BARDIA MAP NOTES: This map may more
accurately be called lower Bardia as this map actually represents that
portion of the town of Bardia. Upper Bardia sits atop a 600 foot
high stony escarpment that overlooks the Mediterranean ocean.
As you can see, in the picture at the top right, that the cliffs rising up
to the plateau, where the upper portion of the town resides, are very
steep which would have made attacking Bardia from the ocean extremely
difficult for the time period. Not impossible but difficult enough
that finding another way to attack would've been wise. So I felt
that if you controlled lower Bardia that by default would control upper
Bardia as well. The road leading to upper Bardia originates in lower
Bardia and is the only decent road leading up (see the photo below left).
 Also the towns
only port is located in lower Bardia which would allow anyone who held
lower Bardia to outlast an opposing military force holding upper Bardia.
See the photo at the lower right. The position in upper Bardia would
eventually have be abandoned due to lack of supply. I suppose one
could dream up scenarios to refute this but there are far more possible
scenarios that favor the military force that holds lower Bardia. More photos of the area exist, including aerial plan views and are available for viewing at the Australian War Museum website. The defensive perimeter of Bardia was situated
outside of the city proper and covered an area 5miles deep and 11miles
long and was a series of concrete bunkers, trenches, barbed wire, mines
and tank ditches. The Italians regarded the defenses of Bardia
impregnable and was even cause for some of the prisoners taken in December
during Sidi Barrani operations to be inclined to be "cocky." Due to
the fact that the allies more or less controlled the Mediterranean
shipping lanes and the nearest Italian troops being located in Tobruk some
75 miles away caused the troops garrisoned in Bardia to begin rationing
food stores. Preliminary bombing of the defenses of Bardia provided
valuable reconnaissance of the defenses as well as protection to Allied
forces. Click here to view a
detailed account of the battle that lead to the fall of Bardia. |