CHAPTERS
WAVELL STRIKES BACK
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Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off To Hell We Go.....
THE MIDDLE AND FAR EAST - WW2
OPERATION COMPASS For better than a month prior to the impending surprise offensive, Lt.General Wilson and Major General O`connor had the troops practice their parts in the attack. On Dec 6th 25,000 troops, under the pretext of more training were quietly moved forward nearly 40 miles and lay motionless in the desert all the next day. The following day on Dec 8th they moved forward again and that evening the troops were told for the first time it was no training exercise but the real thing. As the attack unfolded on December 9th, 1940, the 4th Indian divison, and the Matilda tank batallion attacked Nibewa at 7:00am while Hurricanes straffed and bombed the Italian positions. Although caught at breakfast they scrambled into action and the Italian Artillery swung their guns on the advancing British but the chaos of surprise enabled the British tanks to quickly put them out of action. Within little more than an hour it fell, General Maletti being among those killed. At 1:30pm the Tummar camps were attacked and by nightfall control over this whole area had been achieved resulting in 2,000 prisoners for the loss of 56 men. The 7th armoured divison reaching the sea that evening, isolated Sidi Barrani cutting off the retreat of the 2nd Libyan division by the coast road to the west. Early on the 10th at first light, the garrison from Mersa Matruh, which included the Coldstream guards assaulted the Italian positions on their front as Brittish ships off the coast thundered with volley after volley in support of the attack. By 10:00pm the Coldstream HQ signalled that there were too many prisoners to count, and humerously reported there were about five acres of officers and 200 acres of other ranks. One division of Graziani`s XXI corps made it back to the frontier but the Catanzaro Division had been almost wiped out. All the while the action on the floor of the desert was taking place, bombers overhead hammered the Ports of Bardia, Derna, Torbruk and Benghazi and Wellingtons "from Malta" struck at Tripoli as well as shipments of fuel and reinforcements comming across the Mediterannean. In the end, the Italians lost 38,000 men as prisoners to the British loss of 624 killed, nearly a third of these from the 16th Brigade alone.
Immediately following this phase the 4th Indian Division was shipped elsewhere and was to be replaced by the 6th Austrailian Division. O`Conner didn`t wait but gave chase to the retreating Italians. Having been slowed on December 4th when the 7th and 4th Armoured Brigades came under heavy air bombardment by SM79s, on December 14th they crossed into Libya routing the Italian 62nd Division from Sidi Omar on the 16th.
Churchill, at home in Downing Street, was estatic by the news being funneled to him hour by hour from the battlefield on the other side of the world and this same day of the 16th he telegraphed Wavell, "We are deeply indebted to you, Wilson, and other commanders, whose fine professional skill and audacious leading have gained us the memorable victory of the Libyan Desert. Your first objective now must be to maul the Italian army and rip them from the African shore...................Pray convey my compliments and congratulations to Longmore on his magnificent handling of the RAF and fine co-operation with the army. I hope most of the new Hurricanes have reached him safely. Tell him we are filling up the Furious again with another even larger packet of flyables from Takoradi. He will also get those that are being carried through in operation 'Excess'. Both these should arrive in early January.
Across the Meditteranean in Rome however, the reaction was quite different. Count Ciano, son in law of Mussolini, records in his diary that: Graziani dwelt upon the daring and design of the enemy rather than counter measures of his own and complained he had been forced into a struggle between a flea and an elephant, he further notes: General Graziani thought about retiring to Tripoli in order to keep the flag flying over that fort at least. To all of this he records Mussolini's reaction to the general on the 15th, "Here is another man with whom I can not get angry, because I despise him."
On Dec 20th the 7th Armoured took Fort Capuzzo (A white brick fort guarding the Libyan border) and Sollum. Swinging north and still pursuing the Italians they approached Bardia where they were joined by the Australian 6th Division who arrived on the 18th of December under Major General Iven Mackay. This would be the first engagement of the Australians in WW2 and they were spoiling for a fight.
BARDIA was strongly protected by two lines of fortifications consisting of an anti-tank ditch along the entire 17 mile outside perimeter followed by wire obstacles, block houses and other fortifications. Inside of this was 45,000 Italian troops consisting of four divisions of the 21st corps, a brigade of M13 tanks and over 400 guns. To soften the impending British attack by the ground forces, the RAF, undoubtedly taking great delight at joining the Italians in ringing in the New Year with a bang, prepared for their role in the attack. On the night of January 1st 1941 the Wellingtons, Bombays and Fleet Air Arm swordfish lifted off from their respective landing grounds and banked toward Bardia, by morning over 20,000 lbs of bombs had been dropped on the Italian defences and troop positions. This barrage continued unrelentingly all the next day by Blenheims, making a total of 44 sorties. As the evening of January 2nd approached, the Blenheims retired and again the Wellingtons and Bombays took over and dropped an addittional 30,000 lbs of bombs for a combined total of over 40 tons over an approximately 36 hour period. Simultaneously with this, Blenheims bombed the airfields of Gazala, Derna and Tmimi to keep the Italians on the ground while Hurricanes of 33, 73, and 274 Squadron patroled over the area to fend off those that were able to get airborne. Inside the defences of Bardia the roar of the aircraft, the scream of falling bombs, the relentless explosions night and day with the resulting smoke, flying bits of steel and debris must have been a hell of unimaginable proportions and beyond that of any man to describe.
At dawn on January 3rd the armoured forces in conjunction with the 6th Australian Division 16th and 17th Brigades attacked, moving forward behind a heavy artillery barrage during which the Blenheims bombed enemy troop concentrations while aircraft of 208 Squadron co-operated with the artillery. Engineers led the way with wire cutters and bangalore torpedoes to clear a path threw the Italian wire and after the troops moved through filled in the anti tank ditch behind them. RAAF 3 Squadron with Gladiators flew low offensive patrols to cover the advancing British troops and simultaneously bombers were dispatched to bomb the aerodromes in Cryenaica to keep the enemy on the ground. As the troops advanced through the enemy positions swinging East and Southeast, they were greeted by Italians waving white cloths. By the middle of the day an endless procession of prisoners was streaming back through the British lines including officers in their ornate uniforms with their batmen straggling alongside dragging suitcases. In one amusing incident, five Italian tanks forced the release of 500 of their comrades but as the tanks moved away the Italians quickly re-surrenderd. Numerous incidences are recorded where Italians wandering about the battle area were captured several times. By the 4th of January Mckay sent in the 19th Brigade which had been held in reserve to mop up. Acompanied by tanks and the Northumberland Fusiliers they fanned out into the town all the while British tanks and Italian artillery traded salvos like great battleships on a sea of sand. One ocassion saw a British tank unit charge an Italian fort only to have the Italians open the gate and were greeted by a throng of surrendering men. Mopping up around the town, it wasn't long for the men to find the Italian stores of wine. Meanwhile as Brittish support crews in the rear moved up they were greeted by lorries of cheering and waving Italian prisoners heading the other way. One member of these support crews, Corp Norman Say LAC recalls a hilarious incident when one of these lorries broke down whereby the two Brittish guards hopped another lorry and having no room for their prisoners told the Italians to loose themselves. The Italians, having fixed the lorry, caught up with them at the next stop. They weren't going back to the war! Bardia fell on January 5th 1941 at 1330 hours resulting in the capture of 45,000 men and well over 100 tanks. The number of deaths recorded on both sides varies wildly, suffice it to say they were not light.
Almost simultaneously with the attack on Bardia, O'Connor thinking ahead , and with an eye for ultimately enhancing his own line of supply, dispatched the 7th armoured division to the port at Tobruk. These captured ports would be critical to the success of the venture as supplies to support the advancing front were in excess of an incredible three thousand tons a day. This superhuman task fell to the Royal Navy and the legions of support personnel who are no less heroes of this story than those in the front lines. About this time, and despite Wavell's / O'conners spectacular string of succeses, Churchill intervened again and demanded that Wavell withdraw several divisions and an armoured brigade to Greece. O'Conner however, left his superiors to bicker and kept right on going.
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