Battle of Gazala

Battle of Gazala
Part of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War
Panzer III and Rommel's command vehicle in the western desert at the time of the Gazala battles.
Date 26 May – 21 June 1942 (3 weeks and 5 days) Location Gazala, near Tobruk, Libya 31°57′N 23°27′E / 31.950°N 23.450°E / 31.950; 23.450 Result German–Italian victory
Belligerents
Italy  Germany	United Kingdom  India  South Africa  Free France  United States[a]
Commanders and leaders
Ettore Bastico Erwin Rommel	Claude Auchinleck Neil Ritchie
Units involved
Panzerarmee Afrika/Gruppo Corazzato Africa Regia Aeronautica Luftwaffe	Eighth Army Desert Air Force
Strength
90,000 men (60,000 Italian, 30,000 German) 560 tanks (228 Italian) 542 aircraft	110,000 men 843 tanks 604 aircraft
Casualties and losses
German 3,360 men (26 May – 24 June)[3][b] 400 armoured vehicles damaged or destroyed Italian 3,000 men 125 tanks 44 armoured cars 39 guns 74 anti-tank guns 450 motor vehicles	50,000[3] killed, wounded or captured (incl. c. 33,000 prisoners at Tobruk)[c] 1,188 armoured vehicles damaged or destroyed
Many damaged tanks were returned to action by both sides

The Battle of Gazala (near the village of Gazala) was fought during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942. Axis troops of the Panzerarmee Afrika (Generaloberst Erwin Rommel) consisting of German and Italian units fought the British Eighth Army (General Sir Claude Auchinleck, also Commander-in-Chief Middle East) composed mainly of British Commonwealth, Indian and Free French troops.

The Axis troops made a decoy attack in the north as the main attack moved round the southern flank of the Gazala position. Unexpected resistance at the south end of the line around the Bir Hakeim box by the Free French garrison left Panzerarmee Afrika with a long and vulnerable supply route around the Gazala Line. Rommel retired to a defensive position backing onto Allied minefields (the Cauldron), forming a base in the midst of the British defences. Italian engineers lifted mines from the west side of the minefields to create a supply route through to the Axis side.

Operation Aberdeen, an attack by the Eighth Army to finish off the Panzerarmee, was poorly co-ordinated and defeated in detail; many British tanks were lost and the Panzerarmee regained the initiative. The Eighth Army withdrew from the Gazala Line and the Axis troops overran Tobruk in a day. Rommel pursued the Eighth Army into Egypt and forced it out of several defensive positions. The Battle of Gazala is considered the greatest victory of Rommel's career.

As both sides neared exhaustion, the Eighth Army checked the Axis advance at the First Battle of El Alamein. To support the Axis advance into Egypt, the planned attack on Malta (Operation Herkules) was postponed. The British were able to revive Malta as a base for attacks on Axis convoys to Libya, greatly complicating Axis supply difficulties at El Alamein.

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