Pen & Sword Military Classics [00] The Battle for North Africa by John Strawson

Author:John Strawson [Strawson, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: World War 2, Campaigns, Battles, Tactics
Amazon: B00KYVDUUW
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Published: 2004-08-30T04:00:00+00:00

10th Corps fared less well, since the support they had expected from 13th Corps was not forthcoming, and they had heavy losses. In spite of defeat at Matruh, Auchinleck succeeded in his principal object of keeping 8th Army in being, indeed in reorganizing it at a time when it was almost disintegrating. So well did he do it that on 1 July Rommel was brought to a halt, and from that moment on the initiative was never really his again. German accounts of the Matruh battle and advance to Alamein underline the fact that Rommel, whilst at his most impetuous, was frequently mistaken as to the actual situation, and, as so often before, stuck his neck out in a way which would have proved most costly had the British been able to react with both speed and coordination of effort. But the British were thinking in terms of retreat, and retreat they did. Rommel, in a tearing hurry, knew that his only hope of winning was to bustle 8th Army about in such away that it was able neither to stabilize the battle nor draw on its full resources: the encircling movement, cutting the coast road, preventing the British from concentrating, creating confusion everywhere–it was the old pattern. Confusion was widespread, and not confined to the 8th Army. Rommel himself recorded how his own headquarters was engaged in 10th Corps’ break out from Matruh:

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