Tobruk
Subtitle: The Great Siege Reassessed
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Brockhampton Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9781860199868
Subjects: Battles & campaigns; British & Irish history: Second World War; European history: Second World War; Europe; North Africa
Description: Tobruk, the longest siege in British military history, and a word that conjeres up all the dramas and tribulations of war in the Western Desert. This new study of the action is a rare book —an analytical reassessment by a veteran of the campaign. Frank Harrison ably who was there with themore dispassionate evaluation of a writer who wants to present the whole picture.

The volume has htree principal sections: the siege, in which the Australian 9th Division held out so manfully against Rommel's Afrika Korps; the breakout, where the British 70th Division broke clear of the fortress to create a corridor towards an intended rendezvous with the Eighth Army; and an important appraisal of the main opponent the Allied faced —the Deser Fox, Erwin Rommel.

The understated role of the British division, the awesome battles they faced in opening and maintaining the corridor and the support to the action provided by the Royal Navy and RAF is clearly demosntrated and fully described. The author brigs a veteran's knowledge to his account of the bloody conflict —to redress the unbalanced account that the official histories and sundry studies have provided. Furhermore, the fresh look at Rommel —who suffered his first defeat at Tobruk— helps the reader decide whether this famed commander was a master strategist, an opportunist and expliter of errors, or a self-prometer and stimulator of the myth that surrounded him.

As examinations of World War Two events pass from nostalgia to pure history, this important volume will not only stand as testimony to brave Allied defence but will add significantly to existing literature on its subject.
Notes: Includes bibliography (pp. 342-344) and index
Table of contents: title: List of maps
pagenum: 6; title: Acknowledgements
pagenum: 7; title: Introduction
pagenum: 9; title: Part one: Siege. The story of Australian 9th Division
pagenum: 13; title: Part two: Break-out. The story of British 70th Division
pagenum: 155; title: Part three: Rommel in 1941. An appraisal
pagenum: 299; title: Epilogue
pagenum: 321; title: Notes
pagenum: 331; title: Bibliography
pagenum: 342; title: Index
pagenum: 345