Word: bardia
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...Pause, No Rest. With Bardia already in his hands, Rommel did not stop for a rest-or give the British...
When General Sir Archibald P. Wavell captured Bardia, Italian officers were found to have translations of the British plans for Egypt's defense. Among the few possessors of those plans had been Aly Maher Pasha. Last February Egyptian students celebrated the British retreats in Libya shouting "Long Live Rommel!" and "Long Live Aly Maher Pasha...
...British Eighth Army was preparing to clean up its rear. In an assault on Bardia, South African troops went in with the bayonet against Axis units after a preliminary air and tank blitz. According to Cairo, the whole Axis force, "rather than face repetition [of the attack], decided to surrender unconditionally." When the smoke of battle cleared away, the British found themselves with 7,500 Axis prisoners and General Rommel's right-hand man, Chief Administrative Staff Officer Major General Schmidt. British losses were 60 dead, 300 wounded. The British rescued 1,150 of their own troops imprisoned...
...tracks. Three of them had as their eventual rendezvous a key point on the biggest Axis highway, Sidi Rezegh. The fourth (mechanized New Zealanders) cut north behind Axis forts on the Egyptian border, isolating them from the rear; then split and hurried along the coast, isolating coastal strongholds like Bardia and Gambut. In that operation the Fleet assisted. With control of land highways, with control of the sea, with initial control of the air, the British had the Axis forces in a vacuum...
...offense went into its third week of apparent doldrum. The British, worrying about morale at home, made much of their successes-a naval assault on Tripoli in which the town was given a thorough shellacking, a few raids out of Tobruch against Axis supply lines, a seaborne raid near Bardia in which a bridge was said to have been blown up, a few tank patrols near Salum. And they minimized the decision of the Duke of Aosta, commanding Italian forces in East Africa, not to capitulate-which would mean further delay in moving forces to threatened Egypt. But the pause...