Word: bardia
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...rise for the tides of winter still receded. In Albania the Greek wave still lapped at the battered Italian Army-after weeks of siege Klisura fell and Mussolini once more changed commanders. In Libya the British campaign still rolled on (see p. 25), but it had been won before Bardia was reached. What remained to be seen was how much of the Italian Army would be destroyed before a new campaign began. The old tide was ebbing. New and more ominous tides might soon flow...
...white, garden-edged streets of Bardia, belying with their neatness the destructive bombardment of a fortnight ago, swept a train of British armored cars, tanks and infantry trucks one day last week. It wriggled onto the coast road, penetrating still farther into the African empire of Benito Mussolini. From the desert to the south another spearhead, fresh Anzac and Moslem Indian troops, poked north and west. Before mop-up units in Bardia had finished prying the last pockets of Italian Terribili from their wadi hideouts, the two points were encircling Tobruch...
Tobruch looked to be an easier place to capture. Like Bardia, it was protected by a semicircle of forts, 16 clusters of six sunken casemates each, with another chain three to five miles outside the town within the outer ring. But Tobruch was thought to be undermanned and underequipped. Half the Italian artillery, ammunition and transports, one-third of the Italian Army was already in British hands. Moreover, Tobruch was known to be dependent on tankers from Dérna for its water supply. And Italian captives in Bardia were sure Tobruch could not hold out. Said one colonel...
Siege of Tobruch. With this added tip the British went methodically to work on a repeat performance of the Bardia show. While heavy artillery went up, the R. A. F. started off with an attack on Tobruch, roared westward as far as Tripoli, hunting out Italian troop concentrations and airdromes. Off the harbor the British Fleet stood by. Advance land forces pushed on past Tobruch to cut off the Italian retreat, some of them reaching Bómba, 60 miles to the west...
...though the siege slowed the British, their advance guard had pushed on. The High Command claimed an armored car detachment had spent Christmas Day in an abandoned airdrome near Tobruch, 70 miles farther to the west. Free French troops were reported in control of sections of the Bardia-Tobruch road. Day & night the R. A. F. had slugged bases in both Italy and Libya, striking at Gazala, Derna, Tobruch, Tripoli, the ports of Taranto, Palermo and Naples...