Battle of Mersa Matruh
The Battle of Mersa Matruh was fought from 26 to 29 June 1942, following the defeat of the Eighth Army (General Sir Claude Auchinleck) at the Battle of Gazala and was part of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. The combatant on the Axis side was the Panzer Army Afrika ( ( Erwin Rommel), consisting of German and Italian units. The Allied forces of the Eighth Army comprised X Corps and XIII Corps. The battle developed as the pursued the Eighth Army as it retreated into Egypt. Rommel intended to engage and destroy the Allied infantry formations in detail, before the British had a chance to regroup. The Axis cut off the line of retreat of X Corps and XIII Corps but was too weak to stop the British from breaking out. The fortress port of Mersa Matruh and 6,000 prisoners were captured, along with a great deal of supplies and equipment but the Eighth Army survived.
Q270202
Eighth Army
MEDIA
Q312685
Claude Auchinleck
PER
Q327035
Battle of Gazala
EVE
Q625798
Western Desert Campaign
EVE
Q362
Second World War
EVE
Q43056
Axis
Concept
Q175346
Panzer Army Afrika
ORG
Q14060
Erwin Rommel
PER
Q7318
German
Concept
Q172579
Italian
LOC
Q329888
Allied
Concept
Q1996864
X Corps
UNK
Q74166
XIII Corps
MEDIA
Q393829
Mersa Matruh
LOC
Q22947785
Battle of Mersa Matruh
EVE
1942-06-29T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
29 June 1942
DATE
+26^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
26
NUMBER
part of
point in time
location
conflict
conflict
part of
part of
part of
country
commander of (DEPRECATED)
country of citizenship