Siege of Giarabub

Part of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War

Giarabub/Jaghbub (centre right)

Date	December 1940 – 21 March 1941
Location	Giarabub, Libya Coordinates: 29°44′33″N 24°31′01″E / 29.74250°N 24.51694°E / 29.74250; 24.51694
Result	British victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

Australia

Italy

Commanders and leaders

George Wootten

Salvatore Castagna (POW)

Strength

2 mechanised cavalry squadrons
1 augmented infantry battalion

2,100 Italians

Casualties and losses

17 killed, 77 wounded (final assault only)

250 killed
1,300 prisoners
26 field guns

Giarabub

Giarabub, Libya

The Siege of Giarabub (now Jaghbub) in Libya, was an engagement between Commonwealth and Italian forces, during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. In the aftermath of Operazione E, the invasion of Libya by the Italian 10th Army (9–16 September 1940), Operation Compass (9–16 December) by the Western Desert Force (WDF), the Battle of Sidi Barrani and the pursuit of the 10th Army into Cyrenaica (16 December 1940 – 9 February 1941), the fortified Italian position at the Al Jaghbub Oasis was besieged by parts of the 6th Australian Division.

The 6th Australian Divisional Cavalry Regiment (6th ADCR) began the siege in December 1940 and isolated the oasis, leaving the Italian garrison dependent on the Regia Aeronautica. Air transport proved insufficient and hunger prompted many of the locally recruited troops to desert. After being reinforced by the 2/9th Australian Battalion and a battery of the 4th Royal Horse Artillery, the Australians attacked Giarabub on 17 March 1941 and the Italian garrison surrendered on 21 March.

Giarabub is an oasis in the Libyan Desert, 320 kilometres (200 mi) south of Bardia and 65 kilometres (40 mi) west of the border with Egypt. The Great Sand Sea of the Sahara Desert lies to the south, and the town is at the west end of salt marshes which go up to the Egyptian border. Giarabub is the westernmost in a line of oases on the edge of the Sahara into Egypt. In 1940, it was the southernmost Italian frontier post along the border with Egypt.

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Wikipedia