ABSTRACT
Rommel launched his attack on Tobruk on Good Friday, 11 April 1941. He soon ran up against carefully prepared defences and his advance was halted by accurate artillery fire against troops who were unable to dig shelters in the stony ground. Rommel prepared a fresh attack on Tobruk but was delayed by lack of reinforcements and supplies sent to the bottom of the Mediterranean by the Royal Navy. Auchinleck had an overwhelming superiority of aircraft, tanks, men and reserves but, as he wrote, his was 'an amateur army fighting professionals'. In March 1942 Eisenhower, with the full approval of the President and of General Marshall, proposed that the United States should begin a build-up of forces in Britain which would amount to 48 divisions by early 1943 in 'Operation Bolero', followed by an invasion in April 1943, 'Operation Roundup'. In January 1943 Roosevelt, Churchill and their respective chiefs of staff met in Casablanca to discuss future Allied strategy.
