Operation Skorpion

Operation Skorpion
Part of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War
Date 26–27 May 1941 Location Halfaya Pass, Egypt 31°30′N 25°11′E / 31.500°N 25.183°E / 31.500; 25.183Coordinates: 31°30′N 25°11′E / 31.500°N 25.183°E / 31.500; 25.183 Result Axis victory Territorial changes Axis re-captured Halfaya Pass
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Nazi Germany
Commanders and leaders
William Gott	Maximilian von Herff
Strength
Infantry battalion and supporting arms	Kampfgruppe von Herff
Casualties and losses
173 men 12 guns 5 Infantry tanks

Operation Skorpion or Unternehmen Skorpion, from 26–27 May 1941, was a military operation during the North African Campaign of the Second World War, fought between Axis forces under Colonel Maximilian von Herff and British forces under Lieutenant-General William "Strafer" Gott. A counter-attack was made on British positions at Halfaya Pass in north-western Egypt, which had been captured during Operation Brevity (15–16 May). Unternehmen Skorpion was the second offensive operation commanded by Rommel in Africa (apart from the Siege of Tobruk) and pushed the British out of Halfaya Pass, back to the area from Buq Buq to Sofafi. The Germans and Italians fortified the pass and built other strong points back towards Sidi Azeiz as tank killing zones, ready to meet another British attack. The British continued preparations for Operation Battleaxe (15–17 June). (Battleaxe was another costly British failure that led to the sacking of General Sir Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief Middle East and other senior officers.)

After the great British victory over the Italian 10th Army in Operation Compass, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the German armed forces high command, began Operation Sonnenblume, the dispatch of the Deutsches Afrika Korps (DAK, Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel) to Libya to reinforce the remnants of the 10th Army. Rommel attacked at once and drove the British forces from Cyrenaica across the Egyptian border, except for the port of Tobruk, where a nine-month siege began. By 8 April, advanced German units had reached Derna east of the Jebel Akhdar but some units had run out of water and fuel at Tengeder. A column of reconnaissance, anti-tank, machine-gun and artillery units was sent ahead to block the eastern exit from Tobruk and on 10 April, Rommel made the Suez Canal the DAK objective. A break-out from Tobruk was to be prevented and next day the port was invested; Reconnaissance Unit 3 went on to Bardia and a composite force was sent to Sollum, about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) into Egypt, to try to reach Mersa Matruh. The Mobile Force (Brigadier William Gott) improvised by the British conducted a delaying-action on the frontier around Sollum and Fort Capuzzo and from Halfaya Pass eastwards to Sidi Barrani. The first Italo-German offensive had been an operational success but supply constraints made it impossible to advance further than the Egyptian border. The Axis forces were distracted by the siege of Tobruk, while the British began to rebuild their strength in Egypt.

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