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The Clash of Armor

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Title
The Clash of Armor
Description
The first full-scale encounter between British and German armor in the Battle of Gazala began at approximately 7:15 am in the morning of the 27th of May, 1942 when the British 4th Armoured Brigade was assaulted by the entire armored …
Subject
Publisher
Date
1942-05-27
Scenario#
23
Scenario Description
The first full-scale encounter between British and German armor in the Battle of Gazala began at approximately 7:15 am in the morning of the 27th of May, 1942 when the British 4th Armoured Brigade was assaulted by the entire armored weight of the Afrika Korps approaching from the southwest. For the first time in the war German forces were fully exposed to the high quality of American Lend-Lease equipment in the form of the M3 Medium “General Grant” tank. The results to the Germans were, to Quote Carrell in The Foxes of the Desert, “…some devil’s work.” One portion of this engagement was that of the none Grant’s of “B” Squadron of the 4th Armoured Brigade’s 3rd Royal Tank Regiment facing the spearhead vehicles of the 8th Panzer Regiment of the 15th Panzer Division. “B” Squadron faced over 100 German tanks and barely managed to escape with only one of their original nine Grants.
Location
Point 171, 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
British
German

Geolocation