Battle of El Agheila

Battle of El Agheila
Part of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War
The withdrawal of the Axis forces through North Africa
Date 11–18 December 1942[a] Location El Agheila, Libya 30°16′N 19°12′E / 30.267°N 19.200°E / 30.267; 19.200 Result (see Analysis section) Territorial changes Axis forces retreated from Cyrenaica to Tripolitania.
Belligerents
United Kingdom  New Zealand	Germany  Italy
Commanders and leaders
Harold Alexander Bernard Montgomery	Ettore Bastico Erwin Rommel

The Battle of El Agheila was a brief engagement of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. It took place in December 1942 between Allied forces of the Eighth Army (General Bernard Montgomery) and the Axis forces of the German-Italian Panzer Army (Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel), during the long Axis withdrawal from El Alamein to Tunis. The Eighth Army planned to outflank and trap the Axis forces as they withdrew to Tunis.

The Eighth Army plan was thwarted when a frontal attack by the British 7th Armoured Division was repulsed by an Italian rearguard action and the outflanking New Zealand units became dispersed in the desert. The engagement ended with the German-Italian Panzer Army withdrawing into Tripolitana towards Tunisia, where the Tunisia Campaign had begun with the Operation Torch the Allied invasion of French North Africa (8–16 November 1942).
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