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Peter C. SMITH, Massacre at Tobruk. The British Assault on Rommel, 1942, Stackpole, 2008, 235 p. Bernard

This book is prefaced by Lieutenant Colonel Unwin, a veteran of Operation Agreement, described here. Captured in the sinking of the destroyer Sikh , he remained a prisoner of the Germans. The operation Agreement is an attack both land and amphibious mounted by the British in September 1942 against the port of Tobruk, occupied by the Germans and Italians Rommel, who then plays a key role in fueling the Afrikakorps .

The operation is very complex because other diversionary raids are conducted on land cons Benghazi, oasis Jalo and Barce : it involves specialized units such as the Special Air Service (SAS) the LRDG (LRDG), and perhaps the most misunderstood of all the Special Interrogation Group (SIG) , A group of anti-Nazi Germans or Jews recruited primarily by the British in Palestine, and a mission undercover posing as German soldiers. Of course, the Royal Navy and its airborne component, the Royal Marines, will be stakeholders in the operation. The purpose of the attack was to destroy airfields, port facilities, fuel tanks and even ships Tobruk and on other targets.

If the attack on Barce by the LRDG was a success, with the LRDG SAS conveyed on Benghazi were discovered too soon and had to abandon the planned assault. The attack against Tobruk was a total failure: warned of an impending attack by sea, for lack of sufficiently well-kept secret, the Germans had reinforced the garrison. Moreover, the landing of British commandos burst in the worst conditions, in the wrong places on the coast and under enemy fire. The Royal Navy lost a cruiser, two destroyers and several torpedo boats fast under the blows of the Coast Artillery or Luftwaffe ; more than 750 men are knocked out, many of whom are trapped. This process has inspired a disastrous epic in 1967 Tobruk Commando Hell , including and Rock Hudson George Peppard . French film A Taxi for Tobruk (1961) fits him so soon after these events.

The book by Peter C. Smith is fairly comprehensive and includes many photos incorporated in the narrative, which is a good initiative, however badly the legends differ from the text. It lacks cons of cards in sufficient numbers and text in parallel, to monitor the progress of operations: it is a pity, because we are constantly looking for places on some maps present. Stackpole has reissued the book was originally published in 1987: a bibliography of this new edition would have asked to be updated as new titles are from Anglo-Saxon published on the subject.