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Those known to have fought in Siege of Tobruk during the Second World War 1939-1945. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
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Want to know more about Siege of Tobruk? There are:16 items tagged Siege of Tobruk available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Sergeant Des Dyson 17th Coast Battery Royal Artilliery Dad was captured in Tobruk and ended up in Campo PG78 from 6th June 1942 until he escaped in Sept. or Oct. of 1943. He was Sgt. Des Dyson, 17th Coast Battery, RA. I am hoping to find out more about my fathers'regiments' movements.
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William Crosbie Black MM, DCM, BEM. Reina Del Pacifico William Black was my grandfather. He was born in Ramelton in Donegal Ireland in 1880.
He was a sailor in the Mercantile Marine. He was mobilised into the Lancashire Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery on 25th of May 1915. He received a hand written duplicate letter requiring to report to the Sefton Barracks in Upper Warwick Street together with a detailed list of personal supplies and clothing to which he would receive a gratuity of £5 on reporting for duty.
He served until 12th January 1919.
He was awarded the Pip, Squeak and Wilfred War Medals, but also awarded the DCM and Military Medal. There is a Certificate for the Gallant Act he carried out to receive the Military Medal whilst serving with the Second Army.
He also received a Mercantile Marine Medal from the Board of Trade.
In WW2 he was a Quarter Master on the Reina Del Pacifico, owned by the PSNC, which was converted into troopship. He was 59 when WW2 started. He was in many theatres of the War which included the Second Battle of Tobruk and the Invasion of Sicily.
He was awarded the Africa Star with Clasp, Atlantic Star, Italy Star, Pacific Star and Burma Star.
In the Honours List announced on 9th January 1946 he was awarded the British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service.
He ended his service on SS Orbita when his Sea Service and his War Service Certificate was issued on 29th May 1947 when he was 67.
He was a much loved father and grandfather, and died aged 82 in 1962.
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Sgt. Alfred "Tom" Thomas Coldstream Guards   My father Alfred Thomas served in Palestine before the war. On 13th April 1939 he was back in Egypt, where he stayed until another tour of duty in Palestine starting on 27th of May 1940. With the Second World War now well under way, Tom was posted back to Egypt on 27th of June 1940 to face the Italians and, later, Rommel's Afrika Korps.
The Italians under Marshal Graziano launched a limited invasion of Egypt in September 1940, going as far as Sidi Barrani about 50 miles across the border from Libya, where they stopped and fortified the area. This gave General Wavell time to reorganise his forces before going on the counter-attack in Operation Compass, which began on the 7th/8th December 1940 and lasted until 7th February 1941. At that point, the Italians having lost, Sidi Barrani, the port of Bardia, Tobruk, and Benghazi surrendered south of Beda Fomm. During Operation Compass, 133,298 Italian soldiers were captured along with a large number of guns and tanks. The British now halted their attack, having to send troops to Greece. On 12th of February, Rommel flew to Tripoli ahead of his troops, who arrived on the 14th. Rommel almost immediately went on the offensive and by 24 March had taken El Agheila, which was the leading British position. He then advanced on Mersa el Brega, which fell on 31st of March. The British were by now in chaotic retreat with Benghazi falling on 4th of April. The only place holding out against Rommel’s forces was Tobruk.
My father probably fought in both campaigns, but it was during the retreat from Rommel's forces that on 27th of May 1941 he was reported as missing and only later as having been taken prisoner. It is possible that this was while defending the Halfway Pass from the German advance. My father rarely talked about his wartime experience, but he did believe that he remained alive when taken prisoner due to the fact that Rommel showed up around that time, which ensured that prisoners were treated correctly.
Prisoners of war tend to be written out of history apart from a few sensational cases of escape. These escapes were rarely successful and the reprisals could be life threatening. Many POWs were traumatised by their experiences and treatment, along with feelings of guilt for being captured. The first record of Tom, after he was shipped out of North Africa to Italy, was of being interned in Italian POW camp number 66. This camp was in Capua, a few miles south of Naples. It was situated on a vast plain that offered views of the Vesuvius volcano. When the Allies invaded Sicily on 10 July and Southern Italy on 3rd of September 1943, POWs would have been moved north as the Allies advanced. Apparently, when the Italians stopped their participation in the war, they withdrew their guards from the POW camps. This gave an opportunity for prisoners to escape. However, a secret branch of the Ministry of Defence (known as MI9) ordered that British POWs in Italy should remain in their camps after Italy surrendered. Many senior officers within the camps enforced this. As a result of this, the German army was able to walk into dozens of camps and round up the POWs.
Eventually, Tom ended up in Poland at Stalag 344 Lamsdorf (formerly Stalag VIIIB) in Silesia. This was a large German POW camp located in the small town of Lamsdorf, now called Lambinowice in Poland, that was initially built during WW1 to house French and British prisoners. His POW number was 30702.
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Gnr. J Marrs 5th Bty, 2nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery J Marrs of 10 Gamlin Street, Birkenhead, Cheshire, is one of 3 men whose names are written on the reverse of a photograph, which was in the possession of my father Albert Percival Nichols. Both were captured on 20th of June 1942, probably at Tobruk, and both were in Stalag 4A. The other two men were C Jones, Leyedge, Mayfield Drive, Cuddington, Northwich, Cheshire and J Manson, of Maitland Place, Finnstown [sic], Orkney. As well as my father, two other men (unnamed) appear on the photograph.
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Gnr. C. Jones 5th Bty, 2nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery C Jones of Leyedge, Mayfield Drive, Cuddington, Northwich, Cheshire, is one of 3 men whose names are written on the reverse of a photograph, which was in the possession of my father Albert Percival Nichols.
Both were captured on 20th of June 1942, probably at Tobruk, and both were in Stalag 4A. The other two men were J Manson of Maitland Place, Finnstown [sic], Orkney and J Marrs of 10 Gamlin Street, Birkenhead, Cheshire. As well as my father, two other men (unnamed) appear on the photograph.
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Gnr. J. Manson 5th Bty, 2nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery J Manson of Maitland Place, Finnstown [sic], Orkney, is one of 3 men whose names are written on the reverse of a photograph, which was in the possession of my father, Albert Percival Nichols.
Both were captured on 20th of June 1942, probably at Tobruk, and both were in Stalag 4A. The other two men were J Marrs of 10 Gamlin Street, Birkenhead, Cheshire and C Jones of Leyedge, Mayfield Drive, Cuddington, Northwich, Cheshire.
As well as my father, two other men (unnamed) appear on the photograph.
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Pte. Maurice Weston Brown 903 Company Royal Army Service Corps My father Maurice Brown served in WW2 with 903rd Company, RASC having joined the Royal West Kents early in 1940.
He was sent out to France in May 1940 as they went to reinforce the attempt to stop German forces invading France through Belgium.
He narrowly evaded capture around Rouen and was then evacuated near Cherbourg having abandoned all their equipment.
After re-equipping back in the UK, mostly around Dorking and Salisbury, they were sent out via Cape Town and Cairo to reinforce 1st Armoured Division. in the Western Desert in November 1941.
They arrived in time to be involved with Operation Crusader. When Rommel counter-attacked in May 1942 my father's company withdrew to Tobruk where he was captured on 20th of June 1942.
After a time in camps behind the lines he was sent to Italy, eventually to CC53 near Macerata above Ancona. Here they were not required to work, but when Italy surrendered they had about 48 hours to escape, but were advised not to attempt this by the Army.
German paratroops then took over the camp and my father was then transported by train over the Brenner Pass into Eastern Germany, firstly to a holding camp and then to a working-party on the Deutsche Reichsbahn based at Klostermansfeld, South of Leipzig near the Harz mountains.
Here between October 1943 and April 1945 he was forced to work maintaining lines, initially light work but later repairing bomb damage as far away as Leipzig. He experienced frequent near-misses from air-raids and saw much suffering.
He was eventually liberated by Patton's forces pushing eastwards over the delineated post-war frontier and flown back via Brussels.
My father maintained a diary through nearly all of his time in the Army, at great risk to himself whilst a POW. This diary although edited later for personal reasons, contains numerous references to events in 903 Coy. and the personnel with whom he served.
He tried to have it published later but not being an officer, and containing mostly routine details about food parcels etc. in camp, they told him it was not eventful enough.
Sadly on his death in September 1991 most of his possessions were disposed of, and I only have one of the draft copies he circulated.
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Pte. William Henry Cox Durban Light Infantry William Cox was captured at Tobruk on the 1st of June 1942. He survived the war as a POW and was repatriated.
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Cpl. Robert Ray 2nd Transvaal Scottish My Dad, Robert Ray, was captured at Tobuk on 21st of June 1942 by Rommel and was moved as a POW through Italy (Rome and Sardinia) to Stalag IVB (Muhlberg am Elbe) in 1943, nearby Stalag 304H (Zeithan) then later on to Torun in Poland which he said "hell it was cold there". Later with the Russians advancing he was moved to Fallingbostel, near Hannover and Bremen, from which he escaped and was picked up by British forces and repatriated. He lived till two weeks short of his 88th birthday.
His son visited the sites Stalag IVB and 304H in 2000.
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Col. Douglas Victory Hutchinson MBE. 12th Field Coy. Royal Engineers My grandpa, Col. Douglas Victory Hutchinson M.B.E., was born soon after the end of World War I. To commemorate what would have been his 100th Birthday, I recently completed his memoirs in a short booklet which can now be found in the Royal Engineers Museum (collection number 201911.4). It tells the story of a young man, bought up on a farm near Warwick and follows his story as he joined the 7th Field Company R.E. in May 1939. When war broke out he embarked from Liverpool to Egypt as an officer in the 12th Field Squadron R.E.
At the beginning of 1941, the Squadron was assigned to 6th Infantry Division, which fought against the Italian 10th Army during Operation Compass. It was re-designated as the XIII Corps alongside the 7th Armoured Division, Australian 6th Division, and 4th Indian Infantry Division. During Operation Battleaxe, the Squadron supported the 22nd Guards Brigade as General Rommel countered the Allied attack. The Division was then sent to Syria to help capture Damascus from the Vichy French. Re-created as the 70th Infantry Division in October 1941, they were transported by the Royal Navy to relieve the Australian garrison in Tobruk.
From September 1941, the 12th Field Squadron, as part of the 70th Infantry Division, were cut off from the rest of the British forces for several months. Along with the rest of the XIII Corps, they finally broke out of Tobruk by early December. After a brief spell of rest and refitting in Egypt, the Squadron found themselves back in Syria to help build the Homs-Tripoli defence line. But before the work was complete they were given orders to return to Egypt to depart for India. During transit, they heard that Rangoon had fallen to the Japanese, and they reached Bombay in March 1942.
By mid-1943, the 12th Field Company served with the 23rd Infantry Brigade. In those early years time was spent on endless recon missions, jungle bridging, and improvised rafting amongst other things. They were in and around the Arakan during the same period as Wingate's earlier offensives to the North. By October 1943, the 70th Division was absorbed into Wingate's Chindit force, where the Division found themselves back in central India for an intensive period of training. Operations included further sorties into the Arakan as part of the newly formed 23rd Long-Range Penetration Brigade in the 34th Column of 4th Battalion, Border Regiment.
In March 1944, the 12th Field Company found themselves diverted from the main Chindit campaign and dispatched to Kohima, where they endured some of the most inhospitable conditions in WWII. The harassing operations by the 23rd Brigade made a major impact on the Japanese to bring about a withdrawal from Imphal/Kohima, and they did not again attempt an invasion on India.
From the end of 1944, Douglas made his way back toward England for the first time in over four years. But he soon found himself back in Rawalpindi as second-in-command with 268th Field Company, assigned to 44th Indian Airbourne Division, for training and to form the 12th Parachute Squadron R.E.
As the war ended, Douglas found himself in the Schleswig-Holstein region of Germany as second-in-command of 147th Field Park Squadron, joining the 11th Armoured Division as part of the 8th Corps. A year later the Squadron joined the 7th Armoured Division. At this time Douglas was promoted to Commanding Officer of 211 Field Park Squadron R.E. for the B.O.A.R. By August 1947, it was re-designated as 145 Field Park Squadron.
Some years later in 1956, Major Hutchinson was posted to Cyprus with the 42 Survey Engineer Regiment where he was appointed Officer Commanding to the 19th Topographic Squadron. From here he oversaw operations in Iraq as well as supervising 3 Field Topographic Squadron in Aden, Oman, and Bahrain. It was during July 1958 when he was caught up in the Iraqi coup d'etat. From 1960 onwards, Colonel Hutchinson served at JHQ B.O.A.R. as Chief of Survey Branch, and was later posted to AFCENT in Fontainebleau, France, as part of NATO.
Colonel Hutchinson assumed his final posting in 1968 as Deputy Director of Field Surveys for Ordnance Survey, and he officially retired in April 1972.
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