World War II · Film · 1967
Tobruk
A captured desert navigator is freed by German-speaking Jewish commandos and guides a column posing as prisoners across hundreds of kilometres of Axis-held desert to blow up Rommel's fuel depots at Tobruk.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 3 places.
Stop 1: Algiers harbour
Major Craig is sprung from a Vichy French prison ship by commandos in German uniform.
Stop 2: Kufra oasis, Libya
The raiders join a Long Range Desert Group column and set off north, posing as prisoners and their German guards.
Stop 3: Tobruk, Libya
Key location
Inside the port, the commandos go for the fuel bunkers and the guns covering the harbour as the landing force approaches.
What really happened
The film is loosely based on Operation Agreement, a combined raid on Axis-held Tobruk on the night of 13-14 September 1942. A Long Range Desert Group column carrying commandos and German-speaking Jewish soldiers of the Special Interrogation Group, some disguised as German guards escorting prisoners, drove north from Kufra across hundreds of kilometres of desert to seize the harbour defences for an amphibious landing.
In reality the raid was a disaster: the landings failed, the destroyers HMS Sikh and HMS Zulu and the cruiser HMS Coventry were sunk, and several hundred British soldiers, sailors and marines were killed or captured, while Tobruk's fuel stocks were barely touched. The Vichy prison ship in Algiers and the traitors are inventions of the script.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- Tobruk
- Directed by
- Arthur Hiller
- Countries
- United States
- Languages
- English, German
- Released
- 1967
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Mediterranean & Africa
- Themes
- Combat
