Word: bengasi
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...week: "The British armored forces and infantry units have broken the Axis line west of el-Gazála and have sent the Germans reeling backward in headlong retreat." Other reports also had General Erwin Rommel's Army "reeling backward." BBC claimed this week that Rommel was abandoning Bengasi and retreating towards Tripoli...
Units of Rommel's forces that had not retreated beyond Bengasi were caught on the Barca Plateau. This was the area the Axis had hoped to defend to block the advancing British. They apparently stumbled over it in retreat, for this week Rommel's armored units and the Italian infantry appeared to be sprawled from Cyrene toward Tripoli...
...still appeared that the Axis powers had great problems in logistics. They could not supply their forward forces by sea. The British Navy last week said it had stopped 60% of all enemy supplies destined for all ports in Africa. Between the extreme rear (Tripoli) and the immediate rear (Bengasi) a British raiding force presumably still straddled the Axis supply roads. The only steady flow of Axis supplies came by plane and night. In the sector of supply the British had the advantage, and time might increase that advantage...
Naples, Brindisi and other southern Italian ports of embarkation for Africa had been mercilessly bombed. The Mediterranean Fleet had stopped about half of the supply ships headed for Tripoli and Bengasi. The R.A.F. had pasted docks and stocks in assembly ports behind the Axis lines in Libya...
...sixth and seventh days came the first bad news. The main tank battle between Sâlum and Tobruk was gradually moving west. Evidently the Germans were making a supreme effort to break out toward Bengasi through a narrow bottleneck south of Tobruk-and evidently they were having at least partial success. If they escaped, the hardest British task would still be ahead. British losses were mounting hourly; the Germans claimed a ridiculously specific 662 British tanks. The Luftwaffe was appearing in greater strength. Things were getting tough. London spokesmen began to say ominously and vaguely that the fighting...