Christmas beer for Tobruk men

Here'an interesting little snippet I found about Christmas beer.

A bit of background. Tobruk in Libya was under seige for much of 1941.

"CHRISTMAS BEER FOR TOBRUK MEN
Two breweries Whitbread’s and Watney’s — have sent 35 tons of beer as a gift to the besieged troops in Tobruk to be distributed on Christmas Day.

The packing of the beer (bottled, and in large cases) has been specially arranged for easy distribution in desert conditions."
Daily Mirror - Thursday 23 October 1941, page 5.

35 tons sounds like a lot. But a pint bottle of beer, including other packaging like crates, probably weighs about 2 lbs. So that's only about 35,000 pint bottles. And there were 36,000 personnel in Tobruk. One bottle each, then.

All a bit academic, really, as the seige was lifted in November.