Tobruk

I have been reading about a WWII battle for the Libyan town of Tobruk. Several times, it changed hands between Allied and Axis forces. But, what caught my attention is the 8 month siege that the Australian defenders resisted against German guns and dive bombing. Over the 8 month period, the Aussies lost 12,000 out of 14,000 men, while the Germans and Italians lost 8,000 out of 9,000.


With the help of Brits and Poles and Czechs, they broke the siege on December 4th, 1941; in an operation that began on November 18th.







The story made me think of the spiritual paralles with:

• Siege
• Bravery and courage
• Perseverance

There are times in our lives when God lets the enemy lay siege to us. God is not only the God who brings you out of something, but also the God who brings you through it. Most of the book of Job, for example, is about a man going through something. Bad things layed siege to Job's life. Will he persevere? Will his faith hold?

The post-script to the story is that the Allies chased the Axis forces so far that they got over extended to the point that the Germans were able to counterattack and retake Tobruk, by the following June.

But the end of the story was that the large scale Allied landings in North Africa gave them the upper hand and Tobruk was re taken for a final time