurst); PRO 0809 (Les Perkins); PRO
1328 (Gordon Grainger); PRO 1362 (Norman Ericson); PRO 1770 (James
Eagleton); MSS 1605 (Frank Pervsersi); PRO 0231 (Bayne Geikie); MSS 1587
(Leslie Watkins); MSS 1604 (Gavin Keating); and PRO 2055 (Cecil
Greenwood).

The two men who made this book possible were my indefatigable agent, Charlie
Viney, and my editor at Macmillan, Richard Milner, to whom I am indebted for
their enthusiasm, patience and encouragement.
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Maps
Introduction
1 » MUSSOLINI'S BID FOR THE NILE
2 » WAVELL'S RIPOSTE
3 » THE BENGHAZI HANDICAP
4 » ROMMEL'S FIRST STRIKE
5 » THE SUMMER BATTLES
6 » SIEGE RATS
7 » RELIEF-IN-PLACE
8 » ED DUDA
Epilogue
Appendix: Major Military Units Involved in the Siege of Tobruk, 1941
Select Bibliography
Index
Maps
1. The Western Desert, 1941

2. The lines of advance of General Rommel's columns, April 1941

3. Operations Brevity, Battleaxe and Crusader, 1941

4. Rommel's first attempt to break through, 11 April 1941

5. Rommel breaks into the perimeter but is defeated, 13/14 April

6. Tobruk, dispostions, afternoon of 5 May 1941

7. Progress of the breakout from Tobruk, November 1941