Tobruk Defences

[Dunc]

Hi all,
I am trying to find out information on the physical defences at Tobruk that the 9th Australian Div then occupied/used in 1941. When were they constructed? by who? Italian Engineers? What influenced their design? Did they have any design principles, such as, posts were about 500yards apart so that rifle and machine gun fire from one post could support another post.

Any diagrams or descriptions would be useful, most valuable would be diagrams of the posts. I am assuming that not every post was designed the same? The Australian Official History and the Australian War memorial has some stuff.

 

[Andreas]

There is an overview map in this entry on my blog:

First Attempts on Tobruk – April 1941

Background 14 April 1941 marked the nadir of the history of M.G.Batl.8 or short ‘MG8’[1] in North Africa, when it lost its commanding officer, Lt.Col. Ponath, and several hundred men during a faile…

rommelsriposte.com

There is detail on the fortifications in this entry:

Tobruk Fortifications

Background In preparation for the attack on Tobruk, Division z.b.V. Africa issued a number of detailed drawings of the Tobruk fortifications to the assault troops, to help them in overcoming these.…

rommelsriposte.com

You can see some contemporary photos here:

Topography is fate – Matthew Arnold

With a tip of the hat to @TwentySidedCat on Twitter, this looks like a must have book. 20 pictures are online to preview, and I highly recommend having a look! Click on the picture below. Photograp…

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There are a number of fortifications visible on Google Maps.

As you can see in the attached picture, they were not evenly distributed, but responded to the topographical situation of the defensive line.

All the best

Andreas

 

[Dunc]

Great, thanks very much. Any idea if all the posts were the same? Also when they would have been constructed? And by whom or unit?

 

[Andreas]

My understanding is that the posts were of a standard design, and that they were constructed in the late 30s, when the strategic orientation of Italy changed towards considering the UK as a potential adversary. That's all I know about it.

All the best

Andreas

 

[jwsleser]

I was hoping others might have better information. The description of the defenses in the Australian official history Tobruk and El Alamein by Maughan (pp.130-131) is pretty complete. Andreas' information is excellent.

There is a little bit more in La prima offensiva britannica in Africa settentrionale pp.169-170. The defense was organized into 16 strongpoints, with each strongpoint consisting of 6-12 posts. Each strongpoint was designed for independent defensive and not overlapping fire of other strongpoints, that was provided by the siting of the individual posts and the artillery deployment area. It was basically a linear defense with depth achieved within each strongpoint by the posts. It was not like the Maginot Line were each strongpoint (ouvrage) was designed to cover the two flanking ouvrages, but the small size of the fortress and the generally open ground made this unnecessary. Not all the posts were identical, but used the same design principals. Only forty of the first row of posts had positions for an anti-tank gun (two MG positions, one AT position). The others were MG only. Some utilized natural caverns (~20) when available.

The design and layout of the posts were done by Italians engineers. The actual work was done by engineer units that were heavily supplemented by local labor. There was nothing new in the design, the Italian engineers did an excellent job in adapting the defensive techniques to the terrain.

Pista! Jeff