After the defeat at Gazala, Rommel chased the hapless Brits to Tobruk.

“On this day in June 21st 1942, General Erwin Rommel turns his assault on the British-Allied garrison at Tobruk, Libya, into victory, as his panzer division occupies the North African port.

Britain had established control of Tobruk after routing the Italians in 1940. But the Germans attempted to win it back by reinforcing Italian troops with the Afrika Korps of Erwin Rommel, who continually charged the British Eighth Army in battles around Tobruk, finally forcing the Brits to retreat into Egypt. All that was left to take back the port was the garrison now manned by the South African Division, which also included the Eleventh Indian Brigade. With the use of artillery, dive-bombers, and his panzer forces, Rommel pushed past the Allies. Unable to resist any longer, South African General Henrik Klopper ordered his officers to surrender early on the morning of the 21st. Rommel took more than 30,000 prisoners, 2,000 vehicles, 2,000 tons of fuel, and 5,000 tons of rations. Adolf Hitler awarded Rommel the field marshal’s baton as reward for his victory. “I am going on to Suez,” was Rommel’s promise.”

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/allies-surrender-at-tobruk-libya

While researching for an earlier battle I came across a very scathing commentary regarding the Tobruk Siege.  Suffice to say it was along the lines of if the Allies left Tobruk and ‘took’ troops and fuel and food then Rommel would have been ham strung. That political meddling was the cause of the siege, and that the siege was never meant to be.  This pre supposes that the Commonwealth would have been able to remove all these tonnes of fuel etc, and that Rommel would not have pursued in any case!

It was my impression that Tobruk bought the the Commonwealth time. Time to repair the damage done by the poor leadership at Gazala by Ritchie, replace equipment [1,000 tanks and nearly 50k casualties] but then let a WW1 style leader take charge at El Alamien, which while successful, was a costly affair terms of troops lost and equipment destroyed, but not on the scale of Gazala thankfully.

Should the Commonwealth have stayed and held or tried to hold Tobruk in 1942?