Dan Freidus replied:

A tanker left the port of Tobruk on Wednesday carrying the first consignment of oil since the rebel government won recognition from some countries.

But the country's deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim accused Britain of bombing Libya's biggest oil field at Al-Sarir in the southeast, notably damaging the pipeline linking Al Sarir and Tobruk, which is under rebel control.

To read the complete article, see:Nato 'careful' over strikes, rebel oil leaves Tobruk(www.emirates247.com/news/region/nato-careful-over-strikes
-rebel-oil-leaves-tobruk-2011-04-07-1.378224)

Dan Freidus adds:

It was in the heat and dust of Tobruk that Australian tenacity and courage achieved its supreme expression. Air raids which had gone into the thousands before unofficial statisticians lost count had no more effect on members of the garrison than the enemy's artillery, strafing and attacks by tanks

The siege was only a couple of months old when the renegade Lord Haw Haw, broadcasting from Berlin, said they were "caught like rats in a trap" and applied it to the garrison because most of its men could find shelter only underground while the bombers were overhead. Our men accepted the title with relish. To one another, they were "the rats." To the Axis they were rats with razor-sharp teeth. They became "The Rats of Tobruk"

To read the complete article, see:Defence of Tobruk(www.army.gov.au/11_28rwar/History.asp)

Finally, Dan adds:

The Tobruk Siege Medal known as the "T" medal was issued to Australian, British, Indian, New Zealand & Polish troops who were in action during the Siege of Tobruk between April & December 1941.

The Tobruk Siege Medal is an unofficial award issued by the "Rats of Tobruk" Association in 1977.

To read the complete article see: (www.medalsofservice.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=923)

Fred Schwan writes:

Fred Schwan adds:

Damien Lewis writes: