Battle of Gazala 1942
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 26 May 1942 – 21 June 1942 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1942 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Libya | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Western Desert campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United Kingdom | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 31.9500, 23.4500 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Gazala, also the Gazala Offensive (Italian: Battaglia di Ain el-Gazala; German: Schlacht von Gazala), was fought near the village of Gazala during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942. Axis troops consisting of German (Panzerarmee Afrika; Generaloberst Erwin Rommel) and Italian units fought the British Eighth Army (General Sir Claude Auchinleck, also Commander-in-Chief Middle East) composed mainly of British Commonwealth, Indian and Free French troops.
The Axis troops made a decoy attack in the north as the main attack (Operation Venezia) moved round the southern flank of the Gazala position. Unexpected resistance at the south end of the line around the Bir Hakeim box by the Free French garrison left the Panzerarmee Afrika with a long and vulnerable supply route around the Gazala Line. Rommel retired to a defensive position backing onto Allied minefields (the Cauldron), forming a base in the midst of the British defences. Italian engineers lifted mines from the west side of the minefields to create a supply route through to the Axis side.
Operation Aberdeen, an attack by the Eighth Army to finish off the Panzerarmee, was poorly co-ordinated and defeated in detail; many British tanks were lost and the Panzerarmee regained the…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Gazala (revision 1378042736), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Bir Hakeim 1942 · 40 km
- British capture of Tobruk 1941 · 50 km
- Battle of Tobruk (1911) 1911 · 50 km
- Siege of Tobruk 1941 · 50 km
- Battle of Point 175 1941 · 66 km
- Action at Bir el Gubi (December 1941) 1941 · 72 km
Other battles of the Western Desert campaign
- Battle of Sidi Barrani 1940
- Siege of Giarabub 1940
- Capture of Kufra 1941
- Operation Sonnenblume 1941
- Battle of Alam el Halfa 1942
- Battle of Mersa Matruh 1942
- First Battle of El Alamein 1942
- Second Battle of El Alamein 1942
All 9 battles of the Western Desert campaign →
Browse more: battles in Libya · Africa · World War II era battles