The elimination of Force K from Malta, which ran into an Italian minefield off Tripoli in mid-December and the arrival of Fliegerkorps II in Sicily, neutralised Allied air and naval forces in Malta, allowing more Axis supplies to reach Libya. The Eighth Army advance of 800 km (500 mi) over-stretched its supply lines and in January 1942, the Allies reduced the front line garrison for work on lines of communication and supply dumps, preparatory to another westwards advance against Tripolitania. 1942įollowing Operation Crusader, in late 1941, the British Eighth Army had relieved Tobruk and driven the Axis forces from Cyrenaica to El Agheila. The British were able to revive Malta as a base for attacks on Axis convoys to Libya, greatly complicating Axis supply difficulties at El Alamein.įield Marshal Erwin Rommel, with aides during the desert campaign. To support the Axis advance into Egypt, the planned attack on Malta ( Operation Herkules) was postponed. The Battle of Gazala is considered the greatest victory of Rommel's career.Īs both sides neared exhaustion, the Eighth Army checked the Axis advance at the First Battle of El Alamein.
Rommel pursued the Eighth Army into Egypt and forced it out of several defensive positions.
The Eighth Army withdrew from the Gazala Line and the Axis troops overran Tobruk in a day. Operation Aberdeen, an attack by the Eighth Army to finish off the Panzerarmee, was poorly co-ordinated and defeated in detail many British tanks were lost and the Panzerarmee regained the initiative. Italian engineers lifted mines from the west side of the minefields to create a supply route through to the Axis side. Rommel retired to a defensive position backing onto Allied minefields (the Cauldron), forming a base in the midst of the British defences.
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Unexpected resistance at the south end of the line around the Bir Hakeim box by the Free French garrison, left Panzerarmee Afrika with a long and vulnerable supply route around the Gazala Line. The Axis troops made a decoy attack in the north as the main attack moved round the southern flank of the Gazala position. Axis troops of the Panzerarmee Afrika ( Generaloberst Erwin Rommel) consisting of German and Italian units fought the British Eighth Army ( General Sir Claude Auchinleck, also Commander-in-Chief Middle East) composed mainly of British Commonwealth, Indian and Free French troops. The Battle of Gazala (near the village of Arabic: عين الغزالة, romanized: ʿAyn al-Ġazāla, lit.'Spring of the female Gazelle/the rising sun' pronunciation) was fought during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942.
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