7/11/41 grenadiers advance on Tobruk

[robot]

Tobruk Libya
7/11/1941
1500 Hours

We have been given orders to advance on the British holding Tobruk. We will begin our advance at 1500 yards. We understand the british are very well dug in. It is going to be hard to push them out im sure. it is very hot as we begin to start the engines on our tanks. It will be more like an oven in those tanks today hope the boys have taken a lot of water with them.

We have to advance over a lot of open ground and with visability at 1350 yards we will be at the mercy of there long range guns. Hope to be able to get our long range guns into position to do some damage to theres as we advance. This is going to be a very tough and hard battle today we can expect to lose some of our boys in this fight. I see the right and left flank have begun there advance. The left flank is already recieving some small arm fire.

We have gotten two sections from the Lufwaffte for today. Will try and call it down on there tanks as soon as we get verification where they are located.

HQ: XV Panzer Grenadiers
Col: Rak Rokerts Commanding

[robot]

Tobruk Libya
7/11/1941
1525 Hours

The left flank has come under heavy fire on there flank. We have moved only maybe 250 yards when they were hit. Brought up the sig33s and they pounded the enemy locations. They have moved back with some losses to there side. We lost maybe 3 men in the exchange with there troops.

A couple of there tanks opened up about 1200 yards out on our tanks. But they had no hits our Pz IVd fired back and took out 2 of there tanks.

Sent in a stuka on some suspected tank locations but with no scores at this time. Have been laying in 81mortars and 150 off board artty on likely places. Dont know how we did with the fire did not see any explosions from that area so suspect we missed.

Trying to bring the line into an inverted v with the center of the line being its base before we really start pushing our way forward. Like I said before this is going to be one tough mother today. So far not too much in bobardment from them as yet glad for any small reprieves.

HQ: XV Panzer Grenadiers
Col: Rak Rokerts Commanding

[robot]

Tobruk Libya
7/11/1941
1605 Hours

C company in the south have taken there objective and it seems to be secure. They are now past that point by 350 yards and have begun to move towards the rear objectives. Small clusters of the British troops keep showing up but are soon chased towards the rear or killed. They are no longer meeting much in the way of resistence and soon will be in sight of the rear flags.

A in the center has been getting a lot of 4.5 shells dropped on them this has caused them to slow down a lot. They have gone to ground and it is hard trying to get them on the move again. Five minutes ago 3 or 4 tanks tried to breach our lines but were taken out by some determined frontal assualts by our troops.

B in the north has got to with in 250 yards of there objective and should be there very soon. They too are not running into much of any kind of force. Had a few tanks sitting back some yardage and taking pot shots at them these were soon delt with by our own tank gunners. Not much left in the way of infantry to face most have begun to retreat to wards there rear.

Had two of there AA guns shooting at our SP atg and managed to disable one of our guns before we chased them away. Laid in some 81 morters and a battery of 150mm shells. They didnt heng around much longer after that.

We have some specisl ops people doing some terrific work in the enemys rear. They have managed to capture the southern rear objective taking out at least 6 tanks in the process. They are regrouping and will move on the northern rear one as soon as they have. It is located about 550 yards north of there area. There too the enemy has placed a large group of tanks to hold the objective. One squad of the special ops has been waging a one man war. He has taken out two tanks already he was seperated from his comrads during deployment and did not rejoin them in there fight at the southern flags. I have given them orders to not worry about the north flag but to search for and destroy those damable 18 pdr that continue to rain down havoc on our men.

We are winning this battle we just have too much fire power facing the enemy today. Our tank gunners have been right on with there accuracy today as well. They have been taking the enemy tanks out at 1500 to 1700 yards with some excellent shooting. One tank today had three tanks coming at him in four shots he took out all three,they were all within the 1200 yard range.

HQ:XV Panzer Grenadiers
Col: Rak Rokerts Commanding

[robot]

Tobruk Libya
7/11/1941
1705 Hours

The British have retired from the battle. They have pulled back what they could save. We have taken all the objectives and it was not that hard of a battle. Our special ops people took and secured the two rear flags. Managed to get only 1 and a half platoons infiltrated before the end came. They also took out a bunch of tanks and 18 pdr guns along the way. The enemy lost 34 artty today and most of it from the special ops. We lost 8 tanks to there 56 mostly to our superior long range fire. I held our shots down to less then a thousand yards seemed to work a whole lot better then firing at 2000. Most of our men i think were lost to the almost constant fire from there 4.5 gun. We lost 185 men to there 1457 again to our accrussy with our weapons.

We did not take Tobruk today but we sure put a hole in there defenses. We also lost all of the planes the air force had put on loan to us today. Not a one of our planes did any damage that we could see. They were all shot down on there first run thru. They had an awful lot of AA set up around the rear objectives where i had called them down at to help the special ops when they came in. I think they were all of the 3inch kind tore the heck out of those planes as they came in low for there bombing run.

We will be pulled out of the line for a month so as to rest and recoop. Our boys need this bad they did an excellent job today against a very well dug in enemy. Just think just about a year ago plus two months we were rolling into Poland when all this started. We were told then this war would be over in less then a year. Somehow I am begining to believe this was not true. I am begining to think this may last another year or two for sure.

HQ: XV Panzer Grenadiers
Col: Rak Rokerts