OPERATION CRUSADER
and Rommel's Dash To The Wire
German 8-rad Panzerfunkwagen (SdKfz.263)

The "Operation Crusader" Battles, November 1941
During the war in the western desert both sides had managed to intercept and decipher messages to their mutual advantage. However, this could work both for and against the military planners, since many times false information was planted in the transmissions. The other feature that was most disconcerting to the British was that Rommel rarely ever did what he was told by Berlin or Rome, and ignoring his directives would decide to attack much earlier than predicted, or at some other distant target.
The desert war was also the first true experiment in modern armored warfare fought on endless open terrain. Here the opponents had ample room to maneuver, or to move overland at night for a surprise dawn attack. Rommel had studied Guderian's concepts on how armored formations should be deployed, and made full use of these methods. Using the cover of a dust storm a mobile division could disappear and turn up in an attack position on the opponent's flank before he realized what had happened. The desert, for all intents and purposes, was used like a huge ocean with each opponent trying to outmaneuver the other, while the elements and terrain took their toll on the men and equipment.
Rommel's one obsession at this time was the capture of Tobruk, and to boost morale and sharpen their fighting spirit he instigated a limited operation which was code named "Unternehmen Sommernachstraum" (Midsummer Night's Dream). Their main objective would be the British supply dump at Bir Khireigat, about fifteen miles the other side of the wire. Having lived on British rations in the past, it was not hard to entice his men into another round-up of British supplies. Midsummer Night's Dream was meant to solidify the front before his intended attack on Tobruk, and if possible to capture information on the enemy's order of battle.
German light armored car SdKfz.223 (Fu).
On September 14th, 1941 the 21st Panzer Division slipped out of its assembly area and moved southeast. The division split into two battle groups, Kampfgruppe Stephan and Kampfgruppe Schutte. Kampfgruppe Schutte would steal the booty while Stephan fought off any challengers. As a cover for this operation, 3.Reconnaissance Battalion was ordered to move along the frontier at speed, raising large clouds of dust and transmitting confusing wireless messages. Von Ravenstein's tanks, with Rommel at the head, swung deep into the British positions, but netted nothing. The British 7th Support Group under Brigadier "Jock" Campbell simply pulled back from the frontier and left Rommel empty handed.
At this time the British Ultra intercepts were playing havoc with Rommel's plans. The British had broken the German code and were quietly spying on every directive that Rommel put on the air. It is highly possible that Campbell was given ample warning of this impending attack, and thwarted it by making a calculated withdrawal from the area. The one good bit of luck from the raid was the capture of a broken down staff vehicle of 4th South African Armoured Cars, with important documents and cipher material aboard. However, there is speculation that even these documents were a "plant", in an effort to mislead Rommel into believing that no major offensive was planned for the near future.
To make things even worse, the 21st Panzer Division ran out of fuel and was bombed mercilessly by two squadrons of the South African Air Force. Rommel's Mammoth was hit, he had the heel of his boot blown away, and his driver was badly injured. This enterprise netted nothing and Rommel indignantly retraced his steps back into Libya.
Now it was time for a serious move against Tobruk. The Panzergruppe was steadily growing in strength and his timetable demanded the fall of Tobruk by early November. His long range plans went as far as neutralizing any British attack that winter, and reaching the Suez Canal by spring. From there he would drive on into Iraq, seizing Basra and sever the Allied supply route to Russia. These were grandios ideas, and since Africa was increasingly playing second fiddle to the war in Russia, there was no way that he would glean the required supplies for such an ambitious enterprise.
The British situation was quite the opposite, with General Auchinleck, the new British threatre commander in the Middle East, getting full support from Churchill. He received an unending stream of tanks and supplies to bolster the units of the new Eighth Army. According to the British Official History, by the end of October 1941, a total of 300 Crusaders, 300 Stuarts, 170 Valentines, 34,000 trucks, 600 field guns, 200 anti-tank guns and 900 mortars had reached Africa.
With this massive build-up the Eighth Army, under General Cunningham, would again challenge Rommel's armor and destroy it by attrition. Once the Afrika Korps had been rebuffed they would link up with the Tobruk garrison and together they would then challenge the remains of Armeegruppe Afrika. The name of this operation would be "Crusader", and Rommel was about the only one who could not convince himself that it was coming. On October 26th Rommel ordered his troops to prepare for an attack on Tobruk between November 15-20. Then, in early November, Rommel and von Ravenstein flew to Rome to plead for supplies and to lodge objections to Jodl's order to forget Tobruk and prepare for Auchinleck's attack. On November 15th Rommel's wife met her husband in Rome and with the von Ravensteins they celebrated his fiftieth birthday.
On this same night, two British submarines (Torbay and Talisman) surfaced in a quiet inlet on the coast of Cyrenaica. A unit of British commandos, led by Major Geoffrey Keyes came ashore and made their way towards Beda Littoria. Their target was the two-storey Prefettura building which supposedly housed the headquarters of Panzergruppe Afrika, and Rommel himself. They were later to learn that Rommel had long since vacated these lush surroundings for more austere quarters closer to the front at Ain Gazala. During a storm, shortly after midnight on November 17th this group of about twenty commandos stormed the building, hoping to eliminate Rommel and the nerve centre of the German command. Keyes and several of his men were killed in the ensuing skirmish, along with some of Rommel's staff. When Rommel learned of this attempted assasination he ordered that Keyes be buried with full military honors. Upon his return from Rome on November 18th Rommel was confronted by an even greater threat; Operation Crusader had begun in earnest.
German PzKpfw.III Ausf.G in typical desert markings.
OPERATION CRUSADER
General Auchinleck had reorganized the troops taking part in "Crusader" into the 8th Army which was commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Allan Cunningham fresh from his victories over the Italians in Abyssinia. At the opening of the "Crusader" battles the 8th Army was deployed as follows:
TOBRUK: 70th Division under Maj-Gen. Scobie, who also commanded the whole garrison; Polish 1st Carpathian Infantry Brigade Group under Maj-Gen. Kopanski; and 32nd Army Tank Brigade under Brigadier Willison.
RIGHT FLANK: XII Corps under Lt-Gen. Godwin-Austin, which was made up of: New Zealand Division (Maj-Gen. Freyberg; 4th Indian Division (Maj-Gen. Messervy); and 1st Army Tank Brigade (Brig. Watkins).
LEFT FLANK: XXX Corps under Lt-Gen. Norrie, made up of: 7th Armoured Division (Maj-Gen. Gott); 4th Armoured Brigade Group (Brig. Gatehouse); 1st South African Division (Maj-Gen. Brink); and 22nd Guards Brigade (Brig. Marriott).
This formation was fully motorized, with an armoured force spearheaded by the 7th Armoured Division fielding 469 tanks, with 210 Crusaders and 165 American M3 Stuarts. Since the British still used tanks for infantry support the Tobruk garrison and XIII Corps both had their share of cruiser or Matilda II tanks. On this day the 8th Army could count on a total of 713 gun-armed tanks, with another 200 in reserve.
Panzergruppe Afrika at this time, theoretically under General Bastico's command, was deployed as follows: Italian XX Mobile Corps under Gen. Gambara, made up of the following: "Ariete" Armored Division (Gen. Balotta), and "Trieste" Motorized Division (Gen. Piazzoni). Panzergruppe Afrika commanded by Lt-General Rommel, made up of:
The Afrika Korps under Lt-Gen. Cruwell, composed of: 15th Panzer Division (Maj-Gen. Neumann-Silkow); 21st Panzer Division (Maj-Gen. von Ravenstein); Afrika Division (Maj-Gen. Summermann); and "Savona" Division (Gen. de Giorgis); plus the Italian XXI Corps under General Navarrini, composed of: "Brescia" Division (Gen. Zambon); "Trento" Division (Gen. de Stefanis); "Bologna" Division (Gen. Gloria); and "Pavia" Division (Gen. Franceschini).
Panzergruppe Afrika had been formed on August 15th and this now allowed Rommel to designate General Cruwell as commander of the Afrika Korps. The original 5th Light Division was then renamed to 21st Panzer Division, but basically remained the same. The newly formed "Afrika" Division was made up of two infantry battalions recruited from former German volunteers in the French Foreign Legion. By early December it also had been renamed as the 90th Light Division.
Rommel's plan was to use the Italian XXI Corps to overrun Tobruk, while the Afrika Korps plus some German units along with the whole "Savona" Division would confront the British on the line Sidi Omar - Capuzzo - Halfaya - Sollum. The 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions were ordered to position themselves near Gambut and be ready to move in any direction when called upon. Gambar's "Ariete" Armored Division was placed around Bir el Gubi and his "Trieste" Motorized Division at Bir Hacheim. Against Cunningham's 713 tanks the Germans could field only 174 panzers, along with 146 Italian tanks of dubious value. The weight of numbers on the British side however is somewhat misleading. The German PzKpfw III had now been fitted with the long 50mm gun, and 139 of these tanks were available to Rommel. With this gun they could out-range the 2-pounders and 37mm guns on British vehicles, and destroy them before they could move within effective striking range.
The British Crusader tanks were renowned for breaking down on the long sweeps, now so familiar in desert warfare. The sturdy Matilda, although heavily armored still only mounted a 2-pounder armor-piercing main gun that could not fire high explosive to support their infantry attacks. The M3 Light "Stuart" (Honey), although extremely fast and mechanically reliable, still suffered from the fact that its rotary aero engine required special high octane fuel and was prone to bursting into flames when hit.
The other ace that Rommel held was the anti-tank gun support that he always tried to provide for his armored formations. The legendary 8.8cm anti-aircraft gun, on a mobile carriage, was originally pressed into service by Rommel to defeat the heavy armor of the Matilda. This gun, later to be referred to simply as the "88" could control the battlefield from a great distance, and had a devastating effect on armored vehicles out to a range of 2,000 yards and beyond. These, accompanied by the even more mobile 50mm anti-tank guns were dug into prepared positions and usually blunted any British armored attack. The accompanying panzers would then counterattack the decimated British unit and hunt down the survivors.
The British "Crusader" offensive began on November 18th during a horrendous rainstorm, with one British corps taking up positions covering Halfaya Pass. The other corps moved across the desert in three columns, with the central one heading for Tobruk to link up with a planned breakout of the garrison troops. This part of the attack went well and reched within ten miles of the port, and took the Sidi Rezegh airfield. However, the 22nd Armoured Brigade on the left flank ran into heavy resistance from a persistent Ariete Armored Division and lost at least fifty of its newly arrived Crusaders. 4th Armored Brigade on the right ran smack into the 21st Panzer Division and were stopped dead in their tracks.
Although caught a bit by surprise, Rommel soon realized that the British plan was to reach the Tobruk garrison. On November 22nd he sent his two Afrika Korps armored divisions to recapture Sidi Rezegh, supported by the Italian XXI Corps. The battle over this airfield saw tanks on both sides go up in smoke, but it finally ended up in German hands again. Norrie's 7th Armoured Brigade was reduced to ten remaining tanks. The 22nd Armored Brigade withdrew with only thirty-four tanks left, and on the next day the 5th South African Brigade lost 3,400 of its 5,700 men.
At the outset of the Crusader attack a 20 mile gap had appeared between XIII Corps and Norrie's XXX Corps. To fill this opening the 4th Armored Brigade with its one hundred and sixty-five M3 Stuarts was split away from 7th Armored Division, reducing its strength by one third. This later allowed Rommel's armor to take them on one at a time, to his delight.
THE GERMAN RESPONSE TO CRUSADER
The first sign of the British onslaught was a report of some 200 tanks moving up from the southwest. General Ludwig Cruwell repeatedly warned Panzergruppe of this intrusion and insisted that it was a serious threat. However, Rommel simply was not convinced that this was anything more than a harassing operation. He had his mind set on attacking Tobruk and was in no mood to see this delayed again.
Baffled by Rommel's lack of response to their probe, Norrie had sent his 7th Armored Division to take Sidi Rezegh, and his 22nd Brigade to challenge the Ariete Armored Division. The 4th Armored Brigade was held back at Gabr Seleh to protect his left flank. His plan was to force Rommel to commit his armor, but in the process he had broken up his spearhead, and diluted Cunningham's plan to draw Rommel into an all-out tank battle against a concentrated 30th Corps. The numerical advantage had been lost.
At Bir el Gubi the Ariete, behind an extensive minefield and well positioned anti-tank guns, had stood up well to the 22nd Armoured Brigade's attack. The Italians lost at least 34 tanks, but the British eventually broke off the engagement leaving behind 50 knocked-out tanks. By this time Cruwel had finally convinced Rommel that the British attack was serious. He now sent a strike force of 120 tanks of 5th Panzer Regiment, under Col. Stephan towards Gabr Saleh to engage the enemy threatening the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion.
By mid-afternoon Stephan's force had made contact with 4th Armoured Brigade northeast of Gabr Saleh and opened fire at 1500 yards. The British were equipped with the new "Honey" M3 Stuart Light Tank and these vehicles, moving at up to 40 miles an hour charged into the ranks of 5th Panzer Regiment, creating utter chaos. The "Honey" mounted only a 37mm cannon and had to close rapidly with the enemy to get within effective firing range of about 1000 yards. Much of the fighting was done at very close range with disasterous results for those that happened to expose their flanks to the murderous fire from all quarters. By dusk, Stephan's force had severely damaged two regiments of 4th Armoured Brigade and withdrew to refuel and resupply. However, the overall picture was far from clear and that evening Rommel learned that a British force of tanks and armored cars had roared onto Sidi Rezegh airfield and seized it from the weak I talian contingent there. Air reconnaissance reported three endless British columns moving northwards between Girabub and Bir el Gubi, so Major General von Ravenstein proposed that 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions be combined to destroy each column in turn. Unfortunately he read the British spearhead wrongly and spent most of the day "swanning" around Sidi Omar looking for an imaginary enemy. Once he realized his mistake he swung 15th Panzer in a wide sweep southwest, and in the late afternoon of November 20th the 8th Panzer Regiment encountered a strong enemy tank force supported by artillery and anti-tank guns.
This turned out to be the 4th Armoured Brigade, positioned around Gabr Seleh, and a furious tank battle ensued. As night came on the British retired, and that night 15th Panzer laagered at Bagr Lachem and took on much needed fuel and supplies. At the same time the 4th Armoured Brigade was licking its wounds and found that it was now down to 77 Honeys, with the total tank strength of 30th Corps being a meager 119 of various types.
Knocked out British 7th Armoured Division "Honey" displaying makeshift
metal tubing supported hessian (burlap) dust shields, which remained after
the Sunshield tops were removed.
While all this was going on the 7th Armoured Brigade and the New Zealander Division had reinforced their positions around Sidi Rezegh airfield and thwarted attempts by the "Afrika" Division to retake it. Rommel now realized the threat to his perimeter around Tobruk and decided that he had to attack northward from Gabr Saleh to intercept and destroy the enemy force advancing on Tobruk. Several great opportunities had been squandered the previous day, but on the 21st of November the full wrath of the Afrika Korps, screened by 88's and 50mm anti-tank guns bore down on Sidi Rezegh. By noon the 7th Armoured Brigade was a pile of rubble, with a mere ten surviving cruisers escaping. The Germans had opened fire at 2,000 yards from behind a screen of anti-tank guns, and in due time the 15th Panzer was abreast of the high ground overlooking the airfield. However, attempts to sieze the airfield itself were unsuccessful.
During all this General Scobie's Tobruk garrison had attempted their planned breakout, and Rommel was busy trying to contain them. In an attempt to link up with Scobie’s forces, Brigadier "Jock" Campbell’s 7th Support Group had plunged northwards, planning to capture the Sidi Rezegh escarpment and from there to break through to the garrison forces. Scobie's 70th British Division along with 32nd Army Tank Brigade tolled over the Afrika and Bologna Divisions, and Rommel was forced to throw everything he had at them to close the hole in his Tobruk lines. In the meantime 13th Corps with the New Zealand Division at the helm had advanced to a point where they were behind the Afrika Korps and crossing the Trigh Capuzzo near Sidi Azeiz. This development was such that Rommel was forced to order his Panzertruppe headquarters at Gambut to retire to El Adem during the night of November 21. Rommel had little or no reserves left to stave off this new threat, and was resigned to sending two reconnaissance battalions eastward to keep tab on 13th Corps.
By this time the Crusader offensive had broken down into a melee of isolated actions, with German and British units scattered everywhere over a twenty-five mile stretch of desert. Cruwell, knowing that his 15th Panzer was low on fuel, chose to regroup south of Gambut, while 21st Panzer moved down over the escarpment and assembled near Belhamed.
On November 22nd, with the Afrika Korps refuelled, Rommel chose to make an aggressive move by sending von Ravenstein's armor in a wide sweep across the Axis bypass road at El Duda for another attack on Sidi Rezegh airfield from the west. Afrika Korps infantry and Sümmermann’s Afrika Division would attack the Sidi Rezegh escarpment from the north, in support of this move. At the same time, German heavy artillery would pound the British positions there. Just after noon on the 22nd the 5th Panzer Regiment roared onto the airfield, with the British 25-pounder field artillery doing their best to quell the attack, but to no avail. The 22nd Armoured Brigade counterattacked, and lost 45 of their 79 tanks, but by nightfall the airfield was back in German hands.
Later that evening Cruwell made an unexpected probe into the flank of 7th Armoured Division and stumbled upon elements of 4th Armoured Brigade laagered down for the night. The German armor was within ten yards of the British tanks before they recognized them as such, and after a short skirmish lit up by flares and burning tanks, 150 men, 17 officers and 35 tanks were captured. The battles of 22nd November had reduced 7th Armoured Division to one-third strength. Its 4th Armoured Brigade was totally destroyed, and the 7th and 22nd Brigades were truly battered. Rommel had taken the initiative and it had paid off.
On the 23rd Cruwell ordered 15th Panzer, accompanied by 5th Panzer Regiment, across the rear of 7th Armoured Division in an effort to link up with the Ariete. From there he would sandwich the British against the infantry and guns of 21st Panzer dug in on the escarpment south of Sidi Rezegh airfield. Roaring through endless streams of British supply columns, he linked up with Ariete and at full speed swept down on the 7th Armoured. Losses were heavy on both sides, but when the battle was over the 5th South African Brigade ceased to exist, and the tank strength of 7th Armoured was down to next to nothing. Rommel was in his glory, and at midnight he radioed Rome and Berlin to say that he could envisage the complete destruction of the British Eighth Army if his supplies continued to arrive as promised. At 10:30 hours on the 24th Rommel suddenly decided that he wanted to bag the whole 8th Army, and leaving Westphal in charge of Panzergruppe H.Q. he rounded up 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions, about 100 tanks, and headed east for Sidi Omar in the hope of striking the British in the rear.
By late afternoon he had reached the Wire, with the whole Afrika Korps strung out behind him for over forty miles. Ahead of him the 7th Armoured Division and 1st South African Division had stampeded in all directions, and once the rear supply elements saw him coming there was complete chaos. Rommel had ordered von Ravenstein to lead the attack with 21st Panzer Division and push straight through the frontier wire and swing north to the sea near Solum. At the same time a "kampfgruppe" of a single motorized battalion with one company of tanks was to attack General Cunningham’s headquarters at Maddalena. A second kampfgruppe from 15th Panzer Division was ordered to head over the escarpment to capture the railhead and adjoining fuel dump at Bir Habata. If these two moves had succeeded it literally would have beheaded the Eighth Army in the field.
When Cunningham heard that Rommel was well in his rear and bearing down on Bardia, with very little between him and Alexandria, his immediate reaction was to call of the attack and withdraw his forces back into Egypt. This was exactly what Rommel had been hoping for, but General Auchinleck intervened and flew up to Eighth Army headquarters to overrule this move. He ordered that the offensive cintinue, and this changed the whole complexion of the battle. Cunningham was eventually relieved and replaced by Ritchie.
During this rapid advance Rommel's forces had passed within a mile or two of the British supply dump F.S.D. 63, fifteen miles south-east of Bir el Gubi, and F.S.D. 65, fifteen miles south-east of Gabr Saleh. Had these dumps been captured at the time it would have strangled 30th Corps, along with the New Zealand Division. Their only protection at that time was the Guards Brigade. General Bayerlein, when questioned on this after the war recalled that as they passed through they saw and identified the Guards Brigade, but never gave any thought to what they were doing there. Had they turned slightly and captured or destroyed these two dumps the battle would have been won. However, the R.A.F. had done a fine job of keeping German reconnaissance aircraft well away from that area, and Rommel’s staff had no idea that they were there.
This daring raid into the rear of the Eighth Army might have worked had Auchinleck not intervened and ordered his forces to hang tough and go on the offensive. With the rest of his army screaming for the return of the Afrika Korps, Rommel had no other recourse than to call off this escapade. To his horror, the 21st Panzer Division had already returned to Libya under countermanding orders from Westphal, who was well aware of how serious the situation was. While he was away the situation had changed considerably. During this respite the British had brought up replacement tanks and salvaged and repaired others. The New Zealanders had made a firm hook-up with the Tobruk garrison, and the R.A.F. was having a field day with his supply columns. In a desperate effort to regain the initiative he drove General Freyberg's New Zealanders from Sidi Rezegh again and severed the link with the Tobruk garrison.
As of November 29th von Ravenstein was now down to twenty tanks, and Neumann-Silkow had forty-three, and with these meagre forces they still managed to reclaim Duda, only to have it retaken by the British, where General von Ravenstein was taken prisoner. On the 30th Rommel put everything he had into a heavy bombardment of the New Zealander's positions at Sidi Rezegh. He then sent 15th Panzer in for the kill and once again Sidi Rezegh was in German hands.
On December 1st the remaining tanks of 8th Panzer Regiment overran the 4th New Zealand Brigade at Belhamed and captured huge quantities of war supplies and hordes of prisoners. The encirclement of Tobruk was again secure and Rommel appeared to have the desert war well under control. He still had several garrisons trapped on the Sollum front, and the two kampfgruppen he sent to liberate them were badly mauled. An attempt to recapture the El Duda prominence on December 4th also broke down under heavy artillery. Cruwell objected vigorously to these moves by Rommel, but was overruled. The Afrika Korps was now only a skeleton of its former self, and Cruwell wanted to rebuild their formations before frittering away any more of his men and machines on minor objectives.
On December 5th Rommel received word from Rome that no further reinforcements would be forthcoming before January of 1942. This startling news obviously struck home and he finally acknowledged that he would have to withdraw from Cyrenaica until he could rebuild his waning forces. The Afrika Korps was now down to forty tanks, and the Ariete to thirty, but Ritchie's 8th Army was steadily replacing its losses from their reserves. On this same day Neumann-Silkow, commander of 15th Panzer, was killed by incoming artillery fire. At this point the Axis forces had lost over 8,000 men and some units could no longer resist enemy pressure.
By December 12th, after a masterful withdrawal protected by well disciplined rearguards, Rommel had reached the Gazala Line. His thoughts of holding this position were dashed when the British broke through the Italian 20th Motorized Corps and now enveloped him on both flanks. The Axis forces streamed westward until they reached Agedabia, and here they made a short stand. On December 19th the "Ankara" had docked in Benghazi and unloaded twenty-two tanks, much to Cruwell’s delight. With these first reinforcements since early November an attempt to outflank the German forces by the British 22nd Armoured Brigade was smashed. Cruwell lost seven tanks in this battle, but the British force had lost thirty-seven, and once again the Afrika Korps was gaining strength.
Although Cruwell was all for setting up defenses at Agedabia, Rommel was afraid that a wide sweep through the desert could outflank this position, and chose to move back to Marsa el Brega. This was now January 2nd, the same day that the Bardia garrison surrendered. More than 500 miles behind these new positions, three remaining Axis garrisons had been under seige in Bardia, Sollum and Halfaya Pass. On December 30th the British had made a concerted attack on the Bardia defenders, making use of land, sea and air bombardment. However, it was not until January 2nd, 1942 that their assault, supported by armored units, finally managed to penetrate the defenses. With the situation becoming increasingly hopeless, the city was eventually surrendered later that day.
Sollum had been occupied by the Germans since November 21, 1941, and was now now defended by the 10th Oasis Company, the HQ of 300th Special Purpose Oasis Battalion, and the remnants of 12 Oasis Company. They were now down to about seventy German soldiers and managed to hold off several vigorous attacks on January 11th and 12th, but finally used up the last of their food and ammunition and surrendered on the 12th. The defenders at Halfaya Pass, consisting mainly of the 1st Battalion, 104th Infantry Regiment, were well dug in and their main concern was a lack of water for the men. Their 2nd Company was chosen to lead an assault squad which recaptured a local well long enough for their water truck to fill up, thus replentishing their drinking water supply. Several attempts were made to resupply the beleagered forces at Halfaya by air, with night flights of Ju 52 transport aircraft flying out of airbases on the island of Crete. However, these flights were discovered by the British and on the second night were intercepted and shot down by British night fighters.
In mid-January the remnants of the Italian "Savona" Division, which had been holding out further to the west, was driven back to the pass, as the situation became more and more hopeless. Eventually preliminary surrender negotiations were begun with the South Africans, and on the morning of January 17, 1942 the last defenders of Halfaya Pass marched into captivity, ending another phase in the battle for North Africa.