The Importance Of The Siege Of Tobruk

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World War II sent humanity into another global and political struggle, resulting in the largest war death toll in history. 1941 saw the constant rise of the supremacy of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi troops in both Europe and North Africa. Prior to the Siege of Tobruk, Germany had “began its own offensive into Cyrenaica,” and “attacked Greece and Yugoslavia, seizing them by the end of the month,” (Battistelli P.P. 2012). “Rommel’s troops were poised to capture all of Libya and press on to Egypt,” (Murray J.J. 2011) yet the collective Allied resistance, consisting mostly of Australian troops, was successful in the defence of the strategical port of Tobruk. The Siege of Tobruk displayed both the overconfidence of German troops and character of Australia’s ANZAC qualities, which combined with the strategical importance of the Libyan town of …show more content…
Nazi Germany, through Hitler’s blitzkrieg tactics, had swept through most of Central Europe and Libya prior to the battle. Their ever-increasing confidence led to their demise in the Siege of Tobruk through basic, errors and judgements. As part of the foreword to John Joseph Murray’s “I Confess: A Memoir of the Siege of Tobruk”, excerpts of thoughts and opinions from war correspondent Chester Wilmot criticises the tactics of Axis commander Erwin Rommel by commenting that, “individually these raids were not of great military importance… he was compelled to waste time, men and material,” (Murray J.J. 2011). Wilmot’s remark critiques the demonstration of poor tactical skill from Rommel, and his analysis is a reflection of their

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