BATTLE OF GAZALA

The 'Battle of Gazala' was an important battle of the World War II Western Desert Campaign, fought around the port of Tobruk in Libya from May 26 to June 21 1942. The combatants on the Axis side were the Panzer Army ''Afrika'', consisting of German and Italian units and commanded by the "Desert Fox" Colonel-General Erwin Rommel; the Allied forces were the Eighth Army, commanded by Major General Neil Ritchie under the close supervision of the Commander-in-Chief Middle East, General Sir Claude Auchinleck.

Contents

Prelude

Battle

Aftermath

Orders of battle

Allied

Axis

References

Notes

External links

Prelude

Following the successful Operation Crusader, in late 1941, the Eighth Army had driven the Axis forces out of Cyrenaica. But, by January 1942, Rommel had received reinforcements in men and tanks, and was able to mount an offensive, forcing the Allies to retreat across Libya to a strong position on a line between the fortified port of Tobruk on the Mediterranean coast and the town of Bir Hakeim to the south.

Battle

On May 27 Rommel personally led elements of Panzer Army ''Afrika'' – the ''Afrika Korps'', the Italian XX Motorized Corps, and the German 90th Light ''Afrika'' Division – in a brilliant but risky flank around the southern end of the Allied lines, trusting to the enemy's own minefields to protect his flank and rear. The Italian X Corps pinned the Allied troops down with a frontal attack on the Allied front line, and the Italian 101st Motorized Division ''Trieste'' attacked the fortified "box" at Bir Hakeim from the west while the Italian 132nd Armoured Division ''Ariete'', on the left flank of Rommel's sweep, attempted to seize it from the rear. The box, defended by the 1st Free French Brigade under Marie-Pierre Koenig, proved to be a bigger problem than Rommel had anticipated, and Panzer Army ''Afrika'' found itself trapped in a region known as "the Cauldron", with Bir Hakeim to the south, Tobruk to the north, and the extensive mine belts of the original Allied front line to the west, and assailed by Allied armour from the east.
Rommel solved the problem presented by the situation by means of several methodical steps, first attacking westward back toward his own original front line in order to restore a route of supply. In this western attack he had to destroy the British 150th Infantry Brigade box in order to break through to his lines.
He then weathered a somewhat late and uncoordinated Allied counterattack, dispatched strong forces southward to clear the Free French out of Bir Hakeim, and then resumed his eastward advance with his armour once more sweeping around the remaining positions in a repeat of his initial moves several days earlier. Though he drove the Allies off the field, Free French resistance as well as exhaustion and an insufficiency of troops meant that he failed to run down several retiring Allied divisions.

Aftermath

On 14 June Auchinleck retreated east to a strong position on the Alamein Line on the border of Egypt, leaving the 2nd South African Division to defend an isolated Tobruk much as Wavell had done in April 1941. Since Tobruk had previously withstood a siege of nine months before being relieved by Operation Crusader in December 1941, the Allied leaders expected it to do so again. Auchinleck however viewed the defence of Tobruk as non-essential and had already told Neil Ritchie that he did intend to hold it at all costs ^[3].
Just seven days later, on 21 June 1942, 35,000 Allied troops (including the entire South African 2nd Division), were surrendered to Navarrini's 30,000 troops. Although these were mostly support or base troops, the Axis capture of Tobruk echoed the surrender of 50,000 Commonwealth troops to three Japanese divisions following the humiliating fall of Singapore a few months earlier.
The defeat at Gazala and Tobruk's surrender led to the dismissal of Ritchie, and later Auchinleck, and their replacement by Montgomery and Alexander respectively.
After capturing Tobruk Panzer Army ''Afrika'' advanced into Egypt and attacked the Alamein Line on 1 July 1942 in the First Battle of El Alamein.

Orders of battle

Allied

★ Eighth Army (Ritchie)

★
★ British XIII Corps (Gott)

★
★
★ South African 1st Division (Pienaar)

★
★
★ South African 2nd Division (Klopper) (in Tobruk)

★
★
★ British 50th Infantry Division (Ramsden)

★
★
★ British 1st Army Tank Brigade

★
★
★ British 32nd Army Tank Brigade

★
★
★ Indian 9th Brigade (in Tobruk, less one battalion in the El Adem Box)

★
★
★ Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade (Tobruk-Bardia-El Mekili-Carmuset er Regem)

★
★ British XXX Corps (Norrie)

★
★
★ British 1st Armoured Division (Lumsden)

★
★
★
★ British 2nd Armoured Brigade

★
★
★
★ British 22nd Armoured Brigade

★
★
★
★ British 201st Guards Brigade (in Knightsbridge Box)

★
★
★ British 7th Armoured Division (Messervy)

★
★
★
★ British 4th Armoured Brigade

★
★
★
★ British 7th Motorized Brigade

★
★
★ 1st Free French Brigade (in Bir Hacheim Box)

★
★
★ British 7th Motorized Brigade (in Retma Box, plus some deployed as a reconnaissance screen west of Bir Hacheim)

★
★
★ Indian 3rd Brigade (in process of establishing a box southeast of Bir Hacheim)

★
★
★ Indian 29th Brigade (at Bir el Gubi)

Axis

★ Panzer Army ''Afrika'' (Rommel)

★
★ ''Deutsches Afrika Korps'' (Nehring)

★
★
★ German 15th Panzer Division

★
★
★ German 21st Panzer Division

★
★ Italian XX Motorized Corps

★
★
★ Italian 132nd Armoured Division ''Ariete''

★
★
★ Italian 101st Motorized Division ''Trieste''

★
★ German 90th Light ''Afrika'' Division (less a rifle brigade attached to Group Crüwell)

★ Group Crüwell (Crüwell)

★
★ Italian X Corps

★
★
★ Italian 60th Infantry Division ''Sabratha''

★
★
★ Italian 102nd Motorized Division ''Trento''

★
★ Italian XXI Corps

★
★
★ Italian 17th Infantry Division ''Pavia''

★
★
★ Italian 27th Infantry Division ''Brescia''

★
★ German 150th Rifle Brigade (detached from 90th Light)
Strictly speaking Group Crüwell was part of Panzer Army ''Afrika'', but as a practical matter Rommel temporarily split his Army in half, with Crüwell commanding the infantry units along the original front line while Rommel joined the mechanized forces in the flanking move.

References

★ Panzer Battles: A Study of the Employment of Armor in the Second World War, , Friedrich, von Mellenthin, Ballantine Books, 1956, ISBN 0-345-24440-0

Notes

1. Tobruk, , Michael, Carver, Pan Books, 1964, ISBN 0-330-23376-9 , p.167

2.
3. Bierman and Smith, Alamein The War Without Hate, Penguin 2003

External links

★ The World War II Study - North Africa

★ BBC - WW2 People's War - Battle of Gazala

★ Deutsches Afrikakorps Online Archive

★ Flames of War

★ New Zealand Electronic Text Centre - CHAPTER 5 Rommel Strikes

★ Battle of Gazala

★ Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons Official Report July 2, 1942