Battle of El Agheila
| Battle of El Agheila | |||||||||
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| Part of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War | |||||||||
 The withdrawal of the Axis forces through North Africa. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 United Kingdom New Zealand
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 Germany Italy
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Harold Alexander Bernard Montgomery
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Erwin Rommel
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The Battle of El Agheila was a brief engagement of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. It took place in December 1942 between Allied forces of the Eighth Army (General Bernard Montgomery) and the Axis forces of the German-Italian Panzer Army (Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel), during the long Axis withdrawal from El Alamein to Tunis. It ended with the German-Italian Panzer Army resuming its retreat towards Tunisia, where the Tunisia Campaign had begun with Operation Torch (8–16 November 1942).
On 4 November 1942, Rommel decided to end the Second Battle of El Alamein and withdraw west towards Libya. In doing so, he defied the "Stand to the last" orders of Adolf Hitler, to save the remainder of his force. The Afrika Korps reached the village of Fuka the next day. Italian forces had arrived earlier, having withdrawn from El Alamein from 3–4 November and formed a defensive line. The Italians resumed their withdrawal on the same day after an Allied attack and the Germans followed suit. Montgomery rested some of his formations after their efforts at El Alamein, leading with the 4th Light Armoured Brigade.
Rain on the afternoon of 6 November, impeded the British pursuit as the Axis forces continued their withdrawal and a new defence line was established at Mersa Matruh the following day, some 110 mi (180 km) west of El Alamein. Rommel received a warning from Hitler of an expected Allied landing between Tobruk and Benghazi but on 8 November, he discovered that this was wrong. There were Anglo-American landings in Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch). The Eastern Task Force—aimed at Algiers—landed with 20,000 troops and began moving east towards Rommel. Facing the prospect of a large Allied force to his rear, he decided to withdraw in one bound to El Agheila.
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