Mediterranean and North Africa · Germany and Italy vs British Commonwealth
Rommel's second offensive
21 January 1942 – 4 February 1942
Resupplied through Tripoli while Malta was suppressed, Rommel struck back from El Agheila three weeks after Crusader ended. He retook Benghazi and pushed Eighth Army back to the Gazala line, where both sides paused until May.
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Day by day
— Out of El Agheila
Two convoys got through to Tripoli in January with 55 tanks and the fuel to run them, while the Luftwaffe's return to Sicily kept Malta from interfering. In front of Rommel were the 1st Armoured Division, new to the desert, and the 4th Indian, both at the end of a 500-kilometre supply line and both spread out. At 08:30 on 21 January three columns came out of the El Agheila bottleneck, and the day after that the Panzergruppe was renamed Panzerarmee Afrika.
— Msus
Agedabia fell on the 22nd. On the 25th the 21st Panzer caught the 1st Armoured Division strung out between Saunnu and Msus and drove it 60 kilometres in a day: the division lost 96 tanks, 38 guns and 190 lorries, most of them abandoned for want of petrol, and stopped being a formation. Ritchie, believing the attack a raid, had left his forward troops where they were.
— Benghazi
Rommel feinted north-east towards Mechili with the Afrika Korps and turned Marcks Group north-west through the rain onto Benghazi, which fell on the 29th. The 7th Indian Brigade, cut off in the town, broke out south and east across the desert and got most of its men away. About 1,300 prisoners and a great deal of transport and fuel were taken in the port.
— The Gazala line
The Eighth Army gave up the Jebel and fell back through Barce and Derna to a line of minefields and boxes running south from Gazala to Bir Hakeim, 60 kilometres west of Tobruk. Rommel followed as far as his petrol allowed and stopped there on 4 February. Both armies then spent three and a half months building up, and it was Rommel who moved first, on 26 May.
