Replies

As the Germans gathered like vultures around Mechili on April 6 and dispatched a small detachment under Colonel Ponath to cut the coast road near Derna on April 7, the British withdrawal hastened. The Australians actually passed through Ponath's men as they made for Derna to arrive safely at Tmimi clear of the German net, but those that remained to the west were, with the exception of a few fortunate fugitive parties, doomed to extinction. In the process, not only the body of the British Desert Army -its soldiers, units, and formations -suffered amputation: even important parts of its brain -its commanders-were removed

The Commander of 3rd Armoured Brigade, Brigadier R. G. W. Rimington, was the first of the desert commanders to go into the 'bag', after a motor accident, and the last tanks of his brigade were destroyed fighting Ponath on the Derna road. Neame, O'Connor, and Coombe , driving back in the night from Marawa towards Tmimi and out of all contact with their subordinates, became separated in the dust and dark from the main column and missed their way. Eventually they found themselves driving towards Derna - and there, as all three exhausted officers dozed, they were awakened by a challenge in German and the cold knowledge that their next journey would be in to a prisoner-of-war cage. Thus, ignominiously, Richard O'Connor , the architect of Wavell's victory, was removed from the scene.

Yet Rommel's strength at Mechili remained insufficient to mount an attack: for instance, Olbrich's column, including most of the tanks, was still struggling on from Msus, having more than once lost its way. Flying, to find and hurry them on, Rommel saw a column of vehicles below him which he thought were Olbrich's, and only a moment before landing recognised them as British . By half a move was avoided, in chess parlance, the swap of a Queen for a Queen, a Rommel for an O'Connor .

Marshall Cavendish-History Of The Second World War-Major K.J. Macksey