The Grand Alliance (116 page)

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Sea Lord will by now have told you dispositions which
were already in hand to deal with situation. Our first
move was to hold up enemy convoys by means of
threats from the forces at each end of Mediterranean,
and this has had considerable success. Now that
convoys are resuming sailings they will be attacked by
surface air and submarine forces. Unfortunately the
reported absorption of the German Air Force in land
battles to which you refer has not been borne out in
practice, and a very lively interest is being taken by the
enemy in our movements. Conversely, our main weakness in reconnaissance forces is adding a heavy
hazard to work of our light forces, who have of
necessity to operate without close support if use is to
be made of their speed.

He did his utmost, but it was from Malta that the most effective blow was struck. On the night of the 24th the cruisers and destroyers of “Force K” sallied forth and caught the two oil transports on which the enemy counted highly.

To Auchinleck I was able to send this good news:
Prime

Minister

to

25 Nov. 41

General Auchinleck

We sent Aurora and Penelope out from Malta last
night, and duly sank the two vital oil transports Procida
and Maritza. The Admiral is after the others.

While Rommel was engaged with the Afrika Corps on his audacious but costly excursion through the communications and rear of the British Eighth Army, Freyberg and his New Zealanders, supported by the 1st Army Tank Brigade, pressed hard upon Sidi Rezegh. After two days of severe fighting they recaptured it. Simultaneously the garrison of Tobruk resumed its sortie and captured Ed Duda. On the night of the 26th contact was established between the

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Tobruk garrison and the relieving force. Some units of the New Zealand Division and the XIIIth Corps Headquarters entered beleaguered Tobruk. This situation brought Rommel back from Bardia. He fought his way to Sidi Rezegh, attacked in flank by the reorganised 7th Armoured Division, now mustering a hundred and twenty tanks. He recaptured Sidi Rezegh. He drove back the 6th New Zealand Brigade with crippling loss. They and the 4th Brigade, except for two battalions which joined up with the Tobruk garrison, were withdrawn southeastward to the frontier, where the heroic division re-formed after losing more than three thousand men. The Tobruk garrison, again isolated, held on by a bold decision to all the ground gained.

General Ritchie now regrouped his army so as to bring the garrison of Tobruk under the XIIIth Corps and to pass the New Zealand Division into reserve. El Adem, in a valley fifteen miles west of Sidi Rezegh, lay also upon the main east-to-west communications of the enemy, and was now the objective. Both our corps were used. The XIIIth advanced from Ed Duda, and the XXXth came up from the south. During these preparations Rommel made a final thrust to rescue his frontier garrisons. It was repulsed. The general retreat of the Axis army to the Gazala line then began.

Our telegrams continued to flow. On the 26th Auchinleck said:

The news today is so far scanty, but good. Tobruk
garrison was within sight of the New Zealanders this
morning, and I have just heard that the latter recaptured
Sidi

Rezegh.

Fierce

fighting

continues.

Enemy

armoured and motorised forces are still apparently
milling around in our rear areas between Bardia,
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Sheferzen, and Halfaya, but with little result. It is now
certain that this armoured and motorised thrust was a
raid to divert our attention from Tobruk. It has failed
signally.

About General Cunningham’s replacement he added: I am most grateful to you for your support. In this, as in everything else, I cannot tell you what it means to us, and it is not to be measured in terms of armoured divisions or anything else. Rommel is not done yet, but we have regained the initiative, I feel, and I trust we shall keep it.

Prime

Minister

to

26 Nov. 41

General Auchinleck

You are no doubt constantly considering the movement forward of reserves towards the battle zone. I am
well aware that this is conditioned by transport and how
important it is for you to do the work with the minimum
mouths to feed. I should be glad however to know what
you have in reserve; suppose you need another division, or two or three brigades, where would you get
them from? You could, I suppose, if necessary, bring a
brigade of the 50th Division back from Baghdad.

Please let me know your resources and ideas.

Auchinleck replied that, on account of the difficulty of maintaining them in the Desert, it was more a question of being able to replace tired troops by fresh ones than of adding new formations, though he would of course be glad to have more troops forward to ensure momentum. He was bringing one infantry brigade group of the 50th Division into the G.H.Q. reserve, but did not think it necessary to recall the other two brigade groups, which were on their way to Iraq.

Although I cordially approved of what had been done in the High Command, I thought it a pity that Auchinleck did not The Grand Alliance

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take it over himself instead of entrusting it to one of his staff officers, as yet unproved in the field.

Prime

Minister

to

27 Nov. 41

General Auchinleck

C.I.G.S. and I both wonder whether, as you saved
the battle once, you should not go up again and win it
now. Your presence on the spot will be an inspiration to
all. However, this of course is entirely for you to judge.

He replied:

General

Auchinleck

30 Nov. 41

to Prime Minister

I considered very carefully whether I should not
myself take Cunningham’s place in command of the
Eighth Army. I realise well what hangs on this battle,
but concluded that I was more useful at G.H.Q., where I
could see the whole battle and retain a proper sense of
proportion. … I shall go forward to visit [Ritchie] of
course, as required.

Neither I nor the C.I.G.S. was convinced, but we did not press our point.

Auchinleck’s message of the 30th concluded: Our supply column reached Tobruk morning of 29th.

The Commander of XIIIth Corps’ [General Godwin-Austen] birthday message to you is, “Corridor to Tobruk clear and secure. Tobruk is as relieved as I am.”

On December 1 Auchinleck went himself to the Advanced Headquarters, and remained for ten days with General Ritchie. He did not assume the command himself, but closely supervised his subordinate. This did not seem to me the best arrangement for either of them. However, the power of the Eighth Army was now predominant, and on December 10 the Commander-in-Chief could tell me:

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Enemy is apparently in full retreat towards the west.

El Adem is taken. South African and Indian troops joined hands there with British from Tobruk, and I think it now permissible to claim that the siege of Tobruk has been raised. We are pursuing vigorously in fullest cooperation with the Royal Air Force.

We now know from German records that the enemy losses in the “Crusader” battle, including the garrisons now cut off at Bardia, Sollum, and Halfaya and later made prisoners, were about thirteen thousand Germans and twenty thousand Italians, a total of thirty-three thousand, together with three hundred tanks. The comparable British and Imperial army losses in the same period (November 18 to mid-January) were: 2908 officers and men killed, 7339

wounded, and 7457 missing; total 17,704, together with 278 tanks. Nine-tenths of this loss occurred in the first month of the offensive.

Here then we reached a moment of relief, and indeed of rejoicing, about the Desert war. The German records show the gloom that descended on military circles in Rome.

2 Dec.41

The situation in North Africa demands the utmost
efforts to supply the German forces, to replenish the
considerable losses and to bring up first-rate reinforcements. With the present position at sea air transport
must be the main carrier across the Mediterranean.

And again on December 4:

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