Tobruk 1941: Rommel's opening move (Campaign, 80)

Jon Latimer picks up in this volume on the Siege of Tobruk where he left off in his previous volume in the Osprey Campaign Series, Operation Compass 1940. Although the style is similar to the first volume, this work is better written and better edited. However, it is important to note that this volume does not cover the entire siege of Tobruk, only the period from Rommel's initial offensive on 24 March to the end of Operate "Battleaxe" on 17 June 1941. Since the siege continued until late November 1941, this period will presumably be covered in another volume on "Operation Crusader". Nevertheless, the story of the siege seems oddly truncated in this account. The section on commanders is far too brief. Rommel is the only Axis commander given serious attention and even the Allied commanders are mostly glossed over. Generalmajor Streich, commander of the 5th Light Division, had a poor relationship with Rommel and this should have been discussed since it contributed to the failure of the first German attack on Tobruk. The section on opposing armies is totally superficial, focusing on a general discussion of anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns, rather than discussing the units involved in the siege. The German 5th Light was a very ad hoc force cobbled together from various bits and pieces in late 1940. More information on the 9th Australian Division should have been provided. Virtually no information on the Italians was provided - Latimer missed a chance here to comment on their recovery, of sorts, from the Beda Fomm disaster. The Order of Battle provided is quite thorough, although there is no list of Axis aircraft available. Latimer should also have made some mention of the reinforcement schedules for both sides. The campaign summary is solid, if unexceptional. Latimer covers all the main points, but a review of his bibliography reveals that he has not dug much past standard secondary sources. There has been a wealth of new information about the Desert War, including a lot of specialized studies on the panzer units of the Afrika Korps, as well as information about Enigma, that have not been incorporated in this volume. Excellent sources, such as the Royal Armored Corps histories and the Tank Museum do not appear to have been utilized. Perhaps in his next volume, Latimer can attempt a bit more research. Finally, there is no attempt at analysis, asking why couldn't Rommel take Tobruk? Obviously inadequate resources played a key factor, but Latimer sheds little light on the question of whether Rommel had any other options.

This release of Tobruk by Osprey is one of their best, is full of detail and data. It has a very nice and direct narrative style. Is quite chunky even for a book of the campaign series, is full of good maps and really good photos. The color paints are very good, the one with the german recon vehicles is one of my favorites of any book by Osprey. Highly recommended.

I was pleased that the book covered how the Australians were pulled out and the 70th Infantry was inserted. The book really covers that time period, not before and not after. I was hoping to get some insight into the fall of Tobruk. All in all, this is a good piece of reference material.

Excellent from beginning to end!

Made a great present.

The table of contents is:Origins of the CampaignChronologyOpposing CommandersOpposing ArmiesThe CampaignAftermathBibliographyIndex Latimer starts with an overview of the Mediterranean front, but focuses on February to June 1941 in Libya: Rommel’s lightning advance across the desert to Tobruk, the initial battles to take Tobruk, and then the siege. Within the siege, the author focuses on the German attempts to get into Tobruk, and the British attempts to relieve the city. Other discussion includes action in the harbor, air to ground combat, patrolling in no-man’s land, and what life was like for the Diggers (Australian troops) in the siege. Unfortunately, there was only a little discussion of tactics. The author was a United Kingdom soldier, and served a tour with the Australian forces. The book is a bit slanted toward the Aussies, but it’s not too bad. The book provides full OOB down to the regiment and battalion level, but without giving strengths. There are several detailed maps, some of them unique to particular operations. Oddly, it is missing a map showing where Sollum and Sidi Barrani are relative to Tobruk, even though these two areas are featured. There is an average of about one photo per page, and Laurier provides four beautiful two-page, full color drawings of troops in action. This is a good book, and in the middle part it was hard to put down. I recommend this book for military history students interested in the North African campaign of WWII.

The book is relatively average when compared to the rest of the osprey collection.I found the narrative rather average when considering the military operations. It lacked a bit of life from my point of view.I quite liked the little anecdots the author provides us with, the portraits of the combattants, the numerous photos showing the ingenuity from each side, etc.The coloured plates are artistically good although they may be in some details historically inaccurate.The various bird eyes views were pretty well drawn and presented.Overall, an average book but still worth a read.

The Osprey series has a clear and excellent approach - crisp analysis, clear analysis and excellent illustrations. They are able to cover in 100+ pages very well what some books fail to do in 500 pages. The campaign series takes this to another level and this one on Tobruk is good. A really good analysis of the campaign, the commanders, the strategy and tactics but also how the whole sequence unfolded. An excellent resource

I liked this book when I first read it however I did notice what seemed to be whole chunks of text lifted directly from the British Official Histories by I.S.O. Playfair that had not been given credit via a footnote on that particular page (the book lacks footnotes on the pages that's not the problem however with such amount of text lifted I would have expected to have seen one to give credit where it is deserved).With that said I still like the book and it is supported by excellent diagrams, paintings and photos in particular I liked the diagram of what a typical defensive point in the Tobruk perimeter looked like.This book is worth a look and does appear to give a good overview of the battle and operations fought to relive the garrison.

Another Great Osprey Book!