Tobruk

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For other uses, see Tobruk (disambiguation).

Tobruk or Tubruq (Arabic: طبرق; also transliterated as Tóbruch, Tobruch, Ţubruq, Tobruck ) is a town, seaport, municipality, and peninsula in eastern Libya in Northern Africa. This article is about the town and port of Tobruk.

1 Geography
2 History
- 2.1 Strategic importance in World War II
3 References
4 External links

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Geography

Image:Tobruk Night View.jpg Tobruk has a strong, natural, protected deep harbor. It is probably the best natural port in North 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 herdsman 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.

To the south of Tobruk is the largest airfield in Eastern Libya. This, along with the harbor, some interesting nearby terrain features and a new rail line made Tobruk a location of strategically substantial significance during World War II. A rail line passes through to the south of the city that connects Torbuk to the east via Matruh and on into Egypt. To the West the railline takes a coastal route through Derna and down to Benghazi. The line from El Alamein to Tobruk was built by the British Commonwealth during World War II.

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History

An ancient Greek agricultural colony, Antipyrgos (Antipyrgus) was once on the site of modern Tobruk, 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.

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Strategic importance in World War II

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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. It had a strong, natural, protected deep harbor. That meant that even if the port was bombed ships would still be able to anchor there and be protected from squalls, so the port could never be rendered wholly useless regardless of military bombardment. This was substantially important due to the importance of supplies in a desert warfare campaign.

Tobruk was also strategically important due to the fact that it was 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. All of this made Tobruk easily defendable to a small number of troops, which the British used to their advantage when the port was under siege. An attacker, however, could not simply bypass the defenders for if they did the ensieged 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 may then be able to advance through the desert to Benghazi, cutting off all enemy troops along the coast, such as at Derna. This advance would be protected from counterattack due to enscarpments that were quite difficult to pass through on a military scale, running generally from Tobruk to Soluch. Due to the importance of supply in the desert, getting cut off in this area amounted to rendering such cut off troops ineffectual. Therefore whoever held both Soluch and Tobruk controlled the majority of Cyrenecia.

Tobruk was finally strategically significant because about 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 as the Gulf War might attest to.

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

Italian forces (and their native Libyan allies - about two divisions worth of the latter) invaded Egypt in November of 1940 but only 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. This attack was seen as justifiable by the Allies as the Italians had previously invaded Greece and France, both Commonwealth allies, and now had placed military forces on the soil of a British protectorate. This 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. As Tobruk is a mere 75 miles from the Egyptian border it inevitably fell. Tobruk was captured by British and Australian forces on January 12, 1941.

Italy called on her ally Germany which sent its 15th and 21 Panzer Divisions and 51st 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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