OPERATION CRUSADER
In November 1941, the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars yeomanry experienced its first taste of battle. However, as Stephen Keoghane and Andreas Biermann describe, the regiment cut its teeth against Italy’s premier armoured division
DAVID PENTLAND (ARTIST)
November 1941: Tobruk had been under siege for approximately 230 days.
Its last-ditch garrison, initially formed by the 9th Australian Division and elements of British and Indian armoured and artillery regiments, somehow held as the Allies were pushed back hundreds of miles. Months later and the multi-national garrison continued to defend the only deep-water port in east Libya.
