World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseUpon defeat at the Battle of Gazala in mid-Jun 1942, the British Eighth Army fell back to Mersa Matruh, Egypt, 100 miles east of the Libyan-Egyptian border. On 23 Jun, Axis forces resumed the advance toward Egypt. Although the morale was high, Erwin Rommel's forces were actually rather weak at this point. Only 44 German and 14 Italian tanks were at its spearhead, and behind the forward forces some the infantrymen found themselves riding on Allied vehicles as their own began to break down. Rommel expected many more tanks to come as reinforcements, but he wanted to avoid sitting idle and to take advantage of the forward momentum to overrun the next Allied defensive line at Mersa Matruh.

ww2dbaseOn 25 Jun 1942, British Commander-in-Chief Claude Auchinleck assumed personal command of the British Eighth Army. Realizing that Rommel's ability to outflank the Allied forces was among the reasons why the Battle of Gazala was lost, he shifted the main defensive focus from Mersa Matruh to El Alamein, Egypt, which was 100 miles to the east, where the terrain features of the Qattara Depression disallowed Rommel to perform any flanking maneuvers to the south. With this strategy change, the mission of the defense at Mersa Matruh and other positions west of El Alamein became one of delay action.

ww2dbaseItalian troops of Brescia Division and Trento Division arrived at Mersa Matruh in the afternoon of 26 Jun, engaging in fighting against the Indian 10th Infantry Division. Late on 26 Jun the German 90th Light Division, German 15th Panzer Division, and German 21st Panzer Division penetrated the minefield at the center of the Allied defensive line south of Mersa Matruh. The penetration was slowed early on 27 Jun, however, as the German 90th Light Division was pinned down by British artillery. The German tanks, however, continued to move east; the tanks of German 15th Panzer Division were engaged by British tanks of the 4th Armoured Brigade and 7th Motor Brigade, while the German 21st Panzer Division advanced to attack Minqar Qaim. Later in the afternoon, the German 90th Light Division, now down to only 1,600 men, succeeded in cutting off Mersa Matruh by gaining control of the coastal road about 30 kilometers to the east, enveloping the Indian 10th and 50th Infantry Divisions inside. During the night of 27 Jun, New Zealand 2nd Division became surrounded as the German 21st Panzer Division moved behind its positions; it was able to break out back into Allied lines without serious losses. At 2120 hours, Auchinleck ordered all Allied units to fall back to Fuka, Egypt 48 kilometers to the east of Mersa Matruh. Some of units fell back all the way to El Alamein during the confusion of the withdraw, while elements of the X Corps, already running low with ammunition, did not withdraw until 0430 hours on 28 Jun due to communications problems; the X Corps, in particular, suffered heavy losses by the German 21st Panzer Division tanks due to the poor execution of the falling back to Fuka. On 28 Jun, at Fuka, the Indian 29th Infantry Brigade was nearly wiped out by the Axis attacks. Axis forces captured Fuka by the end of the day on 28 Jun, capturing 6,000 prisoners of war, 40 tanks, and large amounts of supplies. During the night on 28 Jun, the last remaining Allied defenders at Mersa Matruh attempted, with some success, to break out of the envelopment which by now had been strengthened by the arrival of more Italian infantrymen. With victory secured at Mersa Matruh and beyond, Rommel barely rested his troops before pushing them on toward El Alamein.

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Battle of Mersa Matruh Timeline