Tobruk

Tobruk or Tubruq (Arabic: طبرق; also transliterated as Tóbruch, Tobruch, Ţubruq, Tobruck ) is a town, seaport, municipality, and peninsula in northeastern Libya, near the border with Egypt, in Northern Africa. The town of Tobruk has a population of 110,000 (2006), ^[1] and it is the capital of Tubruq Municipality. Tobruk was the site of a colony of ancient Greeks, and, later, Tobruk held a Roman fortress for guarding the frontier of Cyrenaica.^[1] Over the centuries, Tobruk also served as a way station along the coastal caravan route.^[1] By 1911, Tobruk became an Italian military post, but during World War II, in 1941, British forces took Tobruk and prolonged fighting with Nazi Germany followed.^[1] Rebuilt after WWII, Tobruk was later expanded during the 1960s to have a port terminal linked by an oil pipeline to the Sarir oil field.^[1]

Geography

Tobruk has a strong, natural, protected deep harbor. It is probably the best natural port in northern Africa, although due to the lack of important nearby land sites it is certainly not the most populous: the city is effectively surrounded by a desert lightly populated with nomadic herdsmen that travel from oasis to oasis. There are many escarpments (cliffs) to the south of Tobruk (and indeed in all of Cyrenecia, the eastern half of Libya). These escarpments generally have their high sides to the south and their low sides to the north. This constitutes a substantial physical barrier between the north and south of Libya in the Tobruk area.

History

An ancient Greek agricultural colony, Antipyrgos (Antipyrgus) was once on the site of modern Tobruk,^[1] and the ancient name is still occasionally in use. The name roughly meant 'across from Pyrgos', referring to a location in Crete across the Mediterranean Sea from Antipyrgos. In the Roman era, the town became a Roman fortress guarding the Cyrenaican frontier. Later the site became a way station on the caravan route that ran along the coast.

Strategic importance in World War II

At the beginning of World War II, Libya was an Italian colony and Tobruk became the site of important battles. Tobruk was strategically important to the conquest of Eastern Libya, then the province of Cyrenecia, for several reasons.

Tobruk had a deep, natural, and protected harbor, which meant that even if the port was bombed, ships would still be able to anchor there and be safe from squalls, so the port could never be rendered wholly useless regardless of military bombardment. This was of critical importance, as it made Tobruk an excellent place to supply a desert warfare campaign. It was also heavily fortified by the Italians prior to their invasion of Egypt in November of 1940. In addition to these prepared fortifications there were a number of escarpments and cliffs to the south of Tobruk providing substantial physical barriers to any advance on the port. Tobruk was also on a peninsula, allowing it to be defended by a minimal number of troops, which the British used to their advantage when the port was under siege. An attacker could not simply bypass the defenders for if they did the besieged would sally forth and cut off the nearby supply lines of the attacker, spoiling their advance.

But Tobruk was also strategically significant due to its location with regards to the remainder of Cyrenecia. Attackers from the east that had secured Tobruk could then advance through the desert to Benghazi, cutting off all enemy troops along the coast, such as those at Derna. This advance would be protected from counterattack due to escarpments that were quite difficult for a military force to pass through, running generally from Tobruk to Soluch. Due to the importance of maintaining supply in the desert, getting cut off in this area was disastrous, therefore whoever held both Soluch and Tobruk controlled the majority of Cyrenecia.

Finally, fifteen miles south of the port was the largest airfield in Eastern Libya. This was significant due to the importance of air power in desert warfare.

Although not as much a reason for its strategic significance, the British Commonwealth built a rail line from El Alamein to Tobruk during the course of the war. This rail line is significant both for purposes of supply but also as a sense of pride to the British troops, as the rail line was built through a little-populated, inhospitable desert.

Italian forces (and their native Libyan allies - about two divisions of the latter) invaded Egypt in November of 1940 and sat just across the border in neatly organized camps along the Mediterranean. The British Commonwealth, based around the 7th Armored Division, a British and an Indian Infantry Division, launched a counterstrike codenamed Operation Compass in early December. The Italians had previously invaded Greece and France, both Commonwealth allies, and had now made a military incursion into a British protectorate. The counterstrike involved the British pocketing two of the Italian camps against the Mediterranean, forcing their surrender. This led to a general Italian withdrawal and a British Commonwealth advance. Tobruk was captured by British, Australian and Polish forces on January 22, 1941.

Italy called on her ally Germany which sent its 15th and 21 Panzer Divisions and 90th Light Division. Italy also supplemented its forces in Italy with the Ariete and Trieste Armored Divisions. These forces, under Generalleutnant (later Field Marshal) Erwin Rommel drove the British back across Cyrenecia to Tobruk, laying siege to it until June 21, 1942 when Allied forces surrendered there after a failed attempt to relieve the fortress. After the Germans overextended themselves at the First Battle of El Alamein and then were defeated at the Second Battle of El Alamein by the British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Tobruk was recaptured on November 11, and remained in Allied hands thereafter.

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