sole Canadian in raid on TOBRUK

[Hanno Spoelstra]

The e-mail below was sent to me by Brian Lewington. If anyone can help him with further information, please put it here.

Thanks in advance,
Hanno

Hi Hanno, my father in law was Captain later Major James Henry Gibson (Dr).

In 1939, fresh out of University 'Gibby' enlisted with the British Army 'to see the world'. He was attached to the Black Watch. In '42 he was the sole Canadian and only surgeon to participate in Hazelton's raid on TOBRUK. In the end he was captured and taken off the beach by Nazi sub along with two other prisoners. They were interred in Italy until the Italian government surrendered at which time the prison gates were left open and they all 'escaped'. The Italians guards were real bastards according to Gibby who lost about 50% of his mass due to starvation diets. They wandered the Italian country side until captured by Nazi patrols.

Do you have any images of the raid?
There are some shots of Gibby in Gordon Landsborough's Tobruk Commando.

Kindest regards,
Brian Lewington

[Tony Smith]

Firstly, and this has come up before in other threads, the difference between "Interred' and "Interned". Interred is to be buried in the ground, either as a hidden cache of supplies or as is more often the case, to be laid to rest in a cemetary. Interned is to be held in an institution for some duration, either as a trainee or as a prisoner. If these POWs were INTERRED in Italy and were later roaming the countryside, that would be seriously freaky!

Anyway, the lead up to the raid on Tobruk:

APRIL 1941
Retreating Allied troops form a defensive perimeter around Tobruk, which would hold against Rommel's attacks for more than a year. The original garrison of Australian and British troops (nicknamed the "Rats of Tobruk"), resupplied by a tenous sea link, hold out until DECEMBER 1941, when they are relieved and replaced by British and Polish troops.

JUNE 1942
Rommel's fresh offensive captures Tobruk, Mersa Matruh, and continues on to El Alamein. The front line is now just 60 miles from Alexandria, which is itself the same distance to the Suez Canal.

SEPTEMBER 1942
Operation 'Agreement' was actually 4 operations designed to help relieve the pressure on Eighth Army in the Alamein area, Tobruk (Operation Daffodil), Benghazi (Operation Snowdrop), Jalo oasis (Operation Tulip) and Barce (Operation Hyacinth) were to be launched on 13 September 1942. The assault on Tobruk failed badly (the British lost three ships and several hundred soldiers and Marines), and only the Barce Raid by the LRDG could claim to be a success, although also with heavy casualties.

Tobruk (Daffodil): An attack would be launched from the landward side by about 150 SAS from the desert, while simultaneously destroyers "Sikh" and "Zulu" together with coastal forces craft would land 400 Royal Marines and 180 Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and engineers from the sea. AA cruiser "Coventry" and 'Hunts' provided cover. It all began with a heavy bombing attack by the RAF, which ended at midnight. In the night of the 13th/14th, The SAS forces from the desert were supposed to prepare the landing area for the seaborne Army forces, but only half the RM in the first wave landed. The RM landed from the two destroyers north of the harbor and the Army forces from MTBs and launches from Alexandria east of the harbor. Both forces were not landed on their assigned area.

The HMS Sikh was sunk trying to pick up survivors. She went down off Tobruk early in the morning of the 14th. As the other ships withdrew to Alexandria, heavy attacks by German and Italian aircraft sank cruiser "COVENTRY" and destroyer "ZULU" to the northwest of Alexandria.

Losses were about 300 RM, 166 Army, 280 RN, one cruiser (HMS Coventry), two destroyers (HMS Sikh and Zulu) and four MTBs. German losses were 62 killed and 119 wounded.

If you realize that the landing at Dieppe occured 12 days after the US landings at Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Tanamboga and Gavutu and the landing at Tobruk occured less than a month after Dieppe, and you read the accounts of both sets of landings, you will be amazed at the contrast between the British and Americans as far as the level of air and naval gunfire support even after the troops landed and surprise was lost. However, the availability of American Naval support and the lack of Japanese Air Defence could be a factor in that.