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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 General 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— 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 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. ==Background== In early September 1940, Italian forces based in Libya invaded Egypt, and three months later the British and Commonwealth troops of the Western Desert Force began a counter-offensive, codenamed Operation Compass. In two months, the Allies advanced , occupying the Italian province of Cyrenaica and destroying the Italian Tenth Army, but the operation was halted in February 1941 to give priority to the Battle of Greece. Renamed XIII Corps and reorganised under HQ Cyrenaica Command, the troops of the former Western Desert Force adopted a defensive posture. Over the next few months, HQ Cyrenaica lost its commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, and the New Zealand 2nd and Australian 6th infantry divisions when they were redeployed to Greece. The British 7th Armoured Division, with virtually no serviceable tanks left after Compass, was also withdrawn and sent to the Nile Delta for rest and refitting. In recompense, Wilson was replaced by Lieutenant-General Philip Neame and the British 2nd Armoured and Australian 9th Infantry Divisions were deployed to Cyrenaica, but both formations were inexperienced, ill-equipped, and in the case of the 2nd Armoured, under strength. The Italians responded by despatching their ''Ariete'' and ''Trento'' Divisions to North Africa, and beginning in February 1941 and continuing until early May, Operation Sonnenblume saw the arrival of the German ''Afrika Korps'' in Tripoli to reinforce their Italian allies. Commanded by General Erwin Rommel and consisting of the 5th Light and 15. ''Panzerdivision''s, the ''Afrika Korps'' mission was to block Allied attempts to drive the Italians out of the region. However, Rommel seized on the weakness of his opponents and, without waiting for his forces to fully assemble, rapidly went on the offensive. During March and April, the 2nd Armoured Division was destroyed as the Axis forces advanced, which also forced the British and Commonwealth forces into retreat. Adding to the Allied discomfiture, Neame and the General Officer Commanding British Troops Egypt—Lieutenant-General Richard O'Connor—were captured, and the British and Commonwealth command structure had to be reorganised. HQ Cyrenaica was dissolved on 14 April, and its command functions taken over by the reactivated HQ Western Desert Force under Lieutenant-General Noel Beresford-Peirse. The Australian 9th Infantry Division fell back to the fortress port of Tobruk, and the remaining British and Commonwealth forces withdrew a further east to Sollum on the Libyan–Egyptian border. With Tobruk under siege from the main German-Italian force, a small battlegroup (''Kampfgruppe'') commanded by Colonel Maximilian von Herff continued to press eastward. Capturing Fort Capuzzo and Bardia in passing, it then advanced into Egypt and by the end of April had taken Sollum and the tactically important Halfaya Pass. Rommel garrisoned these positions, reinforcing the battlegroup and ordering it onto the defensive. Tobruk's garrison—although isolated by land—continued to receive supplies and support from the Royal Navy, and Rommel was unable to take the port. This failure was significant; his front line positions at Sollum were at the end of an extended supply chain that stretched back to Tripoli and was threatened by the Tobruk garrison, and the substantial commitment required to invest Tobruk prevented him from building up his forces at Sollum, making further advances into Egypt impractical. By maintaining possession of Tobruk, the Allies had regained the initiative. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Brevity」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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