Operation Brevity

Operation Brevity
Part of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War
The Egyptian and Libyan border over which Operation Brevity was conducted.
Date 15–16 May 1941 Location Egyptian–Libyan border 31°34′51″N 25°03′08″E / 31.58083°N 25.05222°E / 31.58083; 25.05222 Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
United Kingdom  Australia	Germany  Italy
Commanders and leaders
Archibald Wavell William Gott	Erwin Rommel Maximilian von Herff Italo Gariboldi
Strength
3 infantry battalions 53 tanks	Elements of several battalions 30–50 tanks
Casualties and losses
206+ casualties 5 tanks destroyed 6 aircraft destroyed	605+ casualties 3 tanks destroyed

Operation Brevity was a limited offensive conducted in mid-May 1941, during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. Conceived by the commander-in-chief of the British Middle East Command, General Archibald Wavell, Brevity was intended to be a rapid blow against weak Axis front-line forces in the Sollum–Capuzzo–Bardia area of the border between Egypt and Libya. Although the operation got off to a promising start, throwing the Axis high command into confusion, most of its early gains were lost to local counter-attacks, and with German reinforcements being rushed to the front the operation was called off after one day.

Egypt had been invaded by Libyan-based Italian forces in September 1940, but by February of the following year a British counter-offensive had advanced well into Libya, destroying the Italian Tenth Army in the process. British attention then shifted to Greece, which was under the threat of Axis invasion. While Allied divisions were being diverted from North Africa, the Italians reinforced their positions and were supported by the arrival of the German Afrika Korps under Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel. Rapidly taking the offensive against his distracted and over-stretched opponent, by April 1941 Rommel had driven the British and Commonwealth forces in Cyrenaica back across the Egyptian border. Although the battlefront now lay in the border area, the port city of Tobruk—100 mi (160 km) inside Libya—had resisted the Axis advance, and its substantial Australian and British garrison constituted a significant threat to Rommel's lengthy supply chain. He therefore committed his main strength to besieging the city, leaving the front line only thinly held.

Wavell defined Operation Brevity's main objectives as the acquisition of territory from which to launch a further planned offensive toward Tobruk, and the depletion of German and Italian forces in the region. With limited battle-ready units to draw on in the wake of Rommel's recent successes, on 15 May Brigadier William Gott attacked in three columns with a mixed infantry and armoured force. The strategically important Halfaya Pass was taken against stiff Italian opposition, and deeper inside Libya Fort Capuzzo was captured, but German counter-attacks under Colonel Maximilian von Herff regained the fort during the afternoon causing heavy casualties amongst its defenders. Gott—concerned that his forces were in danger of being caught by German armour in open ground—conducted a staged withdrawal to the Halfaya Pass on 16 May, and Brevity was closed down. The importance of the Halfaya Pass as a safe supply route was highlighted to Rommel, and 11 days later it was recaptured during Operation Skorpion, a German counter-attack.