Early Pursuit of Rommel.
The year opened in Libya with the British Eighth Army under General Ritchie still pursuing Rommel's mixed force of German Afrika Korps and Italians toward Tripoli. On Jan. 1, 1942, the Imperial forces had reached Agedabia, south of Bengazi. On entering Cyrenaica in mid-November 1941 the British forces had not stopped to mop up Axis garrisons in Bardia and Halfaya ('Hellfire') Pass, preferring to pursue the main body of Rommel's army to the west. However, Bardia, with 7,500 Axis prisoners, was captured by South African troops on Jan. 2. On Jan. 11 the Egyptian border town of Sollum was taken, and finally on Jan. 17 the Axis forces holding the strongly entrenched positions at Halfaya surrendered, with 5,500 Germans and Italians (including two generals) falling into British hands.
With their steadily lengthening communications no longer interrupted by these Axis threats in their rear, the British were able to concentrate on their forward position. By Jan. 9 the Germans had evacuated Agedabia, thus eluding the British, who had hoped to capture or destroy Rommel's force before it could escape into Tripoli. Bad weather at this particular juncture served Axis rather than British interests. By the middle of January Rommel had reached El Agheila at the bottom of the Gulf of Sirte on the border between Cyrenaica and Tripolitania. At this point he chose to make a stand against any further British advance. It was estimated that of the 200,000 men in his army at the beginning of November 1941, only some 75,000 remained. It was also estimated that the Luftwaffe had lost over 1,000 planes in the Libyan campaign. One of the advantages enjoyed by the British was a considerable number of new American tanks.
With the temporary stabilizing of some sort of a front at El Agheila the conflict became one primarily of supplies, each side trying to improve its own communications while impeding those of the enemy. With their relatively undisputed control of the sea, the British were able to move up supplies by boat as well as overland. Rommel, on the other hand, experienced considerable difficulty in getting supplies over from Italy, due to British air and submarine action. Malta was therefore subjected to almost continuous aerial bombardment. During a 24-hour period on Jan. 13 and 14, for instance, no less than seventeen alerts were sounded on the island. In this way the Luftwaffe hoped to blanket enemy opposition to Axis convoys. Nevertheless, British submarines continued to be active along the Italy-Tripolitania supply route. The R.A.F. also inflicted damage on airfields and U-boat bases in Crete and Greece.
Rommel Strikes Back.
On Jan. 21 Rommel struck back, and by the 23rd had retaken Agedabia. Six days later his troops were in Bengazi and giving full pursuit to British and Indian troops through the Jebel-el-Achdar. For his rapid success in this campaign, which the British admitted had caught them by surprise, Rommel was elevated by Hitler to the rank of Field Marshal. As it later transpired, Rommel's army had been reinforced by two huge convoys which had got through to Libya. Another factor in his success was the depletion of the British forces through the transfer of a considerable part of them to the Far East to fight in the ill-fated Singapore campaign.
On Feb. 3 Derna was lost by the British, and on the 6th Trimi was given up. At this point, however, Rommel's pursuit came to a temporary halt, and by the middle of February there existed a front with opposing trenches and pillboxes running from the coast inland about fifty miles somewhat to the west of Gazala. This breathing-spell was used by both sides to bring up their reinforcements and supplies and to carry out extensive aerial reconnaissance and bombardments. The British strove valiantly against an augmented Axis air force in an effort to retain their control of the air.
The rapid movement back and forth of this second Libyan campaign helped underline the basic fact that in this wide-open desert and steppe country tactics took on more of the nature of a naval engagement than of usual ground operations. The object of each army was not primarily to gain territory, but to destroy enemy forces wherever they might be. In this respect tanks and small units of mobile men might well be compared to naval vessels, flotillas of destroyers and the like in naval warfare, whose object is to sink the enemy rather than to 'occupy' such and such a stretch of water. Though the British had thrown the Afrika Korps out of Cyrenaica in less than two months, victory had escaped them, since Rommel still possessed enough men and machines to carry on the fight. The same may be said of the British retreat back to Gazala, for they too managed to keep most of their forces intact.
Rommel Resumes Drive to East.
It was announced on March 7 that Free French forces, operating some thousand miles from their base in Chad Territory, had invaded southern Tripolitania and destroyed several Italian outposts in that desert region. On March 8 Rommel started to move east again with three Panzer divisions, only to break off the action shortly thereafter. The rest of March was marked principally by patrol actions on the ground, aerial reconnaissance and bombardment, and attacks by each side on the naval convoys of the other. Malta in particular suffered numerous large-scale raids. At one time it was felt that the Axis was softening up the island preparatory to an invasion from Sicily. During April no less than 5,000 aerial sorties were counted over that much battered island, while during the three days May 9-11, Malta defenders had shot down 101 Axis planes. These constant attacks also helped screen the shipment of large amounts of new equipment to Rommel.
During the lull in Cyrenaica both sides sought to bring up new men and supplies and prepared to use new and better weapons. The British, for instance, were in receipt of growing numbers of American General Lee and General Grant tanks; whereas the Germans, as later events showed, were obtaining more effective anti-tank guns. More and more United States service troops also joined the British forces. The quiet on the Libyan front continued through April and up until the last week of May.
Fall of Bardia and Tobruk.
On May 26 the calm was broken by a general offensive unleashed by the Axis forces along the Gazala front. There ensued a large-scale tank battle south of Tobruk at Sidi Rezegh and Knightsbridge. The outpost at Bir Hacheim held by the Free French was also attacked in force. The battle swayed back and forth for several days, and by June 1 it looked as though Rommel's tanks had been trapped. General Crüwell, Nazi tank commander, was captured. However, Bir Hacheim finally fell on June 10 after a heroic resistance of sixteen days, thus exposing the British left flank. On the 11th Rommel pressed forward and the British were obliged to withdraw after losing many of their tanks. The general consensus of opinion is that the British were out-maneuvred and out-gunned by Rommel. At any rate, they fled to the Egyptian frontier, Bardia falling on June 20.
A considerable garrison, however, was left in Tobruk with the intention of holding out there, as had been done during the previous British retreat from Libya. But this time Rommel gave the British no opportunity to entrench and organize Tobruk; he threw a large part of his tank force against them, overwhelming them almost before they knew it. On June 20 Tobruk was taken, together with some 25,000 Empire troops and large quantities of material.
Germans Stopped at El Alamein; Auchinleck Made Commander.
The British continued to retreat into Egypt, surrendering Mersa Matruh on June 29 — a defeat which cost them another 6,000 troops, according to Axis sources. At this juncture New Zealand reinforcements were thrown into the breach, and by July 3 the German onrush was stopped at El Alamein, only seventy miles from Alexandria.
These serious reverses in North Africa, which came close to resulting in an Axis conquest of Egypt and the Suez Canal, naturally raised a political storm in England, which Mr. Churchill had to face when he returned from the United States at the end of June. On June 30 he announced that Auchinleck had taken over from General Ritchie as Commander in the field. On July 2 he revealed that some 50,000 British troops had been lost during the previous fortnight. He also stated that at the beginning of the campaign the British forces had been stronger than Rommel's in men, tanks, guns and planes. Indeed, in the spring of 1942 the Eighth Army was better supplied than it had ever been before. The inference was clearly that the British defeat had been more a case of bad generalship than inadequate preparation. As several correspondents in the Middle East reported, what the British High Command had lacked — and what Rommel had possessed — was the aggressive spirit.
For the remainder of the summer the campaign at the western approaches of the Egyptian Delta swayed back and forth within a rather narrow zone some forty miles in length, running from the Mediterranean to the Qattara depression. The advantage of short communications now rested with the British, whose forces were constantly being replenished with new men and supplies, whereas Rommel's communications were under constant aerial and naval attack. The British Navy also bombarded Mersa Matruh from time to time. The attack on Egypt had clearly failed, even if by an eyelash, and Mussolini, who had flown to Libya expressly for the purpose, was unable to enjoy his triumphal entry into Alexandria and Cairo!
Alexander Replaces Auchinleck; British Fall Offensive.
In mid-August Prime Minister Churchill stopped off in Egypt on his way to Russia. While there he visited the front and replaced Auchinleck with General Alexander, British Commander in Burma. Alexander was known as a leader with aggressive ideas. On Aug. 19 General Auchinleck, on giving up his command, declared that the Axis had lost 10,000 prisoners during the previous two months. Meanwhile both sides prepared for the coming showdown.
On Sept. 1 Rommel, who had recently received two new divisions, delivered a strong thrust against the British lines, but had to break off his action when he encountered a strong British counteroffensive. This battle seriously weakened his tank strength. On Sept. 13 British forces went ashore at Tobruk in a large-scale Commando-like rain, in which they did extensive damage but suffered serious losses, which included two destroyers. Toward the end of the month it was officially revealed in Cairo that the R. A. F. and American flyers had sunk 60,000 tons of Axis shipping in the Mediterranean since June. In addition, larger quantities had gone down as a result of Allied submarine activity.
With cooler weather early in October, both sides stepped up their preparations, Rommel bringing in some of his replacements from Crete by glider. Beginning Oct. 20, heavy raids were made on Axis airfields, with the intent of putting them out of commission and destroying as many of Rommel's planes as possible. On Oct. 23 and thereafter at frequent intervals, heavy night air raids were made on Genoa and other north Italian cities, from which supplies were shipped to Africa. This aerial war proved to be the prelude to a full-fledged offensive. This started on Oct. 23 with a heavy artillery barrage laid down along the El Alamein front, especially at its northern end. The tanks were kept out of the picture while the sappers and infantry went through the gap created in the Axis lines. Lieut.-General Montgomery, who was in actual command of the operations, placed 25-pound guns every 23 yards along the six-mile strip of front where he effected his break-through. By Nov. 4 the Afrika Korps started to retreat westward, leaving the Italian divisions at the southern end of the front to shift for themselves — most of them were eventually captured after wandering about the desert.
Retreat of Rommel.
With the start of Rommel's retreat there began a war of maneuvre, or rather of pursuit — for the principal problem of Montgomery's army was to maintain contact with the enemy. The British overtook Rommel's rear guard at Mersa Matruh on Nov. 7. On Nov. 11 Churchill told the Commons that in this latest drive the Axis had already lost 59,000 men, of whom 34,000 were Germans. By the following day Egypt had been cleared of the enemy, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that Rommel intended to make no stand in Cyrenaica. On Nov. 13 Tobruk was taken with large stores, as was Bengazi on the 20th. The British cut south of the Jebel-el-Achdar, hoping to prevent Rommel from escaping into Tripolitania, but without success. By mid-November Axis losses amounted to 75,000.
The reasons for the Axis retreat, which was rapid but not disorderly, can only be surmised. Unquestionably the large quantities of new material and reinforcements which reached the Middle East from the United States as well as Great Britain during the late summer and early autumn played a vital role. Also important was the new aggressive spirit instilled into the Eighth Army by Generals Alexander and Montgomery. Further, there is a suspicion that Rommel had got wind of the impending Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa — which took place three days after his lines had been pierced at El Alamein — and that he decided to make the best of a bad situation by retreating to Tripoli, perhaps even to Tunisia, there to make a last stand.
By early December Cyrenaica had been cleared of Axis forces and the British were back at El Agheila for the third time. This time, however, there was no question of Rommel's staging a comeback. Instead, he chose to hold up the British in the El Agheila region only long enough to mine the single road leading around the Gulf of Sirte to Tripoli. By mid-December he was again moving westward, with the British following as close behind as they could in view of the countless booby traps and other devices left by the retreating Afrika Korps. On Dec. 17 Montgomery made one attempt to cut Rommel's line in two at Wadi Matratin, but succeeded in nipping off only a part of the rear guard. As the year closed, some of Rommel's men were already reported in Tunisia, while the British were in the neighborhood of Misurata. Thus ended the Axis threat to Egypt and the Suez Canal from the west.
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