First Try For Tobruk - The Matrix Games version of West Front

Kings Cross, 9km S of Tobruk, Libya: [Best played as Axis] In little more than two weeks after the successful attack at Mersa Brega, Rommel's German and Italian forces fought their way across Cyrenaica in an almost exact reversal of the British Operation Compass. By mid-April Tobruk had been surrounded and German reconnaissance forces had reached the Egyptian frontier. Rommel realized that he must remove the threat to his rear posed by the 9th Australian Division at Tobruk. On the morning of 14 April the Afrika Korps made its first major attempt to break into the fortress. Following the breaching of the old Italian anti-tank ditch during the night the 5th Panzer Regiment, with about 40 tanks and the 8th Machinegun Battalion, advanced north along the El Adem/Tobruk highway toward the junction with the Via Balbia that would become known as Kings Cross. Progress was good despite a determined defense by the Australian 24th Infantry Brigade and extremely heavy defensive artillery fire. As the panzers fought through the perimeter the mounted infantry took heavy causalities, leaving the German armor to face a belt of British anti-tank guns and a determined counterattack alone!