Battle of Gazala

The Battle of Gazala was a World War II battle fought between the Axis Forces, under the command of Erwin Rommel, and the British 8th Army, commanded by Sir Neil Ritchie, near the town of Gazala, Lybia, North Africa, from May 26 to June 21, 1942. The outcome of the battle was a German victory. Since Gazala lay 60 km west of Tobruk, the British also lost that city port to the Germans.

Background

Having launched Operation Crusader in late 1941, the British 8th Army had pushed the Axis forces out of Cyrenaica and forced Rommel to withdraw to strong defensive positions he had prepared at El Agheila. Nevertheless, the British 500-mile advance had over-stretched their supply lines and by January 1942 they had thinned out their front line troops to work on building lines of communications and supply dumps to enable a further thrust west to be made against Tripolitania. Meanwhile, Rommel had received reinforcements in men and tanks, and, on January 21, sent out three strong armored columns to make a tactical reconnaissance. Finding only the thinnest of screens in front of him he rapidly changed his reconnaissance into an offensive. He recaptured Benghazi on January 28, and Timimi on February 3 and kept advancing toward the fortified port of Tobruk on the Mediterranean coast. Between Gazala and Timimi, just west of Tobruk, the 8th Army was able to concentrate its forces sufficiently to turn and fight.

After building up his supplies and carefully planning his military operation, Rommel was ready by late May, 1942. On the left wing, he had deployed the Italian 132th Armored Division Ariete which would neutralize the Bir Hacheim box while on the right the 21st Panzer Division and 15th Panzer Division would advance north behind the British 8th Army defences to engage and destroy the British armored units and cut off the divisions on the Gazala line. On the far right of the attacking formation the German 90th Light Afrika Division Battle Group was to advance to El Adem, south of Tobruk to interfere with the lines of supply to the Gazala position and pin potential reinforcements to the Tobruk area.

Summary

The Battle of Gazala began at 14:00 hours, on May 26th, 1942, when units of the Italian Ariete Division launched a powerful surprise assault on the British Gazala positions. For deception purposes small elements of the Afrika and XX Mobile Corps were attached to the assault groups to give the impression that all the Axis forces were committed to this assault. On May 27, Rommel personally led the 21st and 15th Panzer Division in a brilliant but risky flank maneuver around the southern end of the Allied lines, thrusting to the enemy’s own minefields to protect his flank and rear.

At the beginning the British fought back well, trapping Rommel’s units between a minefield and their own defensive “box”. The German fought ferociously against gallant British infantry companies that tried to tear out gaps in the German positions. Rommel was running out of supplies when the Italian Trieste Division managed to plow a route through the minefield and get a supply column to him. Indecision and arguments in British headquarters also helped. Finally, on June 1, Rommel and his men managed to break out of the cauldron of hell they were trapped in and overwhelmed the British “box”. Then, the Germans pushed on toward Tobruk, defeating several British units along the way. The remainders of the 8th Army elements were forced to abandon their positions and fall back to the El Alamein line in Egypt.

Below, German armored vehicles of a reconnaissance unit right before the battle of Gazala