[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/

Day 580 April 2, 1941

Libya. At dawn, British troops encounter German tanks & infantry probing in front of Agedabia. British fall back as ordered. Encouraged by this immediate withdrawal plus Luftwaffe reports of British armour moving away, Rommel orders 5th Light Division to advance. British 2nd Armoured Division withdraws inland to Antelat, uncovering the road to Benghazi and allowing Germans to take Agedabia. In the first tank battle in the desert, 40 German and 14 British tanks tangle at dusk (Afrika Korps loses 3 tanks, British lose 5 with 1 damaged).

Eritrea. British offer surrender terms to Italian Admiral Mario Bonnetti, commander of Italian Red Sea Flotilla and the garrison at the Red Sea port of Massawa. Instead, he sends Italian destroyers Nazario Sauro, Daniele Manin, Battisti, Pantera and Tigre from Massawa on a suicide attack on British facilities at Port Sudan, Sudan.

Ethiopa. 11th African Division (now lead by 22nd East African Brigade) reaches the Awash River, 120 miles from Addis Ababa. Retreating Italians have blown bridges but they do not defend the river to prevent a crossing. British armoured cars under Colonel Bernard Fletcher (”Flitforce”) reach Adigrat (just across the border from Eritrea), cutting off the Italian retreat from Eritrea and taking 3,500 prisoners.

At 1.50 AM 300 miles Southwest of Iceland, U-48 sinks British SS Beaverdale with 1 torpedo and the deck gun (20 crew and 1 gunner killed). 58 survivors escape in 2 lifeboats (1 reaches Iceland, the other picked up by the Icelandic trawler Gulltoppur).

2 German merchant ships are scuttled by their crews off Peru, to avoid being impounded by Canadian armed merchant cruiser Prince Henry.

German bombers sink 2 freighters and damage 2 more in convoy AS23, off Gavdo Island 25 miles South of Crete.

Convoy SC-26 runs into a patrol line of 8 U-boats, 460 miles Southwest of Iceland. Overnight, U-46, U-69, U-73 and U-74 sink 6 steamers and damage 1 more (110 killed, most crew rescued). The only escort, British armed merchant cruiser HMS Worcestershire, is stopped by U-74 with the last torpedo (HMS Worcestershire will be escorted back to Liverpool by destroyer HMS Hurricane).

[Larry381]

In a good humor, he (Rommel) drove forward to Streich’s command post at noon next day. “when are we going to meet in Agedabia?” he called out. Agedabia was the next big town, fifty miles farther up the Via Balbia, far beyond the stop line ordered by Halder. Streich could not tell whether Rommel was serious or not, and purposely did not ask. “We’ll have to see about that,” he replied, matching his superior’s bantering tone as closely as he could. After Rommel had gone, Streich ordered his division to resume the advance next morning, April 2nd. He did not inform Rommel, and Rommel, most unusually, avoided contact with him until 1:00 P.M., when he caught up with the Fifth Light’s foremost troops, feigned surprise, and exclaimed: “What’s going on here?” Streich evenly replied, I thought we ought not to give a retreating enemy any chance of digging in all over again. So I have moved my whole division forward to here, and I’m about to attack Agedabia.” Rommel replied without a trace of anger, “Those weren’t my orders, but I approve.” Thus Agedabia also fell at 4:00PM that afternoon. Rommel reappeared in time to hear the great news. In his memoirs, War Without Hate, he subsequently took full credit.

Now Rommel realized that the British had begun a general withdrawal from the bulbous peninsula of Cyrenaica; evidently they were desperate to keep their remaining forces intact. Agedabia was the starting point of half a dozen desert tracks cutting across the peninsula. Rommel determined to exploit them to the east. On April 2nd a stern veto came from Gariboldi: “This is in contradiction to what I ordered. You are to wait for me before continuing with any advance.” Rommel did not wait.

On April 3rd he decided on a dramatic three-pronged thrust across the peninsula. If he moved fast enough he might destroy the entire enemy force right there. The southernmost prong of his thrust would cut clean across the desert, following an ancient caravan trail known as the Trigh el Abd; the trail led from Agedabia onward through Ben Gania, Bir Tengeder, Bir Hacheim and Bir el Gubi to the Egyptian frontier. A “Bir” was a waterhole, in theory.

Rommel put Count Gerhard von Schwerin, a spiky but experienced half colonel, in charge of a mixed German-Italian force for this prong. Streich would lead another task force on a parallel track and, since a passing Italian priest had just tipped him off that even Benghazi, capital of Cyrenaica, was being abandoned, Rommel sent a reconnaissance battalion straight up the coast road to the big port. They drove in through cheering crowds at 10PM. that evening, just as a furious General Gariboldi was confronting Rommel about this disobedience of his veto.

An orgy of destruction and murder had marked Benghazi’s second change of owners in three months. The British had detonated 4,000 tons of Italian ammunition and fires were still raging everywhere.

A German navy commander sent next day to investigate this port’s capacity for supply ships reported: “Australian troops and Arabs looted the buildings and robbed the Italian civilians of all their valuables at pistol point.” One of his officers wrote of a building he took over, “In the rooms where the young girls had been slaughtered I arranged for photos to be taken of the pools of blood before they were mopped up.” But now General Sir Philip Neame’s motley “Cyrenaica Command” was being hustled straight out of the peninsula by Rommel’s unexpected advance.

David Irving-The Trail Of The Fox