Operation Battleaxe

Part of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War

Soldiers of the 4th Indian Division decorate the side of their lorry "Khyber Pass to Hell-Fire Pass".

Date	15–17 June 1941
Location	Cyrenaica, Libya Coordinates: 31°30′13″N 25°06′54″E / 31.50361°N 25.11500°E / 31.50361; 25.11500
Result	Axis victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

British India

Germany

Italy

Commanders and leaders

Archibald Wavell

Alan Cunningham

Noel Beresford-Peirse

Erwin Rommel

Italo Gariboldi

Strength

25,000 men
~190 tanks
98 fighters
105 bombers

13,200 soldiers
196 tanks
130 fighters
84 bombers

Casualties and losses

969 casualties
91-98 tanks
36 aircraft

~678 casualties
12 tanks
10 aircraft

United Kingdom

Operation Battleaxe was a British Army operation during the Second World War in June 1941, to clear eastern Cyrenaica of German and Italian forces and raise the Siege of Tobruk. It was the first time during the war that a significant German force fought on the defensive but the operation failed as British forces attacked strong defensive positions created by German General Erwin Rommel. The British lost over half of their tanks on the first day and only one of the three attacks succeeded.

The British achieved mixed results on the second day, being pushed back on their western flank and repulsing a big German counter-attack in the centre. On the third day, the British narrowly avoided disaster by withdrawing just ahead of a German encircling movement. The failure of Battleaxe led to the replacement of British General Sir Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief Middle East, by Claude Auchinleck; Wavell took Auchinleck's position as Commander-in-Chief, India.

In late March 1941, soon after the arrival of the Afrika Korps in Tripoli, Libya to reinforce the Italians, the Axis forces quickly captured the British front line position at El Agheila and by mid-April, had reached as far as Sallum, Egypt. The British held the fortified port of Tobruk, which was besieged by the Axis. Having been informed by General Wavell that the Western Desert Force was vastly inferior to the Axis forces now in Africa, Churchill ordered that a convoy of tanks and Hawker Hurricanes, Convoy WS 58 (Operation Tiger), be sailed through the Mediterranean instead of around the Cape of Good Hope to cut forty days off the journey.

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Wikipedia