Operation Brevity

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Operation Brevity

Part of World War II, North African Campaign

Rommel's first offensive and Operation Brevity — March 24, 1941 - June 15, 1941

Date	May 15, 1941 – May 27, 1941
Location	Tobruk, Libya
Result	Axis victory

Combatants

Germany
Italy

United Kingdom

Commanders

Erwin Rommel

Archibald Wavell
Noel Beresford-Peirse

Strength

Afrika Korps:
German 5th Light Division
German 15th Panzer Division
Italian 132nd Armored Division Ariete
Italian 27 Infantry Division Brescia
Italian 102 Motorised Division Trento

XIII Corps:
British 7th Armoured Division
Indian 4th Infantry Division
20,000+
220 tanks

Casualties

5 tanks destroyed
Less than 500 casualties

96 tanks destroyed
about 1,000 casualties
Significant amount of equipment and supplies captured.

Western Desert Campaign
Compass – Sonnenblume – Tobruk – Brevity – Battleaxe – Crusader – Gazala – Bir Hakeim – 1st Alamein – Alam Halfa – Agreement – 2nd Alamein

Operation Brevity was the first, unsuccessful, attempt to relieve the Siege of Tobruk.

Under pressure from Churchill to relieve Tobruk, General Archibald Wavell hastily refitted and reorganized the XIII Corps (formally the Western Desert Force) under Lieutenant General Noel Beresford-Peirse. Peirse's Corps had the 7th Armoured Division and 4th Indian Division with 220 tanks. Their goal was first, to seize the Sollum and Halfaya passes along with Fort Capuzzo, then drive on to relieve Tobruk. Against them, Rommel had more divisions, but fewer tanks and while his vaunted Afrika Korps were hardened veterans, the remainder were Italians, who were ill-equipped, poorly trained and terribly led. Despite these shortcomings, some of the latter proved worthy opponents. The Halfaya Pass garrison included a German motorcycle company and an Italian Bersaglieri (light infantry) company with a few 47/32 mm antitank guns. While the Germans retreated, the Italians held their own knocking out seven of ten Matilda heavy tanks of C Squadron, 4th Royal Tank Regiment until they were finally overrun. Operation Brevity enjoyed some initial success. However, failure to quickly follow-up on these gains, along with piecemeal use of British armour meant the offensive was doomed to be stopped by Rommel. Failure to coordinate ground and air forces or to coordinate with Major General Morshead's Australian 9th Division defending Tobruk, also helped doom the operation. 13th Corps withdrew to Egypt. Rommel would soon launch a counter-attack, retaking all the ground gained by Brevity. Then he would fortify the passes with minefields and hidden emplacements of deadly 88 mm guns. The following month, when the same two allied divisions, under the same commander would again attack at the same places, they would receive a bloody surprise and a costly lesson.