Allied shipping engaged by 88mm Flak guns and capture of MTB 314 during Operation Agreement in 1942

Operation Agreement was a ground and amphibious operation carried out by British, Rhodesian and New Zealand forces on Axis-held Tobruk from September 13th to 14th 1942. A Special Interrogation Group party, fluent in German, took part in missions behind enemy lines. Diversionary actions extended to Benghazi (Operation Bigamy), Jalo oasis (Operation Nicety) and Barce (Operation Caravan). The Tobruk raid was an Allied disaster; the British lost several hundred men killed and captured, one cruiser, two destroyers, six motor torpedo boats and dozens of small amphibious craft.

The operation involved an amphibious force of about 400 Royal Marines, 180 infantry from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Captain Norman MacFie), 14 Platoon, Z Company, I Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (Lieutenant Ernest Raymond), and army engineers and Force B (Lt. Col. John Edward Haselden), about 150 SAS approaching from the desert. The amphibious force was split into Force A, supported by destroyers and intended to land the marines on the peninsula north of Tobruk, while Force C, composed of coastal units, was directed towards an inlet east of Tobruk harbour. Force B captured an Italian 152 mm coastal battery but this was quickly retaken by Italian marines from the San Marco Battalion; Haselden was killed in action. Most of the shore batteries and positions remained in Axis hands.

Force E, a group of commandos from the submarine HMS Taku failed to set up beacons on the shore to guide the main British force, due to the bad sea conditions. The garrison had been reinforced and the destroyers HMS Sikh and Zulu bringing in the seaborne troops landed them on the wrong beach, far to the west of the intended landing place. The British destroyer Sikh, which led the landing attempt, was hit by Italian 152mm shore batteries and German 88mm anti-tank guns, while taking on troops. Zulu had gone to the rescue but was unable to pull Sikh clear and it eventually sank; 122 members of the crew were reported killed and the survivors, most of them rescued from the water by the retreating amphibious boats, were eventually taken prisoner. On the afternoon of September 14th, while returning to Alexandria, HMS Coventry was badly damaged by German Ju 87 "Stuka" dive-bombers from Crete and 63 crew were killed. Coventry was scuttled by Zulu which was hit by German Ju 87 and Ju 88 dive-bombers a little later. While under tow and 190 km from Alexandria, Zulu sank with the loss of 39 crew.

Another landing by Motor Launches and boats, carrying a detachment of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and a machine-gun platoon of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, whose Vickers machine guns were to defend the perimeter, partially failed to reach the landing point. Because of extremely heavy fire from Tobruk harbor, only two launches, MTB 261 and MTB 314, made it into Marsa Umm el Sciausc, the target cove. MTB 314 became stranded in the shallow water, but MTB 261 managed to land Sergeant 'Dusty' Miller and his group of Fusiliers and sail out. The motor launches ML 353, Ml 352 and ML 349 and 17 MTBs were beaten back by boom defenses and an Italian flotilla of torpedo boats and armed motor barges. Three MTBs launched torpedoes at the naval vessels in harbor, to no avail. ML 353 was set on fire and scuttled, either hit by the Italian warships or strafed by Italian Macchi C.200 fighters, while ML 352, MTB 308, MTB 310 and MTB 312 were lost to Axis aircraft. MTB 314, the motor torpedo boat visible at 1:10 that was damaged and run aground during the battle, was captured by the German harbor R boat, the minesweeper R-10, at dawn, with 117 seamen and soldiers on board.

Allied losses amounted to about 300 Royal Marines, 160 soldiers, 280 sailors, the anti-aircraft cruiser Coventry, the destroyers Sikh and Zulu, two motor launches, four MTBs and several small amphibious craft. The Royal Marines suffered 81 killed and the Navy suffered the loss of another 217 men in the ship sinkings; about 576 survivors were taken prisoner. Axis losses were 15 Italians and one German killed, 43 Italians and seven Germans wounded.

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