TOBRUK DEFENCE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 187, 22 May 1941, Page 5

TOBRUK DEFENCE

BESIEGED THIRTY-NINE DAYS. FOE NOT THE WORST ENEMY.: AUSTRALIANS’ ONE COMPLAINT, (Rcc. 1&20 p.m. j LONDON, May 21. Iho worst enemy of the defenders of lobruk, who had boon besieged for 39 days, arc lack o¥ sleep, fleas, boredom and dust, says the British United Press correspondent, who returned tcT Cairo from - the fortress. Hardiv a single building in Tobruk had not boon lut, but work is still going on inside the town ; , The harbour, and shipping are the dive-bomber’s favourite target, , P® , arr L'c to unload despite the difficulty in negotiating the harbour because of the numerous wrecks. In the last few days attacks by divebombers have not been so frequent nor the bombers so numerous. Food and water are plentiful, but beer is riot obtainable, which is the onlv complaint trom the Australians, who‘receive Jet-i - ters regularly and bathe in the Mediterranean, despite German planes divebombing and machine-gunning. The band of the Victorian Regiment daily , practises in the open, although the thunder of guns frequently drowns the strains of “Waltzing Matilda,” while, the programme is frequently interrupted by a hasty dive into the trenches as raiders swoop down. The Australans produce two daily news sheets, one the “Tobruk Truth” boasts that' it always appears, supporting this claim by coming out after a 1500-lb bomb: landed on the building in which it is produced. ~