|
|
От
|
Skvortsov
|
|
|
К
|
VLADIMIR
|
|
|
Дата
|
30.09.2021 14:40:02
|
|
|
Рубрики
|
WWII; Танки;
|
|
За CRUSADER в первую очередь надо хвалить Brigadier Galloway.
That night, Gen. Cunningham was convinced that he had lost the battle. Figures showed that XXX Corps could muster only around 44 tanks, whilst the enemy most likely had almost 150. The superiority in armour upon which the whole of Operation Crusader depended had been squandered. Cunningham’s spirits were at very low ebb. Since the start of the offensive he had been under extreme pressure. Rommel’s reluctance to participate in an armoured battle on the first two days of the offensive had resulted in the initiative gradually slipping from the grasp of Eighth Army’s commander. He now saw defeat staring him in the face and reacted in a manner that shocked some at his headquarters. Cunningham decided that the only course left open to him was to order a withdrawal of Eighth Army back to the frontier behind the defensive minefields and wire from which it came and gave the preliminary orders for this retreat to begin.
This view of the situation was not agreed with by Cunningham’s subordinates, and his chief of staff, Brigadier Galloway, felt that he should intervene. On his own initiative, he spoke to the commander-in-chief in Cairo and urged Gen. Auchinleck to come forward to Eighth Army’s headquarters as soon as he could. When Auchinleck arrived the next day he was confronted with a situation that was grim in the extreme, but one that careful study showed was not beyond recovery.
KEN FORD
OPERATION CRUSADER 1941
Rommel in retreat
Osprey Publishing