By the time Rommel had reached the eastern frontier of Cyrenaica, however, he had overstretched his supply lines and was compelled to halt.
Tobruk, garrisoned mainly by the 9th Australian Division, held out against siege; and Rommel, though he defeated two British attempts to relieve the place (May and June 1941), was obliged to suspend his offensive on the Egyptian frontier, since he had overstretched his supply lines.
In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, has overstretched; the glow is off his aggressive stand for Palestine.
As a columnist in The Sunday Telegraph, Jeff Randall, saw matters: "Recent helter-skelter expansion has overstretched resources, financial and human.
And it states that, under Labour, the government has overstretched the armed forces, leaving them without sufficient reserves.
"And Kolo Toure has overstretched his groin, so we need to assess that, which doesn't look so good to be honest".
But experts at home say that the country has overstretched itself with deployments abroad, including roughly 1,600 troops in Afghanistan, up from around 1,200 in September, and five years of playing a supporting role in Iraq, which it recently completed.
This is partly because of population explosion which has overstretched public water facilities and also because of corruption, poor maintenance culture, vandalization, lack of commitment on part of the water board staff and total neglect.
Yet it appears Hamas has overstretched its hand and alienated much of the Arab world by aligning itself with Iran and Syria, as well as by seeking unrealistic demands for a renewed ceasefire.
The influx has overstretched services at the camps, with families that are yet to be registered having to share food ratios and crowd into limited accommodation with clan members.
