![]() ![]() ![]() Rommel was surprised by this aggressive attack in his rear and was forced to retreat westwards to Gazala and try to rebuild his forces. But it wasn’t until Operation Crusader, carried out by the 8 th Army in November 1941, that the siege was finally ended and the ‘Rats of Tobruk’ were freed.Īs part of the plan the 70th Infantry Division broke out from Tobruk and disrupted German supply lines. Later, new units were rotated into the garrison to replace worn-out and exhausted troops. Relief operations were launched, the Royal Air Force flew defensive sorties from Egyptian bases and at night the Royal Navy carried in reinforcements and extracted the injured. Although low on supplies and equipment, they defiantly flew the Union Flag over Tobruk despite the German commander Erwin Rommel’s best efforts to take the port and shorten his own stretched supply lines.
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