← Previous Item

Escape via the Coastal Road

Next Item →

http://wargame-scenarios.com/images/m44med.jpg
http://wargame-scenarios.com/images/m44logo.jpg

Title
Escape via the Coastal Road
Description
Building up their forces through the now opened supply lines, Rommel's Afrikakorps eventually broke out of the cauldron, seizing Bir Hakeim but only capturing about 500 wounded Frenchmen . On June 13 "Black Sunday", 21st Panzer shreds the 22nd Armoured …
Subject
Publisher
Date
1942-06-14
Scenario#
4241
Scenario Description
Building up their forces through the now opened supply lines, Rommel's Afrikakorps eventually broke out of the cauldron, seizing Bir Hakeim but only capturing about 500 wounded Frenchmen . On June 13 "Black Sunday", 21st Panzer shreds the 22nd Armoured Brigade to pieces, threatening Tobruk and cutting off XIII Corps on the Gazala line. The next day, Auchinleck authorizes General Ritchie to withdraw. Defenders in El Adem and neighboring boxes held firm, allowing the 1st South African Division to escape intact along the coastal road. But the road could not accommodate two divisions. With Panzer Divisions blocking the east, the remaining brigades of the Northumbrian Division were forced to attack the Brescia and Pavia Divisions and head south in the desert, before turning back west. The German Panzers raced north, but could not move fast enough to close the road before the bulk of British troops had escaped!
Location
El Adem, Libya
Battle Name
Battle Narrative
The Battle 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 consisting of German and Italian units fought the British Eighth Army 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 defenses. 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 coordinated 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.
Narrative Source
Wikipedia: Battle of Gazala
Combatants
German/Italian
British
Additional Information
Game Type: Standard
Board Type: Desert
Website Access: Available

Geolocation