Although the siege was lifted by Operation Crusader in November 1941, a renewed offensive by Axis forces under Erwin Rommel the following year resulted in Tobruk being captured in June 1942.

Tobruk was traditionally a stronghold of the Senussi royal dynasty and one of the first to rebel against Muammar Gaddafi in the Arab Spring.

It is probably the best natural port in northern Africa,[citation needed] although due to the lack of important nearby land sites it is certainly not the most popular.

At the beginning of World War II, Libya was an Italian colony and Tobruk became the site of important battles between the Allies and Axis powers.

In addition to these prepared fortifications, there were a number of escarpments and cliffs to the south of Tobruk, providing substantial physical barriers to any advance on the port over land.

Tobruk was also on a peninsula, allowing it to be defended by a minimal number of troops, which the Allies used to their advantage when the port was under siege.

Attackers from the east who had secured Tobruk could then advance through the desert to Benghazi, cutting off all enemy troops along the coast, such as those at Derna.

This advance would be protected from counterattack, due to escarpments that were quite difficult for a military force to climb, running generally from Tobruk to Suluq.

Italian forces (and their native Libyan allies—about two divisions of the latter) invaded Egypt in early September 1940 but halted their advance after a week and dug in at Sidi Barrani.

The Italians had previously invaded Albania and occupied part of the south of France, and had now made a military incursion into a British protectorate.

These forces, under Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel, drove the Allies back across Cyrenaica to the Egyptian border, leaving Tobruk isolated and under siege.

The siege lasted until December, when Operation Crusader pushed the DAK and Italians back out of Cyrenaica.Rommel's second offensive took place in May and June 1942.

A preparatory air raid by RAF heavy bombers served only to alert the Italian and German defenders.

The special forces were unable to silence the coastal artillery batteries and the seaborne assault had to be abandoned after some of the Commandos had been landed in the wrong place.

Although not as much a reason for its strategic significance, the British built a rail line from El Alamein to Tobruk during the course of the war.

[12] In September 2014 the internationally recognized government[13] of Libya relocated to a Greek car ferry in Tobruk harbor.