Word: tobruk
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Arrogant, autocratic but a resourceful, daring tactician, he restored the art of bluff and ambush to modern big-scale war. In one day he lured 300 British tanks into almost total destruction. In another day he overwhelmed the British stronghold of Tobruk. He tied up much of Britain's military strength and leaders for nearly two years and at his peak he stood at El Alamein, 65 miles from Alexandria...
...Greek Government in Exile and Allied Headquarters in Rome announced that Greek guerrilla factions had agreed to act together under Allied command in the fight against the Germans. Lieut. General Ronald MacKenzie Scobie, former British commander at Tobruk and Malta, was named head man for Allied operations in Greece. This week British Commandos were reported on three Greek islands...
...snowy robes and tasseled headdress, His Eminence posed for Cairo cameramen. Then he climbed aboard a Western Desert train pranked out with plush chairs and fragrant with Nile roses. At battle-battered Tobruk, first stop, the British-trained Cyrenaican Guard of Honor smartly presented arms. Excited Senussi tribesmen bowed, kissed their leader's hand or the top of his sacred head. Down a strip of red carpet His Eminence swished majestically to a waiting British staff...
...From Tobruk the cavalcade rolled on to the mud huts of El Mrassas. All across the desert burnoused villagers on camelback peered eagerly from sand ridges, hailed their long-absent leader with rifle volleys fired into the air. At the village gates there were more gunfire greetings. Local sheiks genuflected. Desert drums throbbed. Horsemen staged a riotous rodeo. His Eminence, calming the hubbub with a gesture, told his followers they must thank the British for driving out the Italians. Some day, he added, he hoped to go back to Girabub to live. While the tribesmen cheered, El Senussi retired...
Eighth Army News, the testy, griping pal -in-print of the "desert rats" who followed Monty from Egypt to Italy, was born in September 1941, during the siege of Tobruk. When General Montgomery arrived in Egypt to take over the Eighth he quickly recognized the battle weariness of his men, found it "important that the troops know what is going on in the world and have a place to air their problems...