Evening star., 1942-07-21
Defenders of Tobruk Believed
They Had Been Let Down
Were Confident They Could Hold Out,
American Ambulance Driver Soys

This dramatic eyewitness ac-
count OF the British imperial
troops retreat from Tobruk,
Which tell to the Aris forces on
June 20, tuds ,Uritten by member
OF the American field seruice
unit operating in Libya and
Egypt. Mr.. Hyatt's home is in
Terre Haute, Ind.)
BY DAVE HYATT.
WITH THE AMERICAN FIELD
SERVICE IN THE WESTERN DES-
ERT, June 28.-(By Air MaiD
| (NANA.)-No one was more shocked
by the disatser at Tobruk than the
men themselves. Now that the des-
ert stronghold has fallen, we can
tell how it felt to be in the retreat.
For three weeks before the fall
we'd been hauling patients away
from the shell-racked fortress, and
even the wounded were confident.
This time We had the equipment and
men. This time we could not fail
to whip Rommel. And we could
understand their confidence; for
weeks, hauling wounded back from
the front, we'd bucked continuous
stream of guns and tanks and am
munition trucks heading up forward.
The stream was seemingly end
less, vehicles bumper to bumper for
a hundred solid miles, and that
stream flowed on, day-in, day-out.
Every fighting man In Tobruk was
sure that with the vast number of
American Gen. Grant tanks and big
guns now in the Allies possession,
We would finish Jerry of for good
in the western desert. =
Then Jerry announced his spring
offensive" For two days we were
strafed on the road to Bardia,
bombed in our camp below the
Tobruk escarpment Nights the
harbor was beautiful with deadly
fireworks, the tracers and incendiar-
les of the anti-aircraft posts. the
bombs and parachute flares of the
planes, the binding ribbons of stark
white light from the IL big search
lights.
Hospital Kept Busy.
Orders went out to look out for
parachute troops, and rumor spread
like wildfire that 500 parachute
troops had landed in the harbor and
been annihilated. For time Jerry
shelled the Capuzzo harbor and we
couldn't get through to our camp
For another short space, we were
told that Jerry was within 1,00C
yards of the Tobruk perimeter.
Then we learned from the wound
ed that our side had Jerry trapped
boxed in with mine fields on three
sides and our tanks on the other
BY shrewd strategy our men had
led Jerry out beyond his supplies
and then closed him in. Frantically
Jerry sought and found two narrow
exits out of the mine fields. Wound
ed flyers told of the tons of ammu-
milton they dumped in that small
narrow area, said it was awful the
hundreds of ferries they killed
Machine gunners told of moving
down Jerry kids who had been sent
in green against tanks with rifles
1t was massacre but this time for
once the Allies were doing the mop
ping up.
Then we received word that the
Allied counter offensive was to
start, at 11;30 pm, just three days
after Jerry's own announcement
l can't give the date because we lost
all track of the days of the month
during the battle. According to the
orders, we were going straight
through the German tank columns
wipe them up for good, and ther
on to Derna, to Bengazi. We hearc
by radio from London that tn.
fiercest tank battle in the histor,
OF the world was going on five mile.
from us. We knew something wa!
up. Day and night the sky rumblee
like thunder. We were pushin,
them back! These Grants ar,
beauties" tank men told us. "Th,
deadliest weapon we've had vet
Finally we've got something tina
can lick the Jerry's Mark T."
Our American Field Service worl
went on smoothly. We did our jol
as usual only the work was NOR,
hectic and the hours from dawr
until dusk. We hauled from tn,
front, back beyond danger patient
OF all types, men machine -gunned
wounded by shrapnel, gone bomb
, happy from shell-shock, burned t,
the waist getting out of tanks
Nights and our spare time W.
, worked in the big Tobruk hospital
where seven operating tables KEEP
: busy simultaneously from in tn
r morning till 3 the next morning
= through the heaviest bombing. Afte
t three days we began hauling bacl
= Jerry prisoners beat-up looking kid
who were afraid of us at first. afrai,
S to laugh, some who frankly admitte,
t they hated the war. The type O
!. prisoner encouraged us, too. I
S looked like Hitler had run out O
= beer hall bullies and was robbin
0 the cradle. And air activity die
= down overhead-Tobruk only GO
bombed once or twice a night in
4 stead of barrages every 10 minute
= from nightfall to daybreak,
S Ordered to Move Out.
And then suddenly one midnigh
a few Of us were working on sur
; gical teams at the hospital whel
q We received orders to evacuate. We
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