Evening star., 1942-06-23
By EDWARD KENNEDY,

1t stunned the British defenders.
Many of them never had a chance
to offer any real resistance what
ever.
Details of the British debacle
which can now be told for the first
time, show that the operation against
Tobruk was one of the swiftest blows
vet delivered in this war of speed
and surprises.
The Germans used parachute
troops profusely but futilely in an
effort to mop up the British and
Illustrate their destruction of their
supplies before they could fall into
Axis hands. Many of the parachut- |
lists, ballooning down from big
Junkers transport planes, were
picked off like clay pigeons as they
hit the ground.
Once having smashed through the
perimeter of the ports outer de-
fenses, Marshal Erwin Rommel's
tanks made straight for the water
front.
Fired on Craft at Once.
Standing at the waters edge, they
put British mine sweepers, trawlers.
tank-carrying barges and smaller
craft under immediate fire.
Then the Germans brought up
heavy guns to add to the barrage.
Some of the ships at the water front
returned the fire. and the battle
ragged between tanks and cannon on
one side and ships on the other.
The Germans had the advantage,
since. as far as is known. there we're
no heavy British vessels such as
cruisers and destroyers in port.
Some of the ships got away,
taking off 200 naval ratings, but
first reports indicate few if any of
the Army personnel escaped.
Gen. Sir Archibald P. Wavell's
army took Tobruk in January, 194l.
capturing 10000 Italians there in a
day and a half. That was consid-
cred a swift and brilliant feat. But
the Germans appear to have beaten |
this record by many hours
Temperature Up TO l20.
Tobruk'S Notifications are such
that once its 30-mile perimeter of
barbed wire mine fields, tank traps
and pill boxes is broken. it does
not take long to reduce the entire
stronghold because the perimeter
defenses can be rolled back from in
side. =
During the last two days of fight
ing around Tobruk a blazing sun
beat down with the temperature up
to 100 degrees.
The enemy sent columns in all
directions, Italian infantry and
artillery. working from the west and
south, shelled the town necessarily.
The main German armor was
concentrated on the east with cease
less Stuka raids on the British by
day and high level bombers by
night.
The sun-bronzed and sweating
young defenders fought stubbornly,
engaging the Axis infantry hand
to-hand even after the enemy tanks
had passed through the five-mile
eastern gap.
British, Indians and South
Africans stuck to their posts, side
by-side in their steel and under
ground defenses until the tanks
had smashed headlong over them
and through the mine fields. Then
the stout hearted defenders emerged
from their wrecked redoubts to
fight with what they could against
the oncoming machine-gunning,
rif1e-firing and grenade tossing foe.
Water Situation Bad.
When the Axis troops came up
from the south to pierce the peri
meter from El Adem road it was
obvious that the end was near.
An earlier bombing of the Tobruk
water tower had made the water
situation precarious.
Throughout the bloody desert
fighting the RAF made sortie after
sortieS. bombing and strafing the
enemy's concentrations and supply
lines
But the Germans and Italians
were able to concentrate nearly all
their air power on one spot-To-
bruk-While the RAF had numerous
other fronts to handle at the same
time.
AS rumbling explosions from the
Tobruk garrison's -scorching
shook the air, scattered parties of
German parachutiSts tumbled out
Of Junkers 50 troop carriers with
the intention of mopping up the
remaining opposition and of disor-
ganizing and frustrating the Allied
attempt to blow up everything
within the fortress.
They didn't succeed and numbers
Of the Nazis were shot dead on
landing by the men of the doomed
stronghold
Pail Of Black Smoke.
| An awesome pail of black smoke
reaching hundreds of feet all but
blacked out Tobruk and the perrin
eter area and gave fiery testimony
to the work of destruction wrought
by the British.
The hard-pressed defenders ap-
piled the torch to huge piles of
stores of supplies, high piles of am
munition and oil dumps and aerial
reconnaissance later showed that
they succeeded in destroying prac-
tically everything before the sur
render.
Some of the defenders continued
to hold out Sunday night in the
numerous canyons around Tobruk.
Because of the difficulty of attack
ing them op the ground, the Ger
mans were using parachute troops
in cleaning up operations.
Hundreds Of Axis troops were
dropped from the moonlit sky at
several points where British and
Indian units fought on.
All Egypt was stunned by the sud-
denness of the Libyan reverses.
British imperial forces were glum