May 1942

North Africa

By dawn British reconnaissance aircraft discover the true situation, but it is too late. Rommel's 3 divisions plus Ariete have all outflanked the Gazala Line.

At 0715, the Ariete Div, supported by the 21st Panzer, assaults the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade at Point 171. The defenders put up a gallant fight before falling back to Bir el Gubi about 0800. They had knocked out 52 tanks, all of them Italian, but lose 11 officers and 200 men. 30 officers and 1,000 men become prisoners.

About the same time Maj-Gen Gustav von Vaerst's 15th Panzer engages the 4th Armored Brigade which has just begun to move southward. The 3rd Royal Tanks and the 8th Hussars suffer severe losses not from the German tanks but from the German 88s. They do, however, inflict heavy casualties on the panzer division. The 5th Royal Tanks is still virtually intact. Its commander, Brig George W. Richards, decides it best to retire to the vicinity of El Adem. On Rommel's right at 0845, Maj-Gen Ulrich Kleeman's 90th Light Div engages the 'Jock Columns' of the 7th Motor Brigade which had retreated to the Retman 'box', but have no chance to organize a defense of it after their activities of the previous night. 3/4 of an hour later, Brig Renton falls back to Bir el Gubi with the loss of 8 of his brand new 6-pounder anti-tank guns.

Lt-Gen Willoughby Norrie, realizing the true situation, orders Maj-Gen Herbert Lumsden to send the 22nd Armored Brigade to Messervy's aid. Lumsden objects still expecting an attack might come in the center. The 22nd Armored Brigade does move south, but by then the Ariete Div is left to attack Bir Hacheim while the 21st Panzer under Maj-Gen Georg von Bismarck, is already moving northward. At 0907 the 22nd Armored Brigade is surprised by the panzers and the British are forced to retire with the loss of some 30 tanks. About 1000, Recon Unit 33 attacks the Headquarters of 7th Armored Div, capturing both Messervy and Harold Pyman, though both later escape having hidden their badges of rank.

Not all the early Axis moves are successful. Lt-Gen Ludwig Crüwell's Italian assault against the northern part of the Gazala Line had little effect. The Trieste Div runs into a minefield in the area between the 150th Brigade and the Free French. The assault by the Ariete Div on Bir Hacheim also fails.

About 1330 Lt-Gen Neil Ritchie, alarmed by the advance of the 90th Light threatening No. 4 Forward Base, orders the 4th Armored Brigade to intervene. Brig Richards obliges promptly and the 90th Light retires and is harassed such that it does not rejoin Rommel until the night of the 28th. Because of faulty intelligence reports that the British have fewer tanks than they actually had, Rommel orders a rapid advance northward regardless of risk.

By the afternoon the 22nd Armored Brigade had reorganized near 'Knightsbridge'. It runs into the 15th Panzer which had neglected to coordinate its artillery support and suffers heavy losses from Brig William G. Carr's Grants. About 1400, the 2nd Armored Brigade joins in the fighting with a flank attack on the 15th Panzer's 115th Motorized Infantry Regt causing still heavier casualties. Meanwhile, in the other flank of the Afrika Korps, an attack by the 44th Royal Tanks from the 1st Army Tank Brigade falls on the 21st Panzer's 104th Motorized Infantry Regt so decimating one of its rifle battalions that it had to be disbanded. The British lose 18 Matildas in the fighting.

Rommel has now lost one-third of his tanks as well as large numbers of infantry. Now Vice-Marshal Arthur Coningham's Hurricanes and Kittyhawks are hitting his supply vehicles as they have made the long haul south of Bir Hacheim. Results from these attacks: the 15th Panzer is out of fuel by the evening and the tanks can not be replenished until the next morning.