**Operation "Brevity" - The Matrix Games version of West Front

{H2H} {HIS} In the Western Desert by early 1941, the British seemed poised to throw the Axis out of North Africa. Operation " Compass" had seen the fall of Eastern Libya (Cyrenaica) and planning was well underway for the advance westward into Tripolitania. Three events turned this happy state of affairs on its head. The diversion, in February, of a large proportion of the desert army to Greece, in a quixotic quest to prevent the German takeover, resulted in a small static area command being set up in Cyrenaica . On 12 Feb 1941, a certain Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel arrived in Tripoli, and attacked the scattered British on 31 March. And, on 6 April, LtGen O'Connor, victor over the Italians, was captured by DAK recon elements. By mid- April, Tobruk, garrisoned by Morshead's tough Australians was besieged, and had been assaulted unsuccesfully by Axis forces, who by April's end had established themselves on the Egyptian frontier, where supply shortages halted further progress. This operational lull was broken by a limited British attack, aptly named "Brevity", in mid-May. General Wavell (CinC Middle East] defined Operation Brevity's primary objectives to be ....recapture the Halfaya Pass, drive the enemy from the Sollum and Capuzzo areas, and deplete Rommel's forces. A secondary objective was to advance towards Tobruk, although only as far as supplies would allow, and without risking the force committed to the operation. Brig "Strafer" Gott with a division-sized force struck on 15 May. [SPECIAL NOTES] {EA}The objective hexes symbolize the British plans.