The British Dilemma

According to initial estimates, the German forces captured enough supplies at Tobruk Port to sustain 30,000 men for an entire quarter, along with 10,000 tons of fuel.

The haul was so vast and tempting that when Rommel received the report, he could hardly believe it.

"Are you sure about this, Colonel?" Rommel asked in a telegram. "Why didn't those foolish British destroy it instead of leaving it for us?"

"I don't know, General!" Colonel Schleyn replied. "I'm curious about that too. I even asked a few prisoners, and they said they weren't the soldiers in charge of guarding the warehouses and hadn't received any orders to destroy them, so they didn't think it was their responsibility!"

"Incredible!" Rommel responded.

After a brief pause, Rommel continued, "You must hold onto Tobruk, understand? Only then will those supplies truly belong to us!"

"Understood, General!" Colonel Schleyn replied. After a moment's thought, he added, "General, but we are severely undermanned. The defensive line is 30 miles long, and we only have one infantry regiment that has suffered heavy losses!"

"I'll do my best to hold off the British main force!" Rommel said. "In the meantime, I'll send reinforcements immediately. They should arrive within a day. Until then, you must hold Tobruk at all costs!"

"Yes, General!" Colonel Schleyn felt somewhat reassured by these words.

Indeed, the First Infantry Regiment was understrength, but it had one significant advantage: an almost endless supply of ammunition. And so far, the British had not reached Tobruk... Holding out for one day until reinforcements arrived shouldn't be too difficult.

Colonel Schleyn's assessment was accurate because the British forces were currently in a state of utter confusion.

First, the disappearance of two key British commanders, General Neame and General O'Connor... The British were unaware that they had been captured by the Germans. They thought the two generals might have gotten lost in the desert or that their radios had malfunctioned, so they hadn't appointed new commanders, leaving Lieutenant General Greenhill of the 13th Corps in temporary command.

When Lieutenant General Greenhill heard that Tobruk had fallen, he was stunned.

"Damn it all to hell!" After a long pause, Lieutenant General Greenhill finally cursed, "There were only about a thousand Germans, and they had no artillery or tanks. I want to know how they broke through our defenses at Tobruk, defended by five thousand men with air support!"

"General!" an aide responded, "The problem might lie with our air force..."

"What are you saying?" Lieutenant General Greenhill asked in disbelief.

"We received a telegram from the Tobruk garrison..." the aide explained. "They complained that the air force dropped bombs on their own positions, directly leading to the German breakthrough of their defensive line!"

Lieutenant General Greenhill's face turned red with anger, but his British sense of gentlemanly composure forced him to control himself. He finally gritted his teeth and spat out a few words: "Very well... The air force has been a great help. I'll be sure to discuss this with them in court!"

"General!" the aide said, "I've already contacted the air force. Based on the information they have... it was likely not a simple mistake, but rather a result of German deception. In other words... they were actually tricked by the Germans, and we can't court-martial them for that!"

"Deception?" Lieutenant General Greenhill found this hard to believe. "What kind of deception could make the air force drop bombs on our own troops? That sounds more like an excuse!"

"General!" the aide handed Lieutenant General Greenhill a document and said, "The air force's 'Mosquito' reconnaissance planes captured the entire sequence. The Germans drove vehicles into our defensive lines, and just as the bombers flew overhead, the pilots naturally assumed that was the enemy position, so..."

Lieutenant General Greenhill was at a loss for words. He couldn't imagine such a thing happening on the battlefield...

But it seemed this wasn't so surprising after all, considering how this battle had repeatedly defied expectations:

The Germans were supposed to be wiped out at Tengefer, but they won a brilliant victory there instead. The Germans were supposed to stay put at Tengefer, but the British found the place deserted when they attacked the next morning. The Germans' attack on Tobruk should have been suicidal, yet they easily captured the crucial port and seized all the supplies that were meant for the British.

The British were not fond of this uncertainty. To them, this wasn't war—it was a gamble!

"Where is the 15th Armored Division?" Lieutenant General Greenhill asked angrily.

The aide found a position on the map and replied, "They've just passed through Lucadai, still 70 kilometers from Tobruk!"

"God, they're still 70 kilometers away!" Lieutenant General Greenhill cursed in frustration, "Ask General Evans if they're marching with their backsides!"

"Yes, General!" the aide replied. "I'll make sure they reach Tobruk and launch an attack as soon as possible!"

But it wasn't the 15th Armored Division's fault. After all, they were equipped with "Matilda" and "Valentine" infantry tanks... These tanks had a top speed of only 24 kilometers per hour on roads, and that was under ideal conditions. In the desert's high temperatures, no one dared push them beyond 10 kilometers per hour, as that would soon cause these heavy machines to overheat and break down.

To make matters worse, the Germans had also planted mines and traps on the roads.

Mines were relatively easy to deal with—British scouts could use mine detectors to locate them—but the traps were much harder to detect.

The reason was that digging a tank trap in the desert was incredibly easy... The Germans would dig a hole in the middle of the road, fill it with loose sand, then cover it with sand that matched the rest of the road's surface, making it look identical to the surrounding terrain. They'd even pack it down with a vehicle so that people and cars could pass over it without any issue, but a 26-ton "Matilda" tank would sink into it and become stuck.

This forced the tank crews of the 15th Armored Division to repeatedly use other tanks to pull the trapped ones out of the holes... But soon they realized this wasn't a good solution, as more tanks would break down during the towing process.

In simple terms, rescuing one tank could result in the breakdown of two.

What made this even more frustrating was that they had to keep dragging these "clumsy beasts" forward, or they wouldn't know how to attack the defensive line when they finally reached Tobruk.