Sidi Barrani, Bardia, Sollum, Sidi Rezegh, Mersa Matruh, Bir Hacheim, El Agheila, Beda Fomm, Sidi Omar, Benghazi … The names of many remote North African villages were written into history in 1941-1942 as British and Axis armies battled back and forth across the scrubby desert wastelands of northern Egypt and Libya. Yet another name became legendary in World War II as a symbol of heroic and determined resistance: Tobruk.
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After routing dispirited Italian forces in Libya during the campaign to protect the vital Suez Canal and other imperial interests, in the spring of 1941 the British Army found itself up against far tougher opposition: Lt. Gen. Erwin Rommel and his newly formed Deutsches Afrika Korps. The aggressive, headstrong Rommel had arrived in Tripoli that February and was eager to get at the British. n His orders were to recapture Cyrenaica, the eastern region of Libya, and its chief town, Benghazi, which had been seized from the Italians by Lt. Gen. Richard O'Connor on January 22, 1941. The bold, resourceful German leader who would come to be known as the “Desert Fox” had been ordered by Berlin not to start an offensive until his forces were up to strength. Nevertheless, he decided to seize the initiative with a surprise attack on the over extended British and Commonwealth forces.
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