Raid on Bardia

Coordinates: 31°46′N 25°06′E / 31.767°N 25.100°E / 31.767; 25.100
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Raid on Bardia
Part of the
Second World War

British commandos in landing craft
Date19/20 April 1941
Location
Bardia, Cyrenaica
31°46′N 25°06′E / 31.767°N 25.100°E / 31.767; 25.100
Result Allied victory
Belligerents
 United Kingdom
 Australia		  Germany
 Italy
Commanders and leaders
Lieutenant Colonel
Colvin		 Nazi Germany Erwin Rommel
Fascist Italy Rodolfo Graziani
Strength
A Battalion Layforce
RTR Troop
HMS Glengyle
HMS Coventry
HMAS Stuart
HMAS Voyager
HMAS Waterhen
HMS Triumph
Casualties and losses
1 killed
70 captured		 1 artillery battery destroyed
1 supply dump destroyed

The Raid on Bardia was an amphibious landing at the coastal town of

Second World War. The raid was carried out by No. 7 Commando, also known as A Battalion Layforce, together with a small detachment from the Royal Tank Regiment; the raiders were supported by five navy ships and a submarine. The raid destroyed an Italian artillery battery
and a supply dump. It was deemed a success despite the loss of 71 men. The more lasting strategic effect of the raid was the diversion of a German armoured brigade from the front line to provide rear area security.

Background

Main article: Layforce

In January 1941, an ad hoc force of 2,000 commandos, known as Layforce, was sent from

Folbot section. On their arrival in Egypt in March 1941, the force was strengthened by the amalgamated No. 50 Commando and No. 52 Commando. To disguise from the Axis powers that a large force of commandos had arrived in the theatre, 7, 8, 11 and 50/52 Commandos were camouflaged as A, B, C and D Battalions Layforce.[2][3]

Prelude

Unternehmen Sonnenblume

Main article: Operation Sonnenblume

In early 1941,

Battle of Greece. Adolf Hitler responded to the Italian disaster by ordering Unternehmen Sonnenblume (Operation Sunflower), the dispatchof the new Afrika Korps to North Africa as reinforcements for the Italians, to prevent their collapse. The Afrika Korps had fresh troops, better equipment and tanks and a charismatic commander, Erwin Rommel. When Rommel arrived in North Africa along with six Italian divisions, including the Trento and Ariete, his orders were to remain on the defensive.[4][5]

In the first Italo-German offensive, the Axis force raided and quickly defeated the British at El Agheila on 24 March, exploited the success and by 15 April had pushed the British back to the Libyan–Egyptian border at Sollum and besieged Tobruk. Lieutenant-General Philip Neame, the new commander of XIII Corps (re-named HQ Cyrenaica Command after the transfers to Greece), O'Connor, and Major-General Michael Gambier-Parry, commander of the 2nd Armoured Division, were captured. The Western Desert Force HQ took over under Lieutenant-General Noel Beresford-Peirse, who was recalled from East Africa. An armoured brigade group of the 2nd Armoured Division had been used to provide forces for the Greek campaign and the rest of the division in Cyrenaica had lost most of its tanks to mechanical breakdowns and fuel shortage. Several Axis attempts to seize Tobruk failed and a front line was formed on the Egyptian border.[6] In April 1941, the plans for the deployment of Layforce were changed; their first operation would be a raid on Bardia.[1]

Raid

A black and white photograph of HMS Glengyle, an infantry assault ship
HMS Glengyle, an infantry assault ship

The Bardia raid was planned for the night of 19/20 April for A Battalion, Layforce to disrupt Axis lines of communication and inflict as much damage as possible to installations and equipment. The plan called for the simultaneous landing of A Battalion and a troop of tanks from the

anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Coventry and the destroyers HMAS Stuart, Voyager and Waterhen. Off Bardia, one LCA could not be lowered and there were difficulties releasing the others. When they did get going and approached the beaches, they were expecting to see lights to guide them in, which were to have been set up by the Folbot section but the Folbot section had been delayed en route when friendly fire caused HMS Triumph, the submarine transporting them, to submerge and take evasive action.[7]

The main landing force, running late, were landed on the wrong beaches.

prisoners of war.[8]

Aftermath

Analysis

Despite the limited results and seventy casualties, the raid on Bardia had considerable strategic effect. The Germans diverted the greater part of an armoured brigade from Sollum, where it was beginning to exert heavy pressure on the Western Desert Force and kept it for some time guarding rear areas.[9] Layforce was less fortunate, being used as normal infantry, a role for which it was neither equipped nor trained. As one of the few reserve forces available, it was sent to take part in the Battle of Crete; fighting as the rearguard they lost 600 men before being evacuated.[10] C Battalion was not sent to Crete but instead to Lebanon, where they lost over 120 men fighting in the battle of the Litani River.[8] The steady drain of manpower without the replacement system of normal British Army battalions meant that Layforce was left in an ineffective state and was disbanded in July 1941.[11]

Commemoration

The author

Life Magazine in November 1941, that the Germans "sent a strong detachment of tanks and armoured cars to repel the imagined invasion". In his diary published in 1976, a very different picture emerged of incompetence by the commandos, against virtually no opposition.[12]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Chappell, p.15
  2. ^ Chappell, pp.15–20
  3. ^ Saunders, p.52
  4. ^ Wilmott (1944), p. 65
  5. ^ Bauer (2000), p. 121
  6. ^ Playfair 1956 pp. 15–43, 2, 153–159
  7. ^ Saunders, p.53
  8. ^ a b c Chappell, p.16
  9. ^ Mountbatten, p. 35
  10. ^ Mountbatten, p. 39
  11. ^ Chappell, p. 17
  12. ^ Aitchison & Lewis, pp. 62–63

References

  • Aitchison, Jean; Lewis, Diana M. (2003). "Reportage, Literature and Willed Credulity by John Carey". New Media Language. Routledge.
    ISBN 0-415-28303-5
    .
  • Chappell, Mike (1996). Army Commandos 1940–1945. Elite. London: Osprey Publishing.
    ISBN 1-85532-579-9
    .
  • ISBN 978-1-4067-5957-0
    .
  • Saunders, Hilary St. George (1959) [1949]. The Green Beret: The Commandos at War. London: Landsborough.
    OCLC 878525272
    .

External links
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