El Alamein was the last position between them and Alexandria. Rommel and his Panzer Divisions then sped towards the Egypt border, chasing the Eighth Army as they retreated to El Alamein in Egypt. Eventually, under his command, the British defeated the Axis forces in the Second Battle of El Alamein. He also emphasised tactics that favoured British strengths against those of the Afrika Korps (which was good at rapid and mobile attacks). He accurately identified British advantages and the German disadvantages. The Axis forces seized this opportunity to occupy Tobruk, and so the city which the Axis had besieged for over a year was now in German hands. The loss of Tobruk shocked the whole of Britain.Ĭommanding officer of the British forces in El Alamein, Field Marshal Montgomery. The British defensive line collapsed and the Eighth Army sustained heavy losses, forcing them to retreat in chaos. Together, they pushed deep into the rear of the British line and defeated the British in a tank battle in Knightsbridge Box. The 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions, together with the 90th Light Infantry Division and the Italian 132nd Divisione Corazzata (Armoured Division) Ariete, flanked the British defensive line from the south of Bir Hakeim.
On 26th May 1942, Panzerarmee Afrika attacked the Eighth Army’s strongholds along Gazala. This picture shows Rommel instructing a combat unit during the battle from his command truck named “Greif”, made from a modified from Sd.Kfz.250.( BA) The Deutsches Afrika Korps defeated the British Eighth Army using fast-moving armoured attacks, captured Tobruk (a key target the Germans had eyed and besieged for a long time) and forced the British to retreat to the Egypt-Libya border. Rommel was at the peak of his career during the Battle of Gazala on June 1942. With years of experience under their belts, they were veterans of desert warfare. At the time, there were 2 Panzer strike forces in Panzerarmee Afrika - the 15th Panzer Division and 21st Panzer Division. Rommel was able to stockpile resources that he needed for a summer offensive.
Continuous air raids on British positions in Malta by Luftflotte 2 of the Luftwaffe kept the sea lanes clear. The Port of Benghazi was now fully operational, so supply lines were greatly shortened. Let us now take a look into this battle!Įarly 1942, Panzerarmee Afrika withdrew from Cyrenaica in North African Winter Campaign, withdrawing to Gazala where the Germans could stop to recover from the losses suffered in previous bat tles. At Gazala, the Germans defeated a British counterattack by the Eighth Army, inflicting severe losses on them at little cost to themselves.Ĭompared to 1941, the logistics situation had improved greatly. From then on, the Germans no longer experienced complete and rapid victory against the Allies in North Africa.
75 years ago, German general Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps fought in the battle of El Alamein, which marked the beginning of a period of misfortune.
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