Fall of Tobruk remembered by many The way we were
IT’S poignant to read the personal appeals on military web pages like http://ww2today.com relating to the fall of the strategic port of Tobruk in Libya on June 21, 1942. Descendants living all over the world sketch the service careers of fathers, uncles and grandfathers who were among the 33 000 Allied troops captured by joint German and Italian forces under General Erwin Rommel, and appeal for information about their lives as prisoners of war in Africa, Italy and Germany.
A sad refrain runs through many of the messages: “He never talked about his experiences and died many years ago.” Belatedly, they wish they had asked more.
Two days after the chaotic surrender, the British Daily Mail newspaper attributed the disaster to poor strategy, faulty leadership and a lack of plans. The leaders in question were the British generals Ritchie and Auchinleck of the Eighth Army and the inexperienced South African who had recently assumed command of Tobruk, Major General H B Klopper.
The small, dusty port on the Mediterranean was a symbol of Allied defiance which had withstood a long siege the previous year. Winston Churchill (the British prime minister) was severely shaken by the news and wrote: “This was one of the heaviest blows I can recall. Not only were its military effects grievous, but it affected the reputation of the British armies. Defeat is one thing; disgrace is another.”
Prisoners, including Klopper and about 11 000 South African soldiers (plus some coloured and black non-combatants) were marshalled by churlish Italian troops, who were ill-equipped to feed, clothe, transport and provide medical care to the endless streams of bewildered young men.
Water supplies were erratic, and dehydrated captives were marched hundreds of kilometres across the desert to barbed-wired camps before being shipped to Italy under horrific conditions.
Their suffering was acute and many Allied prisoners blamed Klopper and his countrymen for their predicament, exacerbating existing rivalries and tensions. Meanwhile, the British and South African governments tried to play down the magnitude of the catastrophe in the interests of wartime solidarity. The issue blazed for a time but began to fade once Allied victories started to replace defeats.
The POWs were little better off in Italy, much of which was in the grip of poverty. Many suffered from malnutrition before the arrival of calorie-rich Red Cross parcels packed in Britain, Canada and New Zealand. Improved morale boosted the desire to escape, and numerous fugitives were sheltered by warm-hearted Italian peasant families, who took grave risks in defying their leaders.
Klopper escaped in 1943 and set about retrieving his reputation at home. A post-war inquiry exonerated him and he climbed the ladder under the apartheid government (many of whose supporters had been anti-war), ending his career as head of the Union Defence Force in 1958.