Nobody expected Rommel's Second North African Offensive! BATTLESTORM

The British 8th Army had achieved a limited success during Operation Crusader, forcing Rommel to retreat from the Egyptian border to Mersa el-Brega, abandoning almost all of Cyrenaica. Rommel had lost 33% of his German troops and 40% of his Italian soldiers. And after nine months of being in North Africa, Rommel was back at his starting point. But Almost as soon as Rommel had been forced to retreat due to lack of supplies, events began to turn in his favour. Rommel didn't view the retreat from the Egyptian frontier as a defeat, since he was focused on destroying the enemy army, not capturing or losing what he perceived to be empty ground. And with the British offensive stalled due to the fact that they had outrun their logistics, Rommel was able to build up his defences and prepare his next move. On the one hand, the men in the Afrika Korps didn't think they'd be able to regain the ground they'd just lost. But strangely, the successful retreat had not only boosted morale and allowed the men to rest and refit, but also shortened Axis supply lines. On top of this, convoys crossing the Mediterranean had an easier time of it than they had previously, partly because British ships and planes had been withdrawn to go fight Japan, but also because Albert Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 had started to bomb Malta. The British K-Force – a bunch of ships that were based on the island – were either damaged or sunk in December, allowing two Axis convoys with new men, new fuel, and new panzers to arrive in Libya to reinforce Rommel. All of the new panzers were the latest Panzer III and Panzer IV models, boasting heavier armour and better guns than anything Rommel had had previously. So, at the very moment that the British were at the very end of their tether and were forced to withdraw units into the rear or even to the far east to fight Japan, Rommel was reinvigorated with fresh forces and supplies. In total, Panzer Army Africa now had three German and seven Italian divisions, split into three groups, with 12,500 German and 25,000 Italian troops, either 84, 111 or 117 panzers, the numbers vary, and 79 or 89 Italian tanks, for a total of up to 206 tanks. They also had 515 aircraft, although only 300 were operational. So, Rommel had slightly more tanks than his opponent, up to 206 Axis tanks vs 154 British, and the German panzers were generally superior to the British Crusader and M3 Light tanks that they had at this time. Rommel's 300 operational aircraft also slightly outnumbered the 280 operational aircraft the British had as well, and on paper at least, it appears that Rommel was outnumbered in most other respects. However, the paper strengths are misleading. In reality, most of the British armoured cars and anti-aircraft guns were not at the front, they were refitting at Massas because they had broken down in the rough terrain, and the British anti-tank guns were the weak two-pounder versions. The German Pak guns were generally better, so while not at full strength, Rommel was in better shape than his British opponents. Then, his intelligence reports gave him a clear picture of the state of British forces in the region. This was because of US Colonel Bonnefellas, an Anglophobe stationed in Egypt who was busy reporting on the British military's activities to his superiors in Washington. But no one on the Allied side were aware that the Italians had stolen the US security codes from the US Embassy in Italy in September 1941, so Rommel was reading everything that Bonnefellas was saying. He knew the Eighth Army's plans, strengths, and the disposition of its units, which is why he nicknamed Bonnefellas the Gute Quelle, or the Good Source. Rommel therefore understood that, because Japan had entered the war in December 1941, the British were forced to pull units out of the Middle East, or send reinforcements that should have gone there, like the British 18th Division, straight to fight Japan. The 7th Armoured Brigade was sent to Burma, and Godwin-Austin, 13th Corps' commander, begged his superiors not to take the 9th Australian Division away from him. But it was, and it ended up at the Turkish border. Rommel also knew that British supply lines were now over 600 miles in length along a single roadway. They couldn't use the ports like at Benghazi because these had been damaged and mined during Rommel's retreat, and there weren't enough tugboats to bring the big ships into the docks. To supply the 13th Corps and the RAF in the region, the British needed 1,400 tons per day, and they were receiving 1,150, a shortfall of 250 tons per day. The men, therefore, were deprived of proper food, cigarettes, and rum, and were living off battle rations for weeks on end. So, even though Churchill, Auchinleck, and General Ritchie the guy in charge of the British 8th Army, all wanted to launch Operation Acrobat to drive the Axis out of North Africa, the reality was that their logistics wouldn't have allowed them to go much further. This was all eerily similar to what had happened in 1941. The British had won a spectacular victory against the Italians during Operation Compass, had reached the Alleghela area, and were about to advance further. But then Churchill pulled units out of North Africa to fight in Greece and elsewhere. Well, the exact same thing was happening again, this time under Auchinleck's command rather than Wavell's. The good news was that the Germans would prioritize the Axis-Soviet front, so it was thought that Rommel wouldn't receive much in the way of reinforcements in 1942. The bad news was that the British were wrong. Then, because Gott's veteran 7th Armoured Division had been battered during Crusader, it was now pulled out of the line and sent to Cairo, and was replaced with Lumsden's inexperienced 1st Armoured Division. But not all of it. Since its 22nd Armoured Brigade had been sent forward to fight in Operation Crusader, it was so depleted that it was withdrawn to Tobruk to refit. Thus, the only tanks of the division at the front were those of Raymond Briggs' 2nd Armoured Brigade, deployed at Antelat. Major General Lumsden was then wounded in an air attack, so Major General Masservi, commander of the 4th Indian Division, took over as 1st Armoured Division's commander. This made Masservi the only British Indian Army officer to command a British division during the Second World War. And while he was a decent and experienced infantry commander, he hadn't commanded tanks before, and so made a decision which would end up being a controversial one. Because of Masservi's experience as an infantry commander dealing with the German panzers, he knew that the inadequate 2-pounder anti-tank guns in Valentin's 1st Support Group, deployed near Mersebrega, weren't going to be enough to stop the German panzers. He therefore transferred the 25-pounder field artillery pieces from the 2nd Armoured Brigade to Valentin to bolster the defences at the front. Briggs complained about this, and it deprived the 2nd Armoured Brigade of effective anti-tank and artillery support prior to the coming battle. The new organization was to prove disastrous, and is the likely origin of the intense and harmful antipathy between Generals Masservi and Lumsden. Briggs was left with South African field artillery and anti-tank units. And this would be okay if the South Africans were experienced with tanks, which they were not. They also had fewer radios than the British troops had, and because of the dire supply situation, there wasn't enough fuel to adequately train the troops. Now, due to the lack of fuel, and the belief that the Germans wouldn't be able to attack, it made sense to harass the Germans with Jock Columns, which were small infantry and artillery units, whilst keeping the British tanks back behind the lines for a counter-attack. But many of the tanks were worn out by the long journey to the front, and were in much need of repair. They were also not as good as the German panzers. I agree that our tanks are outgunned by the German tanks, but surely superiority in numbers should counterbalance this to some extent, and the number of German tanks with the heavier gun in them cannot be so great. Worse, because of the rough terrain in the area, the armoured cars of the 12th Lancers were forced to fall back to refit at Massus. Thus, the 1st Support Group was left with just 23 M3 Light Tanks, and these were the only tanks at the front, with the rest of the tanks, 130 of them, in the 2nd Armoured Brigade, located 90 miles behind the line. On top of this, the brigade had both Crusader and M3 Light Tanks, which were initially in separate squadrons. But probably because the tanks moved at different speeds, it was then decided to put these tanks together in mixed squadrons to keep them at the same speed. This, by itself, wouldn't have been bad, but the M3 Lights and Crusaders had different types of radios that used different frequencies, making communication problematic at best. In other words, 1st Armoured Division was in a dire state. So Massurvi asked if his former division, 4th Indian Division, now commanded by General Tucker, a veteran of the Eastern North African campaigns, could move to Ajdabia so that he could place the 1st Armoured Division south-east of them. But he was told that the logistics weren't available to maintain such a force at the front. Thus, Harold Briggs' 7th Indian Infantry Brigade was at Benghazi, Andersen's 11th Indian Infantry Brigade was refitting at Tobruk, and the only unit at the front apart from 1st Support Group was Marriott's 22nd Guards Brigade, which had recently been renumbered as the 200th Guards Brigade. Worse, Marriott's 200th Guards Brigade only had two battalions, and because there wasn't enough artillery, only one of these was at the front, with the other stationed at Ajdabia. Marriott's one battalion was then split into four jock columns to harass the enemy at Mersebrega, which weakened it further, although the British didn't realize that the jock columns were a bad idea until later. Rommel therefore knew that he had tank superiority, that there was just a thin screen of British units ahead of him, and thought that it was best to take advantage of this before the British overcame their supply difficulties. Then, because he suspected that the enemy was reading his mail, and he mistakenly believed that the Italians had betrayed him, even though it was the British who had broken some of the German codes, he decided not to tell his superiors of his plans. Thus, knowing that his orders were to defend, not attack, and believing that Rommel's forces were too weak to attack them at this time, Auchinleck, Ritchie and Godwin-Austen were taken completely by surprise when Rommel's advance started just 16 days after the end of the previous retreat. At 0800 hours on the morning of the 21st of January 1942, Rommel launched his second offensive, sending the Duchess Afrika Korps around the British flank. It had rained overnight, which was perhaps why the 15th Panzer Division and part of the 21st Panzer Division got bogged down in the sand dunes, slowing the advance. Nonetheless, the jock columns harassed the Germans as they fell back, but also suffered in the rough terrain and were subjected to Stuka assaults, forcing the 1st Support Group to abandon 16 of their 25-pounder field artillery pieces and many other vehicles too. And because Antelat airfield had turned to mud, the British fighters spent the day relocating to Massus, which prevented them from intervening to stop the Stukas. The Germans therefore advanced about 12 miles into the British lines, opening up a gap between the 200th Guards Brigade and 1st Support Group. So, Mussovie came to the conclusion that Rommel was trying to cut through the seam between the two units. He therefore ordered the 200th Guards Brigade to hold the area south of Ajdabia, and the 1st Support Group to defend the area near El-Haziat, while the 2nd Armoured Brigade would be brought up to Gfl Mata to strike the Axis flank if Rommel broke through. Great plan, but Rommel wasn't aiming for the centre, and instead ordered the advance to continue towards Ajdabia via the coast road the next day. With Rommel leading the charge, the Marx Group set off along the Via Balbia, slowed slightly by the guns of the 200th Guards Brigade. This minor resistance notwithstanding, they reached Ajdabia by 1100 hours, getting around the British flank at the coast. Rommel then met with Crüwell and decided that the Marx Group should move towards Saunu, while the Dutchess Africa Corps and the Italian 20th Corps would deploy between the Marx Group and Ajdabia. Once in position, all of them would strike south-east and push the British further into the desert, driving them away from their supply lines. Well, as the Marx Group set off towards Saunu and the village of Antelat, Mussovie realised that he was being outflanked, and ordered the 200th Guards Brigade to block the road. Marriott therefore sent the 2nd Scots Guards towards Antelat, but they were beaten there by the Marx Group, which took it at 1700 hours. Godwin-Austen therefore ordered Mussovie to block the roads leading to Massus in order to keep their supply lines open, and Mussovie in turn ordered the 2nd Guards Brigade back north to fulfil this order. Briggs sent ahead a British battlegroup centred around the 9th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade north to block the road between Antelat and Ajdabia. However, a lack of petrol prevented them from reaching it. At the start of the battle, General Ritchie had been in Cairo, and had only arrived at the front on the afternoon of the 22nd, just as the Marx Group was driving up to Antelat. Assessing the situation, Ritchie believed that Rommel was sticking his neck out, and that this was just a strong reconnaissance-in-force, since Rommel didn't have the resources to maintain forces east of Ajdabia. He was, in fact, echoing Auchinleck's view that a withdrawal to Massus and Benghazi would suffice in the event that the Axis launched a reconnaissance-in-force, since Rommel's logistics would prevent him from going further. Therefore, everything was fine. Far from a crisis, this was a good opportunity for the British to cut Rommel's forces off, he thought. At 0445 hours on the 23rd, Godwin-Osting contacted Masservy and told him that the Germans had reached Antelat and Saunu. They were, therefore, behind him. They had to break out of the potential encirclement, and it was also vital that they stop Rommel from reaching Massus. Masservy therefore ordered Briggs to send a battalion, the Queen's Bays, to Saunu and retake it. Well, just a few minutes later, at 0500 hours, the Marx Group set off from Saunu towards Matten-el-Jarara, leaving the area unguarded. It seems there was a miscommunication on the German side, and the 21st Panzer Division, which was meant to have moved up to Saunu, sat in place, probably also because they ran into their own mines that they had planted a month before, thus creating a gap in the Axis lines. That's why the Queen's Bays of the 2nd Armoured Brigade arrived at Saunu to find it empty. Masservy acted quickly, ordering the 2nd Armoured Brigade to hold the flank of the division between Ajdabia and Antelat, as the rest of the division withdrew through the gap. That's when the 2nd Armoured Brigade ran into the 21st Panzer Division, and a tank battle ensued. The 9th Lancers and the 10th Hussars became embroiled in a fight with panzers and anti-tank guns, and it looked as though the gap might close. Could the British break out of the trap, or would Rommel devour his prey? We'll find out next time. Thanks for watching, bye for now.