Word: bengasi
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Dates: during 1941-1941
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...private citizen traveling at his own expense, into besieged Britain and out again. When he left, 18 days before, the headlines were announcing the fall of Tobruch and the riots in Rumania. When he got back, the British Navy was pounding Genoa (see p. 30), British troops had taken Bengasi, were a third of the way to Tripoli (see p. 36). When he left, debate on the Lend-Lease Bill was growing strident, and there were rumors that he would be ostracized by the Republican Party because he supported the bill (with restrictions). When he returned, the bill was through...
...stipulate that the British would undoubtedly change their minds if Laval got supreme power. From North Africa General Maxime Weygand proclaimed that France would never agree to the occupation of Bizerte or any other part of Tunisia, and from farther east came news of the British capture of Bengasi (see p. 36). These things helped to keep the Marshal's spine stiff in the face of an enemy who had conquered France and might be expected to take what he wanted instead of dickering about...
Beyond it, the R. A. F. strafed retreating troops, bombed tents, trucks, hangars, grounded planes. One day they ranged all the way to Tripoli to hit at shipping and transport planes that might slip supplies across to Bengasi. At that port the British expected to catch Rodolfo Graziani's men in a final trap, and they did not want it strenghtened by last-minute reinforcement...
...Italians were estimated to have only 50,000 troops left in easters Libya, and about the same number near Tripoli, 600 miles farther west. From Tripoli to Bengasi was too long a haul over the desert either for reinforcement to come up by land or for Marshal Graziani to try to run for it. The main British worry was whether they could wipe Bengasi out before German serial assistance should become really effective. The presence of German planes in Sicily and Libya had effected the whole Mediterranean situation. Late in the week German planes bombed the entire British-held section...
With Dérna such a cinch, the British prepared to press for Bengasi, in hope of catching the other half of Graziani's ragged army. Patrols worked along the coast and also cut straight across the hump (see map). With luck, General Sir Archibald Percival Wavell and his merry men might pull off the most surprising total victory in this war of many surprises...