Liz and Frank: The Rats of Tobruk

Last weekend was the 70th Memorial of the start of the siege between Rommel and the Aussie Diggers (the Germans named them the "Rats of Tobruk".

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Some titbits I picked up from a couple of articles. "Adolf Hitler had prepared for war by socially engineering his followers into the "perfect" fighting machines. Identifying with authority, they obeyed rather than thought. They were aggressive, strong, without empathy and at outbreak of World War 2, they crushed all who dared stand in their way.

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But in northern Africa the Germans confronted a very different breed of soldier. They confronted soldiers without respect for authority or for domineering powers. These soldiers were volunteers without dreams of glory but who instead believed that some things were worth fighting for. These soldiers were from Australia and at Tobruk, they gave Hitler his first taste of defeat."

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In January 1941 the Australians attacked the Italian garrison of Tobruk. This city was of extremely important strategic value as it was one of only two ports between Tripoli and Alexandria. The efforts of the forces during the siege of 240 days ensured the Libyan port did not fall into German and Italian hands, significantly hampering enemy supply lines to North Africa.

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On 11th April, 1941 German General Erwin Rommel launched major offences on Tobruk with his "blitzkrieg" approach, this had proved unstoppable before, but not with the Aussie Diggers at Tobruk - this was "blitzkrieg's first failure.

These Australians built and used the existing tunnels, gaining a lot of propoganda from the Germans - they called them Rats for being underground (like thieves of the night) the longer the odds Lord Haw Haw offered against the Aussie Diggers chances of getting out, the more heavily the digger backed himself.