Battle
Battle of Bir Hakeim
26 May 1942 – 11 Jun 1942 · Bir Hakeim, Libyan desert
From 26 May to 11 June 1942, during the Battle of Gazala, the Free French 1st Brigade under Gen. Marie-Pierre Kœnig, about 3,700 men, held the Bir Hakeim oasis southwest of Tobruk against Rommel's Panzerarmee Afrika, including Afrika Korps units and Italian divisions such as Ariete and Trieste. After about two weeks of siege the garrison broke out on the night of 10–11 June and reached British lines. The delay helped lead to the cancellation of Operation Herkules, the planned invasion of Malta, and Churchill called them the 'Fighting French'; Tobruk fell ten days later.
Show on map →Photographs and documents (0)
No archival material for this event. Editors add only freely licensed files (public domain, CC0, CC BY/BY-SA).
Countries involved
Sources
- [1]Battle of Bir Hakeim
Wikipedia (EN) · encyclopedia
Current references are encyclopedic (tertiary) sources. Editors are adding archival sources and scholarly works.