World War II · Film · 1943
Sahara
Cut off after the fall of Tobruk, an American tank crew picks up a mixed band of Allied stragglers and a prisoner, and makes a stand at a desert well against a thirsty German battalion.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 2 places.
Stop 1: Desert south of Tobruk
Separated from its unit in the retreat, the tank Lulubelle heads south and collects British, South African, Free French and Sudanese soldiers.
Stop 2: Bir Acroma well, Libya
Key location
At a nearly dry well, the handful of men bluff that they have water and hold off wave after wave of German attacks.
What really happened
Rommel's victory at Gazala in late May and June 1942 sent the British Eighth Army reeling back into Egypt, and Tobruk, which had resisted a siege for most of 1941, fell in a single day on 21 June 1942 with some 33,000 Allied soldiers captured. Thousands of stragglers crossed the desert to reach the new line at El Alamein.
American-built M3 tanks were already fighting in British units, but the Lulubelle's American crew is fiction. The plot is a remake of the 1936 Soviet film The Thirteen, and water really was the decisive supply problem for both armies in the Western Desert, where wells such as those around Acroma were fought over.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Sahara
- Directed by
- Zoltan Korda
- Countries
- United States
- Languages
- English, German, Italian
- Released
- 1943
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Mediterranean & Africa
- Themes
- Combat
