The Axis retreat reaches the El Agheila line
By the end of December Rommel’s forces had retreated across Cyrenaica towards El Agheila, west of the recently recovered port of Benghazi. Tobruk remained in Allied hands and the Eighth Army had regained most of the territory lost in the spring offensive. The withdrawal had been conducted with rearguards and remaining mobile formations rather than ending in the destruction of the Axis field army. The pursuit enlarged the distance between the Eighth Army and its supply bases in Egypt. Rommel’s surviving troops could now operate nearer the routes from Tripoli…
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