Gazala
is a small Libyan town some 40 miles from Tobruk.
On 18th November, 1941, Claude Auchinleck
and the recently formed Eighth Army went on the offensive in the Desert
War. General Erwin Rommel was forced
to abandon his siege of Tobruk on 4th December, and the following
month had moved as far west as Archibald Wavell
had achieved a year previously.
Aware that
Wavell's supply lines were now overextended, and after Rommel gained
obtained reinforcements from Tripoli
he launched a counterattack It was now the turn of the British
Army to retreat. After losing Benghazi on 29th January, Claude
Auchinleck ordered his troops to retreat to Gazala.
Over the
next few months the Eighth Army, under Lieutenant General Neil
Richie, established a line of fortifications and minefields. Erwin
Rommel launched his offensive on 26th May. The Italian infantry
attacked at the front while Rommel led his panzers
round the edge of the fortifications to cut off the supply routes.
Ritchie
outnumbered Rommel by two to one but he wasted his advantage by not
using his tanks together. After defeating a series of small counter-attacks
Rommel was able to capture Sidi Muftah. On 12th June, two of the three
British armoured brigades were caught in a pincer movement and were
badly defeated. Two days later Neil Richie,
with only 100 tanks left, abandoned Gazala.
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