page_title: Operation Crusader
section_title: Gazala line
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Crusader / Battle / Third phase / Gazala line
caption_attribution_description: Damaged German Panzer IIIs in the "Valley of Death" near Belhamed, Libya, during "Operation Crusader".
context_page_description: Operation Crusader was a military operation of the Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War by the British Eighth Army, against the Axis forces in North Africa commanded by Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel. The operation was intended to by-pass Axis defences on the Egyptian–Libyan frontier, defeat the Axis armoured forces and relieve the 1941 Siege of Tobruk.
  On 18 November 1941, the Eighth Army launched a surprise attack. From 18 to 22 November, the dispersal of British armoured units led to them suffering 530 tank losses, inflicting Axis losses of about 100 tanks. On 23 November the 5th South African Brigade was destroyed at Sidi Rezegh, while inflicting many German tank casualties. On 24 November Rommel ordered the "dash to the wire", causing chaos in the British rear echelons but allowing the British armoured forces to recover. On 27 November the New Zealanders reached the Tobruk garrison, relieving the siege.
  The battle continued into December, when supply shortages forced Rommel to narrow his front and shorten his lines of communication. On 7 December 1941 Rommel withdrew the Axis forces to the Gazala position and on 15 December ordered a withdrawal to El Agheila.
context_section_description: On 7 December the 4 Armoured Brigade engaged 15th Panzer, disabling 11 more tanks. Rommel had been told on 5 December by the Italian Comando Supremo that supply could not improve until the end of the month when the airborne supply from Sicily would start. Realising that success was now unlikely at Bir el Gubi, he decided to narrow his front and shorten his lines of communication by abandoning the Tobruk front and withdrawing to the positions at Gazala, 10 miles (16 km) to his rear, which had been in preparation by Italian rear echelon units and which he had occupied by 8 December. He placed the Italian X Corps at the coastal end of the line and Italian XXI Corps inland. The weakened Italian Mobile Corps anchored the southern end of the line at Alem Hamza while the Afrika Korps were placed behind the southern flank ready to counterattack.
  On 6 December, Rommel ordered his divisions to retreat westwards, leaving the Savona to hold out as long as possible in the Sollum, Halfaya and Bardia area. They continued to fight for another month and a half. That night, the 70th Division captured the German-held Walter and Freddie strong points without any resistance; a Pavia battalion made a stand on Point 157, inflicting heavy casualties on the 2nd Durham Light Infantry with its dug-in infantry before being overcome after midnight. Despite the German 90th Light Division pulling out of the Tobruk sector on 4 December, the Bologna Division held out until the night of 8–9 December when trucks were finally assigned to give them some support. In a final action on the part of the British 70th Division, the Polish Carpathian Brigade attacked elements of the Brescia Division, covering the Axis retreat and captured the White Knoll position. The Tobruk defenders were finally relieved as a result after a nineteen-day battle.
  In the hope of getting better co-ordination between his infantry and armour, Ritchie transferred 7th Armoured Division to XIII Corps and directed XXX Corps HQ to take South African 2nd Division under command and conduct a siege of the border fortresses. He also sent forward to XIII Corps the 4th Indian Infantry Division and 5th NZ Infantry Brigade. The Eighth Army launched its attack on the Gazala line on 13 December. 5th NZ Brigade attacked along an eight-mile front from the coast while 5th Indian Infantry Brigade made a flanking attack at Alem Hamza. Although the Trieste Division successfully held Alem Hamza, 1st battalion The Buffs from 5th Indian Infantry succeeded in taking point 204, some miles west of Alem Hamza. They were thus left in a vulnerable salient and 7th Indian Infantry Brigade to their left were ordered to send northwards 4th battalion 11th Sikh Regiment, supported by guns from 25th Field Regiment and 12 Valentine tanks from 8th Royal Tank Regiment, to ease their position. This force found itself confronted by the Afrika Korps fielding 39 tanks together with 300 lorries of infantry and guns. Once again the 7th Armoured Division were not in place to intervene and it was left to the force's artillery and supporting tanks to face the threat. Taking heavy casualties, they nevertheless managed to knock out fifteen German tanks and stall the counterattack.
  Godwin-Austen ordered Gott to get the British armour to a position where it could engage the Afrika Korps, unaware that Gott and his senior commanders were no longer confident they could defeat the enemy directly, despite their superiority in numbers, because of the Germans' superior tactics and anti-tank artillery, favoured making a wide detour to attack the enemy's soft-skinned elements and lines of supply to immobilise them.
  On 14 December the Polish Independent Brigade was brought forward to join the New Zealanders and prepare a new attack for the early hours of 15 December. The attack went in at 03:00, taking the defenders by surprise. The two brigades made good progress but narrowly failed to breach the line.
  Meanwhile, on 14 December, to the south, there was little activity from the Afrika Korps and 7th Indian Infantry Brigade were limited to patrollin
caption: Damaged Panzer IIIs at Belhamed, 16 December 1941
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