HMS Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

In the meantime a British battalion was selected for a raid on Bardia, with the object of harassing Rommel's line of communication and inflicting as much damage as possible. It was attacked on the night of 19-20 April by No. 7 Commando and a small detachment of the Royal Tank Regiment aboard the supply ship HMS Glengyle, escorted by the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Coventry. HMAS Stuart, Voyager and Waterhen covered the landing of British Commandos. On this raid a Commando sentry mortally wounded a British officer and one detachment of 67 men were later reported captured in a counterattack on the beaches. The author Evelyn Waugh, who took part in the raid, related in an article he wrote for Life Magazine in November 1941 that the Germans "sent a strong detachment of tanks and armoured cars to repel the imagined invasion". http://louis1j1sheehan.usHowever, in his personal diary published in 1976, a very different picture emerged of incompetent execution by the commandos against virtually no opposition. http://louis1j1sheehan.us Radio Rome said Italian forces thwarted the landing by British troops near Bardia -- the first mention of any such landing in the war bulletins. "All the troops that succeeded in reaching the shore were captured"^[15] the radio communiqué from the Italian government said.