![]() ![]() No tank commander will go far wrong if he places his gun within hitting range of the enemy.” Operation Crusader: Heavy Armor Battle William “Strafer” Gott, commander of the Desert Rats, summed up his mission before Operation Crusader, “This will be a tank commander’s battle. ![]() Its specific aim was to neutralize and destroy the German armor so that forces advancing along the coast road, the Via Balbia, could relieve the besieged garrison of Tobruk. Most of it moved in a wide, flanking movement south of the main German and Italian dispositions. The division consisted of over 400 tanks-more than the stock of the entire Deutsche Afrika Korps ( DAK). The “Desert Rats” of the 7th were to be the armored fist of the attacking British forces trying to break the siege of Tobruk. The 7th Armored Brigade, part of the 7th Armored Division of the Eighth Army, crossed the frontier wire from Egypt during the night of November 18. The 7th Support, as it was known, was commanded by Brigadier “Jock” Campbell, who was to win the Victoria Cross for his subsequent actions in the battle. With the 7th Armored Brigade was the divisional support group of artillery and antitank guns, which immediately began to dig in under the shadow of the escarpment that overlooked the southern part of the airfield. The remainder were caught on the ground and captured or destroyed by the surprise arrival of the 7th Armored Brigade with its Mark IVA Cruiser tanks on November 19. Any aircraft that could fly were hastily dispersed to other Axis airfields. In late November 1941 this role suddenly changed as Sidi Rezegh became a focal point for the British attempt to force an end to the siege of Tobruk. The primary function of the forces stationed there was to support the efforts of the besiegers of the fortress of Tobruk, whose perimeter lay only a dozen or so miles north of the field. Its most recent occupants were elements of the Luftwaffe that had occupied the field since shortly after Rommel’s successful counteroffensive of April 1941. Sidi Rezegh had been built by the Axis as a forward airbase to assist in their defense of Western Libya. Thousands Would Die Within Sight of the Airstrip German panzer heads toward black smoke that marks where British tanks have been knocked out. ![]() Rommel’s tactical acumen enabled his forces to initially outmaneuver the British while conducting a strategic withdrawal. The Libyan desert near Tobruk became a killing ground for men and machines in November 1941. Before that could happen, however, hundreds of British tanks and dozens of German panzers-as well as thousands of men-would die within sight of the little dirt airstrip. When the attack ultimately failed him, Sidi Rezegh became one of the first places from which he was to demonstrate his mastery of the strategic retreat. Up to then General Erwin Rommel, commander of Panzergruppe Afrika, had been the master of the attack. Ultimately, however, forces unrelated to the actual combat on the field forced the victors at Sidi Rezegh to retreat. ![]() It is significant because in actions on or within a few miles of the landing strip, British armor doctrine was soundly defeated time and again by the combined arms tactics of the Germans. This is the story of a fixed point on the sea of the North African desert. In reality, though, events miles away would determine the outcome of the three-week battle known as Crusader, and yet for days forces were sent into the meat grinder that the former airfield had become. Whichever side held it in force would, in theory, be able to determine whether that siege would be maintained or broken. In a campaign that had hitherto been unique for its lack of fixed geographic points, the airfield at Sidi Rezegh had become the gateway to the besieged fortress of Tobruk. It was a scene out of Dante’s Inferno, and yet thousands of men and vehicles continued to be drawn to this stretch of the North African desert like moths to a flame. The desert floor had been pulverized into a dust that just hung in the air, further reducing visibility. Burning hulks of everything from ME-109s to M3 “Honey” tanks, Panzer IIIHs, and trucks of all descriptions littered the battleground that was once an airfield. By the end of the second day visibility was reduced to almost zero. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |