This weekend marks the anniversary of the ending of the siege of Tobruk. Thanks to the coordinated efforts of the Allied troops during Operation Crusader, the city could finally be liberated after 242 long days on November 27th of 1941.
To commemorate this important event and remember the men and women who fought through the struggle of this month-long blockade, we have put together a little special for our players. From Saturday, 1st December 07:30 CET (06:30 GMT) until Tuesday, 4th December at 07:00 CET (06:00 GMT) you can look forward to following bonuses in the game:
Double crew experience gain
As we all know, experience is the key ingredient in the recipe for delicious victory on the battlefields. So get cooking, commanders!
10,000 extra credits for players who win the Top Gun achievement
Being the Top Gun of your team now not only earns you a medal, but you’ll also be rewarded with an extra 10,000 credits during our special.
50% discount on the following vehicles:
- British Medium Tank Tier IV Matilda
- British Light Tank Tier IV Valentine Mk. III
- British Light Tank Tier IV A13 Covenanter
No special can be held without its fair share of discounted vehicles. This week we have three on sale… and supplies are plenty!
Doubled credit gain for the following vehicles:
- British Medium Tank Tier IV Matilda
- British Light Tank Tier IV Valentine Mk. III
- British Light Tank Tier IV A13 Covenanter
What’s better than gaining credits in the field of battle? Gaining LOTS of Credits in the field of battle, of course!
50% discount on garage slots
If you buy yourself a new tank, you’ll want to be able to park it in style as well. That’s exactly where this week’s promotion comes in…
50% discount on credit consumables
To top it all off, we bring you a sweet little discount of 50% to get you all the consumables you can carry. Dig in!
If you’ve been paying attention, you already know the broad strokes of the story of the troubled city Tobruk and why it’s been so important during the North-African campaign from our Operation Crusader special.
The siege began on April 11th and went on until November 27th of 1941, but it wasn’t the longest of its kind during the Second World War. The Russian city Leningrad claimed this unfortunate honour, surviving under siege for almost two and a half years. However, Tobruk’s successful resistance still became a shining symbol for the perseverance of the Allies and heavily impacted on the course of the war.
For most of the siege, it had been Australian forces who had kept up the defences in the besieged city. Commanded by Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, the Australian 9th Division was originally set to stay in place only for a couple of weeks, but ended up “holding the fort together” for over five months, before real reinforcements started to come in. In the meantime they had to withstand several major attacks by the General Erwin Rommel-led German and Italian troops, who outnumbered the defenders significantly.
The city could only be held due to the invaluable contribution from its port, which demonstrated its strategic value by making it possible to bring in supplies and eventually the much-needed reinforcements by ship. The Australian, British, Polish and Czech troops held up inside had dug out trenches to better defend their positions. This earned them the name “Desert Rats” or “Rats of Tobruk”, names given by the German propaganda machine that tried to besmirch them. Ironically, the fierce Allies took this insult as a compliment and saw it as a testament to their unbreakable endurance.
Despite heavy attacks with infantry, tanks and even aircraft, the Axis never managed to break into Tobruk. Both sides had assumed strong defensive positions, which changed the nature of the conflict into a scenario more reminiscent of World War I, where there was little to no movement on the actual front. Still it is said that a lot of men and women on both sides lost their lives in those painful eight months as the attackers tried in vain to capture the city.
The siege was finally lifted on November 27th when a number of tanks of the Allied 8th Army managed to break through the outer German lines for the first time. When Operation Crusader came to a close a couple of weeks into December, the Germans could be finally pushed out of the region for good, which marked the end of the conflict for the time being.
Even though Tobruk was later overtaken by the Germans in a surprise attack in June 1942, the previous victory of the “Rats of Tobruk” came to represent the Allies’ will to resist and showed that the German war machinery with its Blitzkrieg-approach could be beaten.
