page_title: Siege of Giarabub
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Giarabub / Battle
caption_attribution_description: English: Italian troop convoy on its way to relieve the Siege of Giarabub
context_page_description: The Siege of Giarabub in Libya, was an engagement between Commonwealth and Italian forces, during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. In the aftermath of Operazione E, the invasion of Egypt by the Italian 10th Army, Operation Compass by the Western Desert Force, the Battle of Sidi Barrani and the pursuit of the 10th Army into Cyrenaica the fortified Italian position at the Al Jaghbub Oasis was besieged by parts of the 6th Australian Division.
  The 6th Australian Divisional Cavalry Regiment began the siege in December 1940 and isolated the oasis, leaving the Italian garrison dependent on the Regia Aeronautica. Air transport proved insufficient and hunger prompted many of the locally recruited troops to desert. After being reinforced by the 2/9th Australian Battalion and a battery of the 4th Royal Horse Artillery, the Australians attacked Giarabub on 17 March 1941 and the Italian garrison surrendered on 21 March.
context_section_description: Before zero hour, the lead companies assembled amidst another sandstorm. A Company advanced to within 50 m (55 yd) of the wire and was then bombarded by the British gunners who had underestimated the swirling wind and dropped short. The bombardment cut the line from the forward observer and the battery, which delayed an adjustment of range (shells also dropped short onto Ship Hill, causing one casualty). Twelve men of A Company were killed and twenty wounded; the survivors re-organised and began to move forward. A Platoon had avoided the worst of the bombardment but lost contact with the rest of A Company and continued the attack. C Company found that the wire had been cut and advanced to the first objective. The Italians appeared too stunned from the bombardment to offer much resistance and the Australians quickly reached the first line of knolls.
  The Australians used many hand-grenades clearing dugouts and soon ran out. Some of the Australians had apparently been ordered to take no prisoners and were reluctant to advance, when it became clear that few Italians intended not to fight on. The Australians were ordered to encourage the Italians to surrender and by 7:26 a.m., the 2/9th Battalion had occupied the first four knolls. Due to the short shooting on A Company, a platoon of D Company, the battalion reserve, was sent forward to assist in the assault. The Italian defenders rallied, a mountain gun on the last knoll and Italian positions around the fort and plantation area opened fire and an attempt by an Australian platoon, to cross the flats into the town was repulsed. Fire of the mortars and machine-guns on Ship Hill and from a machine-gun detachment with A Company, covered the Australians as they captured the fifth knoll, just after 9:00 a.m.
  Prisoners said that the garrison had not eaten for two days or nights. B Company on the left flank had advanced and re-gained contact with battalion HQ at 10:00 a.m. In the north, the cavalry diversion down Pipsqueak Valley to the airfield began at 6:15 a.m., an hour after the attack on the southern redoubt had commenced. B and C Squadrons advanced to occupy high ground on either side of the valley, with little Italian resistance except at the Egbert feature, which was bombarded and overrun. By 9:00 a.m. the cavalry were on the first objective, an east–west line through Egbert. D Company advanced through the cultivated area north-east of the redoubt into the town but a minefield, spotted earlier by an RAF Lysander crew, took a long time to clear. At 11:25 a.m., the 2/9th Battalion advanced into the town and found the mosque intact. By midday the Australians had entered the fort and ended the siege. After just two days the Australians withdrew from Giarabub, because of the Italo-German advance on El Agheila.
caption: An Italian troop convoy on its way to relieve the Siege of Giarabub.
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