#261: Gazala to Alamein - TWiE War on the Southern Front

Gazala, May 27th 1942: After recapturing Cyrenaica early in the year, Rommel and the Africa Korps paused to catch its breath. Facing them, across a minefield stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the French stronghold at Bir Hacheim, some 65km to the south, was the 8th Army. It was led by the ever tentative British commander, General Ritchie, a staff officer who had never commanded anything larger than a company in battle. Ritchie deployed his infantry in a number of defensive boxes along a static front line with an open left flank. This position, known as the Gazala Line, was backed with the only mobile formations, the armored divisions that represented his reserves. Everyone at 8th Army HQ expected Rommel to drive down the main road along the coast. Therefore Rommel provided a diversion in that direction to keep the British command occupied; while he led the powerful panzer divisions and the best of the Italian mobile formations around the end of the line into the British rear area. Dawn found the Axis forces slicing through the screening armored car recon units Ritchie had deployed to cover his open flank. This would be a battle where the British led 8th Army was once again outmanoeuvred. While the position Rommel placed the Africa Korps in was very tenuous for a number of days, due to the lack of supply, poorly co-ordinated British counter-attacks left Rommel to turn a bad situation into one of the greatest victories in his career.